For more images, click here . The Mies van der Rohe-designed Farnsworth House, located on the Illinois River about 60 miles southwest of Chicago, is being prepared for sale, according to sources close to the deal. Peter Garth Palumbo, a member of Britain's House of Lords, has owned the property since 1972. Mies designed and completed the house between 1946 and 1951 as a weekend retreat for Dr. Edith Farnsworth of the Northwestern University Medical School. The house, which has been likened to a Greek temple, is considered a prime example of the International Style.
Visitors enter by stairs at one end of the house.
The interior is a single space with a core containing the kitchen and bath. Freestanding cabinet-closets define the sleeping area and a living room, which has a fireplace and a view of the river. Mies specified Roman travertine for the deck and floor and hand-built primavera woodwork. The exterior steel is painted white. The Farnsworth house was built on 9.6 acres of land, but Lord Palumbo has expanded the site to 150 acres and created a wooded sculpture park next to it with over 22 works by Harry Bertoia, Anthony Caro, Jim Dine, Andy Goldsworthy, Ellsworth Kelly, Richard Serra and others.