Illinois Institute of Technology Chapel and Parish House, Chicago, Illinois, Exterior Perspective

Ludwig Mies van der RoheWW-1949-038936

1949·Graphite and charcoal on Strathmore board·75.7 × 100.2 cm (29 13/16 × 39 7/16 in.)

<p>German émigré architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe began designing a new campus for the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) soon after his appointment as chair of the school’s department of architecture in 1938. With this expansion Mies sought to remake the college for the postwar world by offering high-tech research and educational opportunities. The creation of IIT’s new campus relied upon modern planning techniques such as urban renewal—the practice of razing and rebuilding large residential areas designated as “blighted”—resulting in displacement and cultural erasure in the largely African American neighborhood where the school was located.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1949
Medium: Graphite and charcoal on Strathmore board
Dimensions: 75.7 × 100.2 cm (29 13/16 × 39 7/16 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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