The world is a good and just place
The Farnsworth House, one of the most important places in modern architecture, was auctioned today. It was designed by Mies vander Roe in the 50s for a Chicago physician as a get away home. It is almost entirely glass on the outside, and it was designed to blend with the trees around it.
Anyhow, an English lord bought the house from Dr. Farnsworth, and now the English lord is older and he wanted to sell it, so he approached Sothbey's. Every architecture student in the country studied the house at some point, and it's siting was as important as the actual design of the house. Some of the people who expressed interest in the house said that they would move it from it's location 52 miles south of Chicago.
I've been keeping an eye out on all the news wires today to see what happened at the auction today. I was very worried because I was convinced that no architectural preservation society could compete with real collectors. Fortunately, I was wrong.
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/12-12-2003/0002074784&EDATE=
Marvel of 20th-Century Design Purchased by Preservationists
Mies van der Rohe's Historic Farnsworth House Saved
CHICAGO, Dec. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- The Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois (LPCI), the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) and Friends of the Farnsworth House today bought Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House for $7,511,500 at Sotheby's in New York. The group successfully outbid several interested parties.
I'm so happy that the public, on its own, was able to raise enough money to keep this place as an important historic treasure for the US. It speaks well of capitalism that money could be raised to defeat private interests. It's a small thing, and I'm sure that some people would argue that the $7.5M could have been better spent for other public projects, but this is important for architecture, and more importantly for our culture. To move it out of its original site would have been morally wrong, but there would have been nothing that we could have done, as a people to stop it because it would have been legally right. But that the public recognized the importance and got together and raised the money just makes me think that we as a people can recognize the good in the world and work towards making it a better place. And they didn't need any special intervention from the government, though the governor and a congressman said that if the house went into the wrong hands they may try to stop it from moving. They worked within the system to buy the house fair and square. It gives me hope that good can come from working in the system.
In other news, while I was looking for info on this auction, I went to www.sothbeys.com. The Sothbey's site had no news for the day, though wandering around that site drove me into my covetous mode. There was an auction of "Important 20th Century Design" today, and half the things there would look perfect in my home. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on one's point of view, I don't have two or three million to buy all the stuff I would have wanted.
Anyhow, an English lord bought the house from Dr. Farnsworth, and now the English lord is older and he wanted to sell it, so he approached Sothbey's. Every architecture student in the country studied the house at some point, and it's siting was as important as the actual design of the house. Some of the people who expressed interest in the house said that they would move it from it's location 52 miles south of Chicago.
I've been keeping an eye out on all the news wires today to see what happened at the auction today. I was very worried because I was convinced that no architectural preservation society could compete with real collectors. Fortunately, I was wrong.
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/12-12-2003/0002074784&EDATE=
Marvel of 20th-Century Design Purchased by Preservationists
Mies van der Rohe's Historic Farnsworth House Saved
CHICAGO, Dec. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- The Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois (LPCI), the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) and Friends of the Farnsworth House today bought Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House for $7,511,500 at Sotheby's in New York. The group successfully outbid several interested parties.
I'm so happy that the public, on its own, was able to raise enough money to keep this place as an important historic treasure for the US. It speaks well of capitalism that money could be raised to defeat private interests. It's a small thing, and I'm sure that some people would argue that the $7.5M could have been better spent for other public projects, but this is important for architecture, and more importantly for our culture. To move it out of its original site would have been morally wrong, but there would have been nothing that we could have done, as a people to stop it because it would have been legally right. But that the public recognized the importance and got together and raised the money just makes me think that we as a people can recognize the good in the world and work towards making it a better place. And they didn't need any special intervention from the government, though the governor and a congressman said that if the house went into the wrong hands they may try to stop it from moving. They worked within the system to buy the house fair and square. It gives me hope that good can come from working in the system.
In other news, while I was looking for info on this auction, I went to www.sothbeys.com. The Sothbey's site had no news for the day, though wandering around that site drove me into my covetous mode. There was an auction of "Important 20th Century Design" today, and half the things there would look perfect in my home. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on one's point of view, I don't have two or three million to buy all the stuff I would have wanted.