Thursday, February 4, 2016

People who live in glass houses


The Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois is one of Mies van der Rohe's masterpieces.  While the house looks simple, it was meticulously engineered.  It is on a beautiful site on the Fox River.


Because of suburban sprawl, the house now sits in a flood plain and has flooded several times.  Several plans have been offered to solve the problem including one that would hydraulically raise the house when the site floods.  This would actually be cheaper than relocating and would preserve the setting of the house on the land.