While homeowners along the Fox River fretted over damage to their homes, architectural and historical experts worried about the fate of the Farnsworth House, a historic site in Plano considered an icon in modern architecture.
As of midday Sunday, floodwaters rose above the 5-foot risers on which the steel and glass home sits, leaving its interior covered in another 2 feet of water, said Whitney French, historic site director.
"It's gut-wrenching," French said. "You have to come to terms with the fact that Mother Nature will always win in a power struggle."
Employees at the Farnsworth House used boats to reach the home Saturday and lift the designer furniture away from the water. Some pieces, including a custom-designed wardrobe bound to the floor, could not be saved. Officials could not yet estimate the cost of the damage.
Completed in 1951, the house was built by Ludwig <runtime:topic id="PEHST002279">Mies van der Rohe</runtime:topic> as a country retreat for a Chicago doctor, Edith Farnsworth, and is a clear example of his philosophy that "less is more."
The architect suspended its floor slab to allow floodwaters to run beneath the house. Still, waters have risen above the raised level six times in 60 years, French said.
In 1996, the Fox River smashed through one of the house's huge plate-glass windows. Surging floodwaters attacked the inside of the one-room, rectangular house, submerging it in 5 1/2 feet of water and causing $500,000 in damage.
Vikki Ortiz
What possessed Mies van der Rohe to locate the house in a flood plain with a history of high water can't be guessed or even imagined. One of architecture's most famous and influential leaders appears to have bundled up as many blunders as possible into one project. Aside from the flooding, there is the matter that the fireplace didn't work; he provided virtually no operable windows (just two), creating what is essentially a terrarium in which the occupants could roast; he provided no screens to keep the incessant mosquitoes out; he failed to provide his client with a closet (less is more?); he gave her second, unnecessary bathroom; he designed outdoor space that, in such a sultry, mosquito-infested location (adjacent to a well-lit mosquito-beacon), can't be used for a good part of summer; and, I imagine, having seen the construction, he spent a great deal more of Dr. Farnsworth's money on the construction than necessary. The house is beautiful to look at, but it's a failure in utility from the word go. When I was there touring it, the tour guide made us take our shoes off before going inside, as if it were a temple. I wondered, aloud, about the next flood, but the comment was haughtily dismissed. This recent flood was inevitable and it will happen again. The house should have been moved a long time ago. People move houses of less interest all the time. On the east coast, the Park Service managed to move an entire lighthouse to save it from the water. The Farnhouse lighthouse can still be saved.
What possessed Mies to build one of the most widely respected and historic structures of the modern movement in a flood plain was the fact that Edith Farnsworth contracted Mies to build on the location, which she had purchased prior to construction. The design originally compensated for possible flooding by raising it on stilts, which due to changes in the landscape over more than 50 years has caused the Fox River to flood much differently than the architect ever anticipated. A major point to consider is the fact that Edith Farnsworth hired Mies with the expressed intent that he build a week-end home for her, under the condition that he build the house as if he were building a home for himself. The completed structure therefore, is not surprising, when the man held his own ideals and concepts to a higher level than anything that might be practical. The home is a culmination of his ideals, a transcendental lifestyle that did not allow for the clutter of everyday life, but instead accentuated the experiential aspects of the design. The building 'was' designed to be a "temple," much of the concept deals with mans ascension and power over nature. While I respect any persons opinion about the Farnsworth house, or any other piece of architecture for that matter, my comment is that there is a reason for Mies' decisions. Whether those decisions were his or Edith Farnsworth's the House is and was meant to be an icon of Mies' ideals from the beginning.