Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig

Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig (lt`vĭkh mē`ĕs vän dĕr rō`ə), 1886–1969, German-American architect. A pioneer of modern architecture and one of its most influential figures, he is famous for his minimalist architectural dictum "less is more." In Germany, he was an assistant to Peter Behrens. Mies's 1921 design for an all-glass skyscraper attracted international attention, and he went on to create several such projects, none of them actually constructed. He directed the seminal 1927 Werkbund Housing Exposition at Stuttgart. His German Pavilion for the Barcelona International Exposition (1929; recently reerected) was heralded for its sumptuous materials, asymmetrical plan, and complex interpenetration of exterior and interior spaces. Mies was appointed director of the Bauhaus at Dessau (1930).

He left Germany in 1937 for the United States, where, from 1938 until his retirement in 1958, he headed the department of architecture at Chicago's Armour Institute (now the Illinois Institute of Technology), teaching and putting into practice the Bauhaus aesthetic that fused art with technology. There he planned the new campus and designed (1942–58) several of its buildings, notably the superb Crown Hall (1956), home of the architectecture department. During this period he also created some private homes, including the outstanding 1951 Farnsworth House in Plano, Ill., now a state museum. In the 860 Lake Shore Drive apartments in Chicago (1949–51), the Seagram Building in New York (with Philip Johnson; 1956–58), and other buildings, Mies incorporated the principles of the glass skyscraper with a surface expression of steel-frame construction. In doing so he helped create a style that dominated the American urban modernist idiom, but with a perfectionism rarely matched by any other architect. He also experimented with buildings of a single great space, such as the New National Gallery in Berlin (1962–68).

Bibliography

See his works ed. by M. Pawley (1970); biographies by F. Schulze (1985) and Y. E. Safran (2000); studies by P. Johnson (1953), A. Drexler (1960), P. Blake (1964 and 1996), P. Carter (1974), W. Tegethoff (1980), J. Zukowsky, ed. (1986), E. S. Hochman (1989 and 1990), W. Blaser (rev. ed. 1997), E. Stoller (1999), R. Daza (2000), and P. Lambert, ed. (2001).

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Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig

 orig. Maria Ludwig Michael Mies

The Lake Shore Drive Apartments, Chicago, designed by Mies van der Rohe; photographed in 1955

(credit: Ezra Stoller c. Esto)

(born March 27, 1886, Aachen, Ger.—died Aug. 17, 1969, Chicago, Ill., U.S.) German-born U.S. architect and designer. Mies learned masonry from his father and later worked in the office of Peter Behrens. His first great work was the German Pavilion for the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona, Spain, a travertine platform with chromed steel columns and spaces defined by planes of extravagant onyx, marble, and frosted glass. The steel-and-leather Barcelona chair he designed for the space went on to become a 20th-century classic. He was director of the Bauhaus in 1930–33, first in Dessau and then, during its final months, in Berlin. After moving to the U.S. in 1937, he became director of the School of Architecture at Chicago's Armour Institute (now the Illinois Institute of Technology), where he designed the school's new campus (1939–41). The International Style, with Mies its undisputed leader, reached its zenith during the next 20 years. His other projects included Chicago's Lake Shore Drive Apartments (1949–51), and the Seagram Building (1956–58, with Philip Johnson) in New York City. These buildings, steel skeletons sheathed in glass curtain-wall facades, exemplify Mies's dictum that “less is more.” His later works include Berlin's New National Gallery (1963–68). Modernist steel-and-glass office buildings influenced by his work were built all over the world over the course of the 20th century.

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Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig (b. Ludwig Mies) (1886–1969) architect; born in Aachen, Germany. As a young architect and designer in Berlin, he foreshadowed modern architecture with innovative designs for tubular-steel furniture (the cantilevered Barcelona chair (1929)) and steel and glass skyscrapers. He directed the Bauhaus, Dessau (1930–33), which he closed after Nazi threats. Though he had built only 19 buildings, he was internationally famous when he came to the U.S.A. in 1937; he founded and directed the architecture department at the Armour Institute, Chicago (later Illinois Institute of Technology) (1938–58), and designed the institute's master plan and a number of campus buildings. Mies celebrated contemporary technology and materials; under his influence, skyscraper construction switched from masonry to metal and glass. Following his credo, "less is more," his buildings were characterized by accessible, simple designs devoid of applied ornament and were composed of spaces rather than masses. A founder of the International style, his influence on 20th-century architecture can hardly be overestimated. His starkly simple German Pavilion at the International Exposition in Barcelona in 1929 crystallized public acceptance of modern architecture. His buildings include the glass Lake Shore Drive Apartments, Chicago (1948–51), the Seagram Building, New York (with Philip Johnson, 1954–58), and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (1958, 1973).