Early Study for the Library and Administration Building, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois, Perspective

Ludwig Mies van der RoheWW-1941-038947

1941·Graphite and charcoal on Strathmore board·78.4 × 101.8 cm (31 × 40 in.)

<p>Although many of Mies’s plans and models adopt a bird’s-eye view, his design for the IIT campus also relied heavily on sketches done at eye level. This allowed the architect to work out potential problem areas, such as the experience of approaching a building at human scale. These sketches and studies were then used by architects in his office to create working drawings for construction.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1941
Medium: Graphite and charcoal on Strathmore board
Dimensions: 78.4 × 101.8 cm (31 × 40 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Artist

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Drawing

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a German-American architect and furniture designer whose stripped-down aesthetic defined modernism in the twentieth century. He pioneered the steel-frame glass building and the open-plan interior, reducing architectural form to its essential structural elements. His Barcelona Chair and Brno Chair became canonical pieces of twentieth-century design, their tubular steel frames and leather surfaces exemplifying his dictum 'less is more.' After emigrating to the United States in 1938, he directed the Illinois Institute of Technology and designed the Farnsworth House and the Seagram Building in New York. His influence on post-war architecture and industrial design remains foundational.

Aachen, Germany

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