Is architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe‘s Kendall County masterpiece, Farnsworth House, about to get the Hollywood treatment?
Rumors of a movie starring Jeff Bridges as the brilliant German architect and Maggie Gyllenhaal as the Chicago doctor who commissioned the famous glass house in Plano certainly have the modernist building’s guardians excited.
Showbiz 411’s Roger Friedman reported late last week — in a story that has not been confirmed elsewhere — that the stars of Oscar-winning "Crazy Heart" are signed on to the project, which would tell the tale of the relationship between Mies and Dr. Edith Farnsworth, the nephrologist for whom the building was constructed in 1951.
"It would certainly generate more public interest in the Farnsworth House, and that’s a good thing," said Maurice Parrish, the executive director of the landmark, which is owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Mies’ friendship with Farnsworth broke down in spectacular fashion after he presented her with a bill that far exceeded the original estimates, leading to an ugly fight in the courts that (spoiler alert!) Mies ultimately won.
Rumors that their relationship went further than architect and client have persisted, fueled by Mies’ sister, who in the 1980s told Mies’ biographer that the Farnsworth and Mies likely had a romance.
But Parrish told Chicago Inc. that any storylines of an affair between the two — and it’s hard to imagine a movie without one — would be "pure speculation."
If it does get made, the movie may offer fresh impetus to the debate about how to protect the building, which in on the flood plains of the Fox River, 60 miles southwest of Chicago, and has been inundated with floods multiple times over the years.
Options currently being examined include permanently lifting the building, which is already on stilts, higher on regraded land; building a pneumatic system to temporarily lift it during floods; and, most controversially, moving the entire structure to higher ground.
kjanssen@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @kimjnews
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