17 September, 2009

Save Ferris Bueller's House

Okay, it was really his friend Cameron's house, and not Ferris's. Don't get all technical on me.

But just a few miles up the lakefront from us is the Ben Rose home, made famous in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. You know the scene, with the red Ferrari, the glass windows, and the plunge to the forest floor below?

Well anyway, the house designed by A. James Speyer and David Haid is for sale. And because no one has bought it, it also just made the watch list of Landmarks Illinois; despite its inclusion on a list of Highland Park landmarks, it could face demolition if it isn't sold.

From the Landmarks Illinois site:

Significance: The Rose House was designed by architect, museum curator, and Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) teacher A. James Speyer for textile designers Ben and Frances Rose. The house is considered to be Speyer’s best architectural work and is notable for its progressive design and its deference to the work of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Speyer’s professor at IIT. Like Mies’ masterpiece Farnsworth House, the Rose House is on pylons that lift it above grade. In 1958, the house was one of 12 homes in the nation featured in a Bethlehem Steel publication promoting the use of steel framing for residential design. Also on the property is an automobile pavilion, designed by Speyer’s first graduate student David Haid, to house the Rose’s classic car collection. Haid’s design emulates that of the house and stands on pylons over a ravine. The pavilion was featured in the popular 1986 John Hughes film, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

It's on the way to Wisconsin, where I'm heading this weekend to see my cousins, so maybe I'll stop for a peek.

Estate listing: 370 Beech Street

5 comments:

modernemama said...

I'd so buy it if someone would give me a few millions

Jen said...

It is a great house.

Lady Quilter said...

I can see us in this house with all that space. Offices and of course that garage, over the ravine, as a super sewing studio. Too big and bright to be called a sewingroom. :)All my frames, etc will fit nicely! Time to get those lottery tickets!

Boxmom

Rachael Black said...

I need some advice....I found your blog when I googled "family reunion iowa siouz city". I am trying to plan a Family Reunion in Sioux City, IA. Where, as in at what facility, did you have your reuion at?

Rachael-
scrae@comcast.net

Joanne said...

Rachael -- I'll have to ask. (I'm not from SC myself.) Looking at the map on Google, I want to say it was Stone State Park. The family reserved a lodge that had a fireplace and a kitchen.