The Edith Farnsworth House was designed and built between 1946 and 1951 as a weekend retreat for prominent Chicago nephrologist, musician, and poet, Dr. Edith Farnsworth, as a place to relax, entertain, and enjoy nature.

It is recognized as an iconic masterpiece of the International Style of architecture and has National Historic Landmark status. The architect was Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and this was his first and most significant domestic project in America. Located 58 miles southwest of Chicago, the glass and steel house is set within a natural landscape on a 62-acre parcel located along the Fox River.

The significance of the Edith Farnsworth House was recognized even before it was built. In 1947, a model of the Edith Farnsworth House was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Describing it, Philip Johnson (the show’s curator, whose own Glass House was inspired by early drawings for this house) noted that “Farnsworth house, with its continuous glass walls, is an [even] simple[r] interpretation of an idea. Here, the purity of the cage is undisturbed. Neither the steel columns from which it is suspended, nor the independent floating terrace break the taut skin.”

In the actual construction, the aesthetic idea was progressively refined and developed through the choices of materials, colors, and details. While the livability of its design proved to be less than ideal, and the cost overruns were substantial, the Edith Farnsworth House would increasingly be considered by architects and scholars alike to constitute one of the crystallizing and pivotal moments of Mies van der Rohe’s long artistic career.