More than 100 architects, designers, and artists were invited to donate a drawing (or any other artifact) and a statement reflecting upon how Philip Johnson’s Glass House and Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House have inspired their own work. While donations included a mixed-media I-beam by Constantin Boym and a drawing of the San Francisco Federal Building by Thom Mayne, only a few architects had the courage to submit drawings that actually riff on one or both of the buildings. AN offers a selection of those here, from landscape designer Diana Balmori’s pointillist vision for a potential Farnsworth landscape to Gary Hilderbrand’s “almost nothing” collage and Kevin Roche’s kissing cousins cut-out.
Sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the project hopes to raise $1 million to restore both houses. The Farnsworth, having come under the group’s umbrella last January, is in particular need. Fundraising galas and auctions will take place in Chicago on September 16 and in New York on October 6, with an online exhibition debuting in September and a book of all the artworks with learned essays forthcoming from Assouline.
Jeanne Gang, untitled (2010)
Tadao Ando, farnsworth house (2009)
Daniel Libeskind, Mies van der Rohe Memorial (1987-2010)
Gary Hilderbrand, Almost Nothing (2010)
Fritz Haeg, Edith + Ludwig+ Philip+ David (2010)
Kevin Roche, The Farnsworth House meets the Johnson House (2010)