Every Line is a Decision: The Life and Legacies of Peter Palumbo

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THE LIFE AND LEGACIES OF PETER PALUMBO PMS 2148 PMS 136

March 2022-December 2023 at the Edith Farnsworth House— A Site of the National Trust for Historic Preservation www.farnsworthhouse.org

In 2022-23, we celebrate Peter Palumbo, the influential British arts and architecture mover and shaker, who purchased this iconic home from Edith Farnsworth in 1972, restoring it and landscaping much of its 60-acre grounds for use as a vacation home. After their marriage in 1986, Hayat Palumbo helped activate Farnsworth, welcoming family and many influential guests. Acquired by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 2003, the property has become a National Historic Landmark and international heritage tourism destination.

Until now, little has been written about the threedecades-long Palumbo Era. 2

IMMIGRANTS TO TOP ECHELON IN THREE GENERATIONS

Peter Garth Palumbo (b.1935) was born to a self-made millionaire, Rudolph Palumbo (1901-1987), a British property developer whose father, Pasquale Palumbo, had emigrated to England from Italy in the late 1800s. Peter’s mother, Elsie Annie Gregory (1894-1994), a classical musician from Lancashire, England, encouraged her son’s interest in the arts, and his father, who had self-educated through reading, social interactions and business mentors, encouraged Peter’s interests in history, sport and architecture.

Peter was educated at Eton and Oxford, reading Law and excelling at sports, mainly racquets, soccer and polo. Upon graduating, he joined his father in the family business and for the next 30 years, used his position of privilege to help elevate the arts and humanities in England and beyond. In 1991, he was appointed a Life Peer by Margaret Thatcher for service to the arts and sat in the House of Lords until he retired in September 2019.

PH OT OS: Centenary Polo Match in Hurlingham Park, 29 June 1969, Peter Palumbo far left (courtesy Hurlingham Club); Baron Palumbo of Walbrook, House of Lords (International Magazine Services photo archive).

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A LIFE OF ART, ARCHITECTURE AND PUBLIC SERVICE Since his youth, Peter’s developed a deep love for the Arts, focusing mainly on the visual arts, architecture, and the natural world. At the age of nine, he began photographing architecture and landscapes, a hobby that continued into his mid-twenties. His interest in Drawings and Prints led him to a two-year apprenticeship in the Department of Drawings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Museums — and collecting, curating and conservation — remain abiding interests.

Lord Palumbo has served as chairman or trustee of many cultural institutions and foundations — including The Tate Gallery in London (Trustee 1978-1985, Foundation Chairman 1985-1986); The Arts Council of Great Britain (Chairman 1989-1994); The Natural History Museum, London (Trustee 1994-2004); The Royal Fine Art Commission Trust (Chairman 1994-2013); The Serpentine Gallery (Chairman 1994-2014, Chairman

Emeritus 2014-2016); The Design Museum, London (Trustee 1995-2005); The Pritzker Architecture Prize (Chairman 2005-2015, Chairman Emeritus 2015-2016); The WestEastern Divan (Trustee 2010-present).

He has also served on the boards of The Andy Warhol Foundation (1984-1999), Royal Albert Hall (1985-1999), The Royal Shakespeare Company (1995-2000), and many others.

PH OT O RI GH T: Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with Peter Palumbo and Anthony Caro sculpture, 1991 (courtesy Peter Palumbo).

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FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF HIS PUBLIC SERVICE ROLES, VISIT: L O R D P E T E R PA L U M B O . C O M

COLLECTOR OF HOUSES, PRESERVER OF PLACES

Although he has often been described as a collector of heritage properties, Lord Palumbo rejects the characterization and simply attributes this to being in the right place at the right time. Three of the most notable houses, Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe, Kentuck Knob by Frank Lloyd Wright, and Maisons Jaoul by Le Corbusier, were on the market when he happened to visit them.

For several years, all three of these iconic structures served as holiday homes for his family but during the mid-1990s, with ever-increasing business commitments in London, the Palumbos used the houses less and less frequently and gradually began the process to open them to the public. In addition to restoring and furnishing these houses, Peter improved the sites and ensured they were properly maintained. By the early 2000s, he decided to part with Maisons Jaoul and Farnsworth House, retaining Kentuck Knob as a family estate that is open for public tours.

P HOT O L EF T: Farnsworth House, November 2021 (Matthew Gilson, courtesy National Trust).

P HOT OS RIGHT: Maisons Jaoul, 2010 (courtesy seier+seier); Kentuck Knob, c.2019 (courtesy Roy Engelbrecht).

FAMILY MAN In 1986, Peter married Hayat Morowa, energetic and enterprising daughter of the late Kamel Morowa, who was founder of the Lebanese publishing group, Al-Hayat (after which Hayat is named). Hayat oversees the operations at Kentuck Knob and runs her London-based store, Tapisserie, that specializes in hand-painted needlework.

Their eldest daughter, Petra (b.1989), is involved at Kentuck Knob, and also manages her own homeware business based in the Highlands of Scotland.

PH OT O: Peter and Hayat Palumbo, c.1988 (courtesy Kentuck Knob).

Note: Information and quotations included in this exhibition have been excerpted from interviews conducted by Michelangelo Sabatino and Scott Mehaffey for a forthcoming book about the Edith Farnsworth House, to be published by Monacelli, a Phaidon Company, in 2023.

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Their son, Philip Palumbo (b.1992), is in charge of The Walbrook Club, the family’s Private Membership club based in the City of London and located in the former headquarters offices of City Acre, the property development company founded by his grandfather, Rudolph, and carried on by his father, Peter. Their youngest daughter, Lana Palumbo (b.1991), is a personal assistant to a private chef and events caterer.

A stepson from Hayat’s first marriage, Karim Calil (b.1979) works in oil trading and finance, and a stepdaughter, May Calil (b.1982) is a strategic consultant working in the creative sector.

Lord Palumbo has been married twice, with three grown children from each marriage.

P H O T O : Philip, Lana and Petra Palumbo, c.1995 (courtesy Kentuck Knob).

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Mies, Mansion House Square and the Edith Farnsworth House

PHOTO: Mies van der Rohe in London pub, 1959 (courtesy Monica Pidgeon).

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DISCOVERING MIES While a student at Eton, Peter Palumbo’s housemaster, Oliver Van Oss (1903-1992), offered a one-hour art appreciation course after chapel and before lunch each Sunday. An artist himself, Van Oss utilized the Socratic method to engage his pupils in imaginary conversations between great artists and architects, living and dead, one of whom was Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969). When shown a photograph of the recently-completed Farnsworth House, Peter recalls, “I had never seen anything as beautiful as this — or as historic. For me, it was like the contemporary equivalent of the Temple of Paestum, springing up out of the meadow.”

Some years later, after he had joined his father’s property development firm, Peter was tasked with selecting an architect for a new office tower they would build in central London. “Mies was the preeminent choice — in part because he was still alive.

Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier were dead. And so, a friend of my father, who was in the construction business, wrote to Mies in Chicago to ask him whether he would consider accepting a commission to design a building in the heart of the City of London. The rest is history.” Reflecting on his discovery of Mies at Eton, Peter stated, “I had no idea that I would ever actually meet Mies or that he would become a godfather to one of my children, or that meeting him would change my entire life — or even that I should ever see the Farnsworth house in the flesh. But all those things did happen.”

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“ I had never seen anything as beautiful as this—or as historic. For me, it was like the contemporary equivalent of the Temple of Paestum, springing up out of the meadow.”

P HOT O: Peter Garth Palumbo, Baron Palumbo, 24 July 1979 (Cecil Beaton, courtesy Condé Nast Archive).

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LORD PETER PALUMBO

In 1968, while visiting Chicago to discuss the central London development with Mies, Peter Palumbo learned the Farnsworth House was for sale and went to see it. Dirk Lohan (b.1938), Mies’s grandson and Peter’s contemporary, drove them to Plano in Mies’s Lincoln convertible. “White with a black top,” Dirk recalls. “On the way, we stopped at a drive-in hamburger stand and Peter had never seen anything like this — he liked being out there in the country. It was very different from his life in London.”

Peter decided to call Dr. Edith Farnsworth (1903-1977), who was at the house that day. “‘Well, why don’t you come to lunch?’ So, I said, ‘I’d love to,’ and she said, ‘Well, come today!’ And so, I went and basically purchased it on the spot. She wasn’t in a position to sell it at that time, but I gave her a deposit, and we concluded the purchase over the next few years.”

“ W H E N I F I N A L LY A C Q U I R E D I T, I T H O U G H T, ‘ I D O N ’ T WA N T A N Y M O R E . T H I S I S T H E U LT I M AT E , T H I S I S T H E B E S T T H I N G T H AT I C A N P O S S I B LY I M A G I N E — T O B E T H E O W N E R O F T H E FA R N S W O RT H H O U S E . ’ A N D M Y C O L L E C T I N G D R I V E WA S S AT I S F I E D F O R A L L T I M E — O R S O I T H O U G H T. T H E P U R C H A S E O F T H E H O U S E S T H AT F O L L O W E D W E R E R E A L LY O U T O F S E R E N D I P I T Y. I T H I N K S O M E T I M E S I N L I F E , O N E I S P U S H E D I N T O A S I T U AT I O N — D R I V E N A L M O S T — A N D Y O U H AV E N O I D E A W H E R E Y O U ’ R E G O I N G , O R W H AT T H E E N D W I L L L O O K L I K E , B U T I T ’ S S O M E T H I N G T H AT O N E S H O U L D N ’ T R E S I S T I F I T C O M E S Y O U R WAY, B E C A U S E O P P O RT U N I T Y S E L D O M K N O C K S AT T H E S A M E D O O R T W I C E . ”

P HOT O T OP: Edith Farnsworth, 1968 (courtesy Edith Farnsworth Papers, Newberry Library).

P HOT O RIGHT: Peter Palumbo photographed by Edith Farnsworth, 1968 (courtesy Peter Palumbo).

MANSION HOUSE SQUARE Following the bombing on London during World War II, Rudolph Palumbo was able to acquire scattered building lots adjoining the Mansion House, home to the Mayor of London, followed by the leaseholds for many neighboring properties.

When City Acre, the Palumbo’s development company, commissioned Mies to design a modern office tower for this land, it was with the understanding that it was a posthumous commission: since some of the leases would not expire until the 1980s. The tower’s primary tenant would be Lloyd’s Bank.

P HOT OS: Mansion House Square photomontage and model (John Donat, courtesy of Drawing Matter and REAL Foundation).

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In the 1960s, Mies was highly respected in business, financial and design circles. “Mies means money,” was an often-quoted expression.

Throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, the project encountered increasing opposition — in part, due to changes in architectural fashion (Postmodernism replacing the International Style) and perhaps also due to growing concerns over civic space becoming places of protest and civil unrest in Margaret Thatcher’s Britain. In May 1984, speaking at the 150th anniversary celebration of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), Charles, the Prince of Wales specifically criticized the Mansion House Square proposal, saying: “It would be a tragedy if the character and skyline of our capital city were to be further ruined and St Paul’s dwarfed by yet another giant glass stump, better suited to downtown Chicago than the City of London.” This unexpected comment essentially killed the project.

Peter responded in the press, “ I C A N O N LY S AY G O D B L E S S T H E P R I N C E O F WA L E S , A N D G O D S AV E U S F R O M H I S A R C H I T E C T U R A L J U D G M E N T. ” After some regrouping, in 1986, James Stirling was selected to design a postInternational Style building for the site, and his No. 1 Poultry was completed in 1997 — twenty-eight years after the City of London granted Peter tentative permission to redevelop the site. As for Prince Charles’s contention that the Stirling design “looks like a 1930’s wireless set,” Palumbo said, “I take that as a compliment, because 1930’s wireless sets are beautiful objects.”

P HOT OS: No. 1 Poultry, Before and After (courtesy Peter Palumbo).

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Life at Farnsworth During the Palumbo Era

FROM WEEKEND HOUSE TO COUNTRY ESTATE

Although the Edith Farnsworth House was built as a weekend house for an accomplished Chicago doctor, it quickly became an architectural pilgrimage site for modernists, attracting architects, designers, and artists. Most brought binoculars but some hopped over the fence to peer in the windows on a weekday when Dr. Farnsworth was most likely in Chicago. These excursionists would sometimes be met with binoculars staring back at them, as Dr. Farnsworth was known to do. She seldom entertained guests and valued her privacy.

At “the river house,” as she often referred to it, she would read, write, play music and spend time with Miss Amy, her poodle.

Throughout the 1960s, federally funded flood protection plans were developed throughout the Midwest and the Fox River dams and bridges were reengineered. In 1967, Edith Farnsworth was notified that several acres of her land would be taken through eminent domain, to raise the adjacent road and to build a new highway bridge. She and her neighbors, who were also losing land, tried suing and negotiating but could not stop the project. In frustration, she listed her weekend home and surrounding acreage for sale.

In 1968, with Peter Palumbo’s commitment to purchase the property, she retired to Italy leaving the keys with a care-taker, who allowed occasional visitors to see the house.

Vacated and neglected, the property became overgrown, and the house fell into disrepair.

P HOT O L EF T: Farnsworth House, 1970 (courtesy Jim Zanzi).

P HOT O ABOVE: Farnsworth House For Sale Sign, 1970 (courtesy Jim Zanzi).

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AMERICAN FARMS Still in his early thirties at the time he bought the Farnsworth House, Peter Palumbo was perhaps the ideal owner: young and energetic, he was also a man of vision and means to restore and take care of the house. He hired the architect Dirk Lohan, Mies’s grandson, to oversee the restoration and furnishing of the house as well as ongoing improvements to the grounds. Dirk recalls, “Peter was always fabulous — he did what was needed.

It was really always looking superb.”

PH OT O T OP: Eldridge House c.2000 (courtesy Hayat Palumbo).

PH OT O RI GH T: Farnsworth House with Daffodils c.2000 (courtesy Peter Palumbo).

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Years later, with Hayat, their three children and two stepchildren, life in a one-room glass house felt restrictive, so they soon purchased the Eldridge House, a large late Victorian house in nearby Plano. With the addition of a boathouse, swimming pool, tennis court and bridle paths at Farnsworth, they developed a private park anchored by a pavilion without equal — where Peter could escape to conduct business or to entertain. The family was typically in-residence for two months every summer, but Peter made additional trips on his own — often combining stops in Chicago with business meetings in the U.S.

Over the years, Peter acquired nearby farms and farmland which remained productive assets, mainly growing soy beans and corn.

A couple of barns were converted to house collections of antique carriages, vintage American cars and old airplanes, that he and Hayat hoped to house someday in a transport museum. At the same time, Peter and his close friend and landscape architect, Lanning Roper (1912-1983), improved the Farnsworth property, planting over the years more than six-hundred trees and shrubs, as well as thousands of perennials, native wildflowers, and spring bulbs — most notably the daffodils for which the Edith Farnsworth House is now well-known. They also developed an outdoor sculpture collection, beginning with a path surrounding the house and then expanding into an adjoining 20-acre meadow.

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“ We had a lot of wonderful times there — we had many good friends from visiting Chicago and the children really enjoyed the pool and the horses — it really was a very vibrant place.” LADY PALUMBO

ARTS HAVEN

Hayat and Peter divided their time between Eldridge House and the Farnsworth House especially when special guests were staying there such as Peter Blake, John Cage, Antony Caro, Jim Dine, Norman Foster, Andy Goldsworthy, Zaha Hadid, Ellsworth Kelly, Claes Oldenberg, George Rickey, Lanning Roper, James Stirling, Wendy Taylor, to name but a few. For many years, Peter served as a Trustee of the Zaha Hadid Foundation, and she even completed sketches for a proposed new visitor center and museum building at Farnsworth which sadly were never realized.

During those busy years, Peter, now Lord Palumbo, served as Chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain, also serving as a Trustee of the Tate Gallery, Chairman of the Serpentine Gallery, a Board Member of the Andy Warhol Foundation and various other arts-related organizations. Whenever they were staying in Plano, the Palumbos entertained friends from Chicago and beyond, including Jay and Cindy Pritzker, who later invited Peter, in 2005, to serve as Chairman of The Pritzker Architecture Prize. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, Farnsworth was a place filled with creativity and celebrations.

P H O T O L E F T: Farnsworth House, c.1995 (courtesy Peter Cook). P H O T O S R I G H T: Cindy and Jay Pritzker at Farnsworth House, c.1995 (courtesy Hayat Palumbo); Zaha Hadid at Farnsworth House, c.2000 (courtesy Hayat Palumbo).

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CELEBRATING IN NATURE

PH OT O L EF T: James and Emese Wood and friends with Hayat and Peter Palumbo at Farnsworth House c.1995 (courtesy Hayat Palumbo). PH OT O RI GH T: Grays and Goldsmiths visiting Farnsworth House, c.1995 (courtesy Chandra Goldsmith Gray).

When Peter first took possession of the Farnsworth House in the summer of 1972, his close friends Dirk Lohan, Peter Carter and Adrian Gale joined him. All three worked in the Mies office in Chicago and were trustees and guardians of the Farnsworth House property. “But how to celebrate this special occasion?” asked Peter. “So we played on the turntable the famous 1938 recording of Benny Goodman at Carnegie Hall that brought together great players from various bands on the eve of World War II, ‘Sing, Sing, Sing’. Champagne was flowing and Peter Carter suggested that we should swim across the river.

Unbeknown to us, the Fox River becomes extremely shallow in the summer, and since swimming was impossible, we were only able to ford it by walking across the muddy bottom, the water never reaching our knees, but it was great fun all the same!”

On Hayat’s 50th birthday, Peter hired a group of musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to play before dinner followed by a small display of fireworks. He recalls, “The clouds opened in the middle of the festivities, and everyone got drenched. The children and I, fully clothed, just jumped into the swimming pool — shoes, everything. It was all part of the celebrations.” “ I T ’ S A V E R Y D R A M AT I C H O U S E D U R I N G T H U N D E R S T O R M S , ” H AYAT A D D S . I R E M E M B E R T H E F I R E F L I E S O N S U M M E R NIGHTS AS SEEN FROM THE HOUSE — THE GRASS WOULD L I G H T U P A N D I T F E LT A S I F W E W E R E F L O AT I N G AT O P HUNDREDS OF TINY LIGHTS.” Peter remembers the subtle scratching of the leaves against the window. “When a breeze would blow, it was pure music — you had no need to put on a record, nature taking over the role!”

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The Farnsworth House Estate During the Palumbo Era

P HOT O ABOVE: Farnsworth House, 1984 (courtesy Jon Miller, Hedrich Blessing). PHOTOS R IGHT: Peter and Hayat Palumbo, 1986 (courtesy Hayat Palumbo); Swimming Pool, (courtesy Hayat Palumbo).

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Prior to buying the Edith Farnsworth House, Peter Palumbo had intended to commission Mies to design a modern vacation home for one of a small group of seven islands he had purchased years beforehand off the coast of Scotland. After acquiring Farnsworth, he set about restoring it, introducing furniture designed by Mies van der Rohe and his grandson, the architect Dirk Lohan. Gradually, he began to introduce modern art and antiques, inspired in part, by time spent at Philip Johnson’s Glass House. “Philip… had the most

SWIMMING POOL & CHANGING ROOM

beautiful 18th century landscape painting on an easel, by the French painter Poussin. And I thought to myself, what a wonderful juxtaposition because it sat so beautifully in the Glass House… That juxtaposition of the very old and the very new was fascinating to me.”

Artists and architects visited from time to time and most stayed in the Farnsworth House. “Well, the real attraction was to sleep in the Farnsworth House,” said Peter. Hayat recalls, “The first time I visited Farnsworth in August 1986, Peter had invited Norman Foster and his son to stay, so we had to give up our bed and go to the Dannewitz farmhouse. I had to get used to giving up my bed, but they were all such good friends.”

Around 1980, Lord Palumbo’s landscape architect, Lanning Roper, sited the swimming pool, suggesting a simple design such as one he had seen in upstate New York. Lord Palumbo, Roper, the architect Adrian Gale, the pool contractor and Lord Palumbo’s Estate Manager, Tom Blanchard, flew to New York to study the pool. Adrian Gale drew up the construction drawings for the pool, a changing room and shower at the back of the garage (with concealed doors for the 10 months of the year it remained unused), and clad Dr. Farnsworth’s gray sided garage in natural cedar to weather and fade into the tree trunks.

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BOATHOUSE & RICKEY DOCK During the late 1970s, Peter Palumbo imported from England a number of 19th century mahogany skiffs and punts with polished brass fittings that had originally been used on the River Thames in England. With no place to store them, he decided to excavate an existing swale located west of the house and construct a boathouse connected to the Fox River. Designed by Donald Armstrong Smith, an architect at City Acre, Peter’s London-based development company, it was purposely kept low-profile, framed and roofed in weathered wood, to blend into the trees. Lord Palumbo referred to this and the garage as “non-architecture.”

In addition, there was a small dock, designed by the sculptor George Rickey, located near the driveway to be closer to Parrot Island, a small island in the Fox River, located southeast of the Visitor Center. This was a favorite picnic destination for the Palumbos and Peter named it Parrot Island for his pet parrot, Robert. Peter recalls, “When George (Rickey) came, we decided to have lunch out on Parrot Island. We did that but not before we had fallen into the water getting into the skiff.

George said, ‘This is no good for someone of my age. I’m going to design a dock which you can take out of the water and attach to a tree vertically.’ So I had it made by a local carpenter and we used it for many years.”

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PH OT OS: Tree Park, Boathouse, Rickey Dock, Tennis Court, various dates (all courtesy Hayat Palumbo).

TENNIS COURT Also around 1980, the tennis court was sited by Lanning Roper, away from the garage, with a wildflower path, named after him, located in between. The tennis fence has since been removed but the net and judges chair remain in storage.

Peter recalls, “My father visited the Farnsworth House twice during his life. He liked the improvements made to the property because it was developing as a family home.

He was very much a family man”.

TREE PARK Beginning in 1972, Lord Palumbo and Lanning Roper corresponded about trees and shrubs that would do well on the Farnsworth property, with relatively low maintenance since the house was unoccupied most of the year. In addition to planting the west edge of the property to screen the newly constructed bridge and elevated roadway, Palumbo and Roper planted various trees around the lawn north and east of the house, continuing east along the River Road fence line to provide privacy. Various maple, linden, honey locust, oak, ash, flowering crabapple and pear were planted, along with more unusual species including ginkgo, catalpa, several varieties of beech and bald cypress and even mulberry trees.

WILDFLOWER WALK The wildflower garden began as a way to connect the tennis court and the swimming pool/ changing room area so they would all relate to one another.

Unfortunately, it would be Lanning Roper’s last design project. During the final stages of cancer, he continued to correspond with various nurseries and gardeners about woodland plants that might perform well in Plano, IL. From his hospital bed, he made lists of the wildflowers he recalled from his youth, walking the woodlands of Essex County, New Jersey. The garden was installed after his death, by Lord Palumbo and Bernadette Doran, Roper’s assistant gardener.

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SCULPTURE WALK

PH OT O: Claes Oldenberg, “Alphabet Good Humor” with Hayat Palumbo (courtesy Kentuck Knob).

He soon began to acquire modern sculpture to enliven the Farnsworth landscape, working with Lanning Roper to site them. “Lanning and I did the placing of them,” recalls Peter.

“Whether we succeeded, I don’t know, but it was it was a fascinating exercise and certainly, they added interest to the landscape… there was no thought of the future. It was never meant to be a museum. The pieces and the settings were simply guided by own feelings.”

Highlights of the collection included:

ALPHABET GOOD HUMOR The idea began in the early 1970s when Peter was living in New York City, working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and visiting the Museum of Modern Art Sculpture Garden, Philip Johnson’s Glass House estate and others.

CLAES OLDENBURG Swedish-American (b. 1929) A School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumnus, Oldenburg remains one of the premier names in Pop-art sculpture. He “engages outrage to activate the apathetic.” In this piece, the alphabet letter covers are constructed from polychrome and fiberglass and are pressed together around a bronze “stick” to form a Good Humor bar. This work resonates with the Pop art movement’s fascination with consumer-based objects. Lord Palumbo purchased this piece in the late 1980s and sold it in 2002 when most of the sculpture collection was moved to Kentuck Knob.

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FLOODSTONES ANDY GOLDSWORTHY British (b. 1956) Goldsworthy made his mark as a naturespecific artist and environmentalist. He aims to work with nature as a whole, frequently drawing upon natural materials for his sculptures. He collaborated with Plano-area talent in constructing this piece, and the stones were gathered from fields in the area. Horizontal lines were scored into the stones to demark the various flood depths since recording began, and the overall height of the piece was determined by the Fox River flood of October 1954, the highest-known flood at the time this piece was made. Interestingly, this was Goldsworthy’s first site-specific land art commission, but the piece was disassembled and removed to Kentuck Knob in 2002, where it was reassembled by Goldsworthy.

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P HOT OS LEFT: Andy Goldsworthy, “Floodstones” (courtesy Dudley Fisher); Section of Berlin Wall (courtesy Dudley Fisher). PHOT O R I GHT: Wendy Taylor, “Square Piece” (courtesy Dudley Fisher).

SECTION OF THE BERLIN WALL GRAFFITI ARTISTS UNKNOWN Built in August 1961, the Berlin Wall cut through the city, demarking the sides occupied by the Western powers and the Soviet Union after the Second World War. It became a symbol of the divide between East and West, communism, and democracy. On the Western side, Berliners drew graffiti of both a political and personal nature, seen on the section above; on the Eastern side, people were killed trying to escape to a freer life outside of the Soviet Union.

When the wall came down in 1989, remnants like this one became available and Lord Palumbo purchased one for Farnsworth, one for Kentuck Knob and one for the Imperial War Museum, London

SQUARE PIECE WENDY TAYLOR British (b. 1945) Taylor attended St. Martin’s School of Art when it was the premier training ground for English sculptors. She aimed to make this piece as finely engineered as the Edith Farnsworth House itself, a method she still uses in her site-specific work. Taylor wanted to frame some of the views of the land while at the same time making “something which would work as an entity in its own right.” Lord Palumbo purchased this work in the mid-1990s and sold it in 2002 when most of the sculpture collection was moved to Kentuck Knob.

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Restoring Houses and Other Places

P HOT O: Peter Palumbo with Parenti & Raffaelli craftsmen (courtesy Hayat Palumbo).

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From 1972-74, Peter Palumbo completed a thorough restoration of the Edith Farnsworth House, working with architect Dirk Lohan and many others. The roof and several broken windows were replaced; the steel exterior was stripped of paint, sanded, primed and repainted; travertine stair treads and pavers were reset, and several were replaced (sent from the same quarry near Rome where Mies had sourced the original stone).

FLOODING Although the grounds flooded almost annually, water only entered the house once — during the 1970s — until a horrendous flood in 1996, followed by another damaging flood the following year. Although Lord Palumbo’s commitments in England and elsewhere were challenging at the time, he made frequent trips to Plano throughout the restoration, to ensure the work was done to satisfaction.

PH OT OS: 1972 Restoration (courtesy T. Paul Young); 1996 Flood Damage (courtesy Tom Blanchard).

Inside, the plaster ceiling was repaired and repainted; new curtains were made to replace the roll-up blinds installed in the 1950s; a hearth stone was added to contain the fireplace ashes; a new stereo was installed inside the wardrobe cabinet, and subtle changes were made to the original kitchen, including updated appliances. A second restoration was required after the 1996-97 floods, also overseen by architect Dirk Lohan, Mies’s grandson.

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KENTUCK KNOB

T O D AY, K E N T U C K K N O B I S V I S I T E D B Y OVER 30,000 GUESTS PER YEAR AND C O N T I N U E S T O A C C O M M O D AT E F R E Q U E N T V I S I T S B Y T H E PA L U M B O FA M I LY.

In 1986, following a tour of Fallingwater, Lord Palumbo visited another Frank Lloyd Wrightdesigned house located nearby, Kentuck Knob (completed in 1956) — which was then on the market. Inspired by the home and its beautiful natural setting, Peter purchased it soon thereafter and began a careful restoration. The house caught fire one night, but this delay proved fortuitous as Hayat, recently wed to Peter, could then have a role in the restoration.

“At first,” she recalls, “we used Kentuck Knob as a family retreat but of course, being a Wright design and being so close to Fallingwater, people wanted to see it all the time.

We’d have to put away our personal items and it was quite a business every time especially being physically so far away. Then one year, we were too busy in London and only managed to spend a couple of weeks there so I said to Peter, ‘Isn’t it a little selfish to have this house locked up when people are longing to see it?, ‘Let’s have a one-year trial of public tours and see how it goes’ — and that’s how we started in 1996.”

P HOT O: Kentuck Knob, c.2019 (courtesy Roy Engelbrecht).

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MAISONS JAOUL In 1988, the Palumbos were planning a weekend getaway to Paris (a city both are fond of, especially Hayat, as she was educated there) when a real estate brochure was put on Peter’s desk of the Maisons Jaoul (built in 1954-56), two adjoining houses designed by Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, known as Le Corbusier.

Constructed near the banks of the river Seine, in the smart Paris suburb of Neuilly, the house was considered to be of historic importance but was in need of restoration.

According to Peter, “Jacques Michel, Corbusier assistant architect, persuaded the workmen who had actually built them to come out of retirement for one more time, put on their bleu de travail or their working clothes, and undertake the restoration.

In the end, it became the perfect experiment.

I enjoyed it immensely.” Hayat recalls, “It was furnished very informally and colorfully — the children loved it. In fact, (Princess) Diana stayed at Jaoul twice.”

As the children grew and school and social commitments in London increased, the Palumbos considered incorporating Maisons Jaoul, Kentuck Knob and Farnsworth House as a house museum business, allowing them occasional use of the properties, but by the 2000s they made the decision to sell both Maisons Jaoul and Farnsworth.

PH OT O: Maissons Jaoul, 2010 (courtesy seier+seier).

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PENGUIN POOL The former penguin cage at the London Zoo was designed in 1934 by Russian émigré architect Berthold Lubetkin and structural engineer Ove Arup, pioneering the use of reinforced concrete slabs in sculptural forms.

Interlocking curving ramps suspended over an elliptical pool turned part of the penguin’s playground into a theatrical display for visitors, one of whom was the young Peter Palumbo. In the mid-1980s, Lord Palumbo funded the restoration by architect John Allan of Avanti Architects, working with Lubetkin himself — the first time a Grade One listed structure had been restored by its original architect.

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While the reinforced concrete ramps were originally coated in rubber, the zookeepers requested slipresistant quartz sand be added to the concrete, causing the penguins to contract bumblefoot infection. The penguins were removed in 2004 and the Penguin Pool has sat there ever since. Lord Palumbo says, “Certainly, I didn’t regret it at the time, but I wonder now whether it was worthwhile because there it sits, its original purpose having been discarded.”

PH OT OS: Penguin Pool at London Zoo, 1934 (Frederick William Bond, courtesy ZSL); Penguin Pool Restored (courtesy Dezeen).

THE CHURCH OF ST STEPHEN, WALBROOK This is the Palumbo family church of which Peter took great interest as a boy. Although a church had been on the site from medieval times, the present domed building was designed by Sir Christopher Wren to replace its predecessor that had been destroyed at an earlier date. It is located in the Ward of Walbrook in the heart of the City of London and was built from 1662-1670. In the early 1950s, Peter’s father, Rudolph Palumbo, built a Queen Anne Style townhouse immediately behind the church to serve as the home office of City Acre, the family’s property development company.

During the late 1970s and early 80s, Peter led the fundraising effort to refurbish the church, which had been badly damaged during World War II. He commissioned the modern sculptor Henry Moore to

carve a massive stone altar, which was controversial at the time. He also supported the planting of the churchyard, designed by his good friend Lanning Roper.

P H O T O : Henry Moore Altar, Church of St. Stephen, Walbrook, London (courtesy David Iliff).

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P HOT O: Peter Palumbo and his German Shepherd, Jute, in Gothic Temple at Painshill Park (courtesy Kentuck Knob).

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PAINSHILL PARK Painshill was an 18th century landscape garden created between 1738 and 1773, by the Honorable Charles Hamilton, who was born into Irish aristocracy but spent most of his life in England. After completing his education, Hamilton set off on his first Grand Tour across Europe, collecting statues, paintings and ancient artifacts, all displayed at his Painshill estate near Cobham, purchased in 1738. Over the decades, he created a magnificent landscape garden filled with engaging follies, which was visited by many important guests including John Quincy Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

Although the estate remained relatively intact throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, following World War II, it fell into disrepair. In 1981, Painshill Park Trust was formed to restore the landscape and its structures, with Janie Locke as its director and Peter Palumbo helping to fund the ongoing restoration and becoming a member of the fundraising committee.

Every Line is a Decision: The Life and Legacies of Peter Palumbo has been funded by the Margot and Tom Pritzker Family Foundation, Paul and Dedrea Gray, and Barbi and Tom Donnelley, with additional support from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Special thanks to Kentuck Knob and Bang & Olufsen.

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

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Every Line Is A Decision: The Life And Legacies of Peter Palumbo is a two-year focus on the British Lord Peter G. Palumbo, second owner of the Edith Farnsworth House from 1972-2003. Exhibitions, programs, and events will feature Peter Palumbo’s many interests including architecture, art, photography, music, landscape, historic preservation, global philanthropy, and cultural diversity.