The Farnsworth House is one of the greatest houses of the twentieth century. Designed for Dr Edith Farnsworth by Mies van der Rohe, it is composed of steel, glass, wood and stone. Here, in this weekend retreat set on the banks of the Fox River in gentle farmland, the great modernist Mies van der Rohe turns to the ancient shelter materials of stone and wood, and places them in perfect harmony with the materials of the new urban city: steel and glass. It's almost ironic that such a tiny unique country home becomes the model for the steel and glass architecture that composes great modern cities, from Chicago to Tokyo to Berlin. When a visitor happens upon the Farnsworth House, Mies van der Rohe's stunning architecture creation sits passively alongside the flowing river. The Farnsworth House is truly meant to be discovered, and one of the memorable ways to do that is on a unique private tour with Off the Map Chicago. On this unique tour, with just you and your guests, you will experience every inch of the Farnsworth House's stunning architecture in complete privacy, with no other visitors. Experience Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House, one of the greatest examples of architecture--in Chicago and the world--on a private tour with Off the Map Chicago.

Mies van der Rohe was one of the greatest architects of the twentieth century. The son of a stone mason, Mies van der Rohe achieved early prominence in his native Germany after working in the Berlin office of Peter Behrens. It was there that a young Mies van der Rohe saw the Wasmuth Portfolio containing the early Prairie work of Chicago architecture genius Frank Lloyd Wright. Among the drawings Mies was astonished by was the rendering of the Robie House. Mies van der Rohe continued his modern design work at the newly-formed Bauhaus, of which he later became director. But as the Nazis gained power, the stunningly modern work of the Bauhaus was deemed 'degenerate,' and with many colleagues, Mies van der Rohe was forced to flee Germany. At the invitation of the Armour Institute, Mies van der Rohe came to Chicago in 1938 and became the head of what was renamed the Illinois Institute of Technology, or IIT. In Chicago, Mies became the leader of the modern movement, creating some of the earliest--and still renowned--steel and glass skyscrapers, most notably 860-880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments, a unique example of Chicago architecture. At the same time these Chicago skyscrapers were being built, Mies van der Rohe was designing and building the Farnsworth House, a stunning weekend house in farm country west of Chicago. The Farnsworth House is still considered one of the greatest examples of modern architecture in the world. Mies van der Rohe continued his architectural practice in Chicago, designing great examples of modern architecture all over the world. Mies van der Rohe died in Chicago in 1969, and is buried in Graceland Cemetery on Chicago's north side. You can visit the Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe on a unique private tour with Off the Map Chicago. On this unique tour, with just you and your guests, you will experience every inch of the Farnsworth House's stunning architecture in complete privacy, with no other visitors.

Did you know that Mies van der Rohe actually sued Dr Edith Farnsworth because she refused to pay him when her amazing weekend house was completed? And that, despite its international fame as one of the greatest buildings of our time, she never felt comfortable living there?

Explore the stunning work of the poet of the modern skyscraper, Louis Sullivan, on a unique private tour with Off the Map Chicago. We'll start in my private music studio in the storied Fine Arts Building by S.S. Beman, where Frank Lloyd Wright twice had a studio. Then we'll explore Louis Sullivan's architectural genius in the Auditorium building next door as we begin our private walk. As Frank Lloyd Wright's leiber meister, or beloved mentor, Louis Sullivan developed the concept of organic architecture and ornamentation, summarizing his clean, modern form of architecture with the phrase, 'form ever follows function. The firm of Adler & Sullivan created some of the finest examples of Chicago's early 20th century modern architecture, and it was Louis Sullivan who refused to design a classical building for the 1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, offering instead an Asian-inspired architectural contrast: the Transportation Building with its Golden Door. Viewing the miles upon miles of classical buildings of the great fair, Louis Sullivan is said to have remarked, 'This will set back the course of modern architecture by a half-century.

Frank Lloyd Wright came to Chicago in 1887 when he was 20 years old to become an architect. He quickly found work in the office of Joseph Lyman Silsbee, but soon left to work under the great Louis Sullivan at Adler & Sullivan. At the age of 22, Frank Lloyd Wright found himself in charge of the drafting room on one of the biggest projects in the firm's history: the Auditorium Building. Wright wrote, "I was a good pencil in my Master's hand,' his 'leiber meister' being Sullivan. While working for Adler & Sullivan, the newly-married Wright built a shingle-style cottage in the suburb of Oak Park. He would add on to the original house several times, eventually incorporating his own studio in 1898. Sullivan terminated Frank Lloyd Wright in 1893 for moonlighting, a violation of his contract. For Wright, it was just the beginning. Building on Sullivan's concept of organic architecture and ornamentation, combining his love of Japanese art and architecture, music, geometry and nature, Wright would develop the Prairie style by 1901. Residential and commercial buildings would pour out of Frank Lloyd Wright's Oak Park Studio for a decade, including the Darwin Martin house and Larkin Administration building in Buffalo, Unity Temple in Oak Park, scores of revolutionary Prairie homes, and the landmark Robie House in 1909. Wright left Oak Park for Europe in 1909, and while he returned to Chicago a year later, his work in the Prairie style essentially ended, and the next chapter of his 72 year career would begin at the home he built near Madison Wisconsin, Taliesin, in 1911. Off the Map Chicago can take you on a unique private tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie houses, a combination walking and driving tour of Oak Park and River Forest. Off the Map Chicago can also take you up Chicago's North Shore, to show you Wright's first Prairie house, his only constructed bridge, and many other examples of unique architecture, on your very own unique private tour.

In 1901, Frank Lloyd Wright unveiled a new form of house that, simply put, revolutionized the world. A private, simply, yet elegantly, detailed form arose from the flat midwestern prairie. A writer would later name it the Prairie house. Frank Lloyd Wright would not disagree. As courageous clients asked the Oak Park-based Frank Lloyd Wright to design them a beautiful home in the Prairie style, their not-so-forward thinking neighbors would dismiss Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpieces as funny houses. And while these Prairie houses, with their massive hip roofs, sheltering eaves, broad chimneys signaling cozy hearths deep inside, and unique entries that said privacy with a capital P, may have seemed odd in 1901, or even 1910, today they are still modern. And, as in the case of Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House, still revolutionary. On a unique private walking/driving tour with Off the Map Chicago, I'll show you just about all of them, from Oak Park and River Forest in the west part of the Chicago, all the way up the North Shore of Lake Michigan, to the very first and very unique Prairie house: the Ward Willits house. By the way, did you know that a critic wrote of Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie style creations that they provide a safe and secure harbor to its residents battered about the uncharted seas of modern life. Hmmm. Sounds like something we could use today.

Graceland Cemetery, on Chicago's North side, offers a fascinating glimpse into the tombs and monuments of the wealthy patrons who built Chicago, alongside the architects many of them hired. Names like Pullman, Palmer, and Kimball are emblazoned on memorials. For architecture enthusiasts, perhaps the most stunning sight is Louis Sullivan's landmark Getty Tomb, a tiny mausoleum that sparked the fire of modern architecture. Not far from this masterpiece is a shady and serene island where the great architect Daniel Burnham is laid to rest. The simple flat stone rectangle of the grave of Mies van der Rohe, designed by his grandson, the architect Dirk Lohan, is nearby. In a quirk of fate, or cosmic bit of wry humor, a few rows away is the grave of Dr. Edith Farnsworth, the client who hired Mies van Der Rohe to build her a weekend house that is now one of the most important examples of modern architecture in the world. Client and Architect never spoke to each other again after a bitter lawsuit and countersuit that began shortly after Farnsworth moved into the house. One of the most poignant stops at Graceland Cemetery is the memorial erected to Louis Sullivan by his peers; Sullivan died almost penniless and his fellow architects donated money to create this monument to the poet of the modern skyscraper.

Did you know that one of Daniel Burnham's first commissions was the gate to the old Chicago Union Stockyards? From there, it was a meteoric rise. His firm, Burnham and Root, created some of the greatest of Chicago's buildings, such as the Rookery and Monadnock Buildings. The Beaux Arts-trained Burnham was appointed chief architect of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Under his leadership, and with exception of a building designed by modernist Louis Sullivan, an impressive collection of classical fair buildings emerged along the Midway near the shores of Lake Michigan. The fair would be named White City in tribute to the gleaming white buildings. Unfortunately, Burnham's talented partner, John Wellborn Root, would die suddenly before the fair was completed. But the socially-connected Daniel Burnham and his firm would go on to design such structures as Orchestra Hall, still home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the flagship headquarters of the Marshall Field Department Store, the ground-breaking modern Reliance Building [with Charles Atwood], today restored as the luxury Burnham Hotel, and the gleaming white terra cotta-clad Santa Fe Building. In a tiny perch Burnham built on the roof of this bulding, Daniel Burnham's greatest legacy would be born: the 1909 Plan for Chicago, still considered a landmark in the history of urban planning. Daniel Burnham is one of citizens responsible for Chicago's lakefront: today, untouched by development, and instead filled with miles of parkland and vistas.

You can visit the Getty Tomb in Graceland Cemetery. Why would you want to do that? Perhaps to study the genius of Louis Sullivan, its architect. Here, Frank Lloyd Wright's Leiber Meister masterfully distills geometry, organic ornamentation and form into a simple and stately rectangle that signals the beginning of modern architecture.

In 1922 as the awards committee was about to declare the winner of the worldwide competition for the design of a new tower for the Chicago Tribune, a package arrived past the submission deadline. It was postmarked, Helsingfors, Finland. The architectural drawings inside so impressed the panel that they re-convened to consider changing the winner. The work was by Eliel Saarinen, and while he was awarded second prize, his brilliant, sleek setback skyscraper creation actually became more highly-regarded than the first prize winner in architecture history.

Eliel Saarinen's only work in Chicago can be seen on a private architectural walk and drive up Chicago's spectacular North Shore. In collaboration with his prominent son, the architect Eero Saarinen, Eliel Saarinen designed Crow Island School, a stunningly modern, yet intimate and charming, grammar school, still educating school children in Winnetka, IL.

In 1936, Frank Lloyd Wright was asked to design the headquarters of the international wax company, S.C. Johnson & Sons, in Racine, Wisconsin. His creation is as modern and innovative today as it was when it was completed. A highlight of the building is its Great Workroom, a light and airy central work space with giant white organically-inspired columns that suggest lily pads. These tapered columns caused controversy during the building's construction. The Wisconsin state building department doubted the slender columns would hold the weight of the roof. Frank Lloyd Wright loved a challenge, so he had one column erected at the building site. Workers piled stone on top of stone until the building inspectors were more than satisfied. But Wright wouldn't stop. He ordered more stone piled on the top of the column, many times more weight than required, until--finally--the column collapsed. You can visit the Johnson Wax Building with Off the Map Chicago on a special unique driving excursion to Racine.