Today, Washington D.C.–based nonprofit National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) announced that landscape architect and Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture adjunct professor Scott Mehaffey assumed the role of executive director of the Farnsworth House in Plano, Ill., on April, 2. The NTHP has owned the Ludwig Mies van der Rohe–designed structure since 2003, and has operated it as part of the organization’s portfolio of historic sites that have been open to the public since 2010.
“We are thrilled to welcome Scott as we continue the preservation and evolution of Farnsworth House,” said NTHP vice president for historic sites Katherine Malone-France in a press release. “Scott brings energy, enthusiasm and a strong desire to expand Farnsworth House programs and outreach at the local, national, and international level, along with many years of practical experience managing and developing historic properties.”
In addition to running his own landscape architecture firm, Mehaffey has held positions at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Ill., and the City of Chicago working in historic site management, community outreach, and programming. He also teaches courses in Modernism and the Prairie School at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
“I am looking forward to guiding this internationally renowned historic site into its next phase of development, as we work to protect and maintain Farnsworth House and its setting for the coming generations,” Mehaffey said in the release. “I am particularly impressed by their dedication to preserving the site’s historic integrity in the face of a changing climate.”
First conceived by Mies in 1945 for client Edith Farnsworth as a country retreat, the project was completed in 1951 and owned privately until the NTHP and nonprofit Landmark Illinois purchased it in 2003. Now a house museum, the estate welcomes 15,000 visitors per season along with special tours and programming. Due to the structure’s location in a flood plain along the Fox River, the NTHP and Landmarks Illinois work together on flood mitigation tactics in light of rising water levels and climate change.
