Flood-Damaged Farnsworth House Reopens for Tours (to benefit restoration)

Farnworth House after the September 14 flood

The Farnsworth House Blog reports (here and here) that the Mies van der Rohe masterpiece in Plano, IL, flooded by severe rainstorms on Sept. 14, reopened for tours earlier this month. Original post-flood plans had called for it to be closed for the remainder of the 2008 season. Tours will now run on select days through Nov. 26. General admission tours are $20; weekend docent-led tours, $50; director-guided tours by Whitney French, benefitting the restoration, $100.

In 2003 Landmarks Illinois and the National Trust for Historic Preservation saved the 1951 house from a possible move by buying it from British art patron and architecture aficionado Lord Palumbo for $7.5 million at a Sotheby's auction. Given its problematic site on the flood plain of the Fox River, moving it (or somehow raising it higher above the ground than the five-foot columns on which it is perched) might no longer seem quite as unthinkable as it did back then, although the original site is certainly part of its architectural identity.

The Farnsworth's latest blog posting [via Ed Lifson, who has been following the story] includes six photos showing the "breathtaking view of the interior of the house" that was opened up by removing a flood-damaged teak wardrobe.

Sometimes adversity can yield benefits: