June 17--UPDATED: Flood waters, a recurring problem at Mies van der Rohe's glass-walled Farnsworth House, have once again disrupted the historic structure in Plano, Ill., near the Fox River. A tweet Tuesday from the account of the museum, @MiesGlassHouse, announced that "All tours have been canceled for June 16-18 due to recent heavy rains. The house is currently safe, but inaccessible."
An accompanying photograph showed waters following Monday's heavy rains covering the surrounding grounds but below the base of the structure, considered a modernist classic. Previous water incursions have done serious damage to the 1951 home, now operated as a museum by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
"Things here are improving," Maurice Parrish, the house's executive director, said Wednesday. "The water is receding. We're expecting that we'll be able to start having a full tour schedule in the near future." He declined to say if tours would restart Friday. "We're watching it very carefully," he said of the weather. "There's more rain expected."
Floodwater mitigation plans are one of the primary elements covered on the home's website, farnsworthproject.org, listed even before "About" and "In the News" sections. Options under discussion include elevating the home, relocating it to a nearby, but less flood-prone site and putting it on hydraulics that could lift the structure up when the Fox overflows its banks.
The Tribune's Blair Kamin contributed to this report.
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