LUDWIG MIES VAN DER

ROHE
 TIMELINE
Born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies

March 27, 1886

Aachen, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Died August 17, 1969 (aged 83)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Nationality German American
Citizenship German (1886–1944), American (1944–1969)
Occupation Architect
Spouse(s) Adele Auguste (Ada) Bruhn (1913–1918) (separated)
Children 4
Awards Pour le Mérite (1959)
Royal Gold Medal (1959)
AIA Gold Medal (1960)
Presidential Medal of Freedom (1963)

Buildings Barcelona Pavilion

Crown Hall
Farnsworth House
Highfield House
860–880 Lake Shore Drive
One Charles Center
Seagram Building
New National Gallery
Toronto-Dominion Centre
Tugendhat House
Westmount Square
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library
 EARLY LIFE AND CAREER  

• MARIA LUDWIG MICHAEL MIES WAS BORN IN AACHEN, GERMANY, ON MARCH 27, 1886. THE YOUNGEST OF
FIVE CHILDREN, HE ATTENDED A LOCAL CATHOLIC SCHOOL, AND THEN RECEIVED VOCATIONAL TRAINING
AT THE GEWERBESCHULE IN AACHEN. HE FURTHER HONED HIS SKILLS BY WORKING WITH HIS
STONEMASON FATHER AND THROUGH SEVERAL APPRENTICESHIPS.
• WHILE EMPLOYED AS A DRAFTSMAN, IN 1906 MIES RECEIVED HIS FIRST COMMISSION FOR A RESIDENTIAL
HOME DESIGN. HE THEN WENT TO WORK FOR INFLUENTIAL ARCHITECT PETER BEHRENS, WHO HAD
TAUGHT THE LIKES OF LE CORBUSIER. IN 1913, MIES SET UP HIS OWN SHOP IN LICHTERFELDE. 
•THE OUTBREAK OF WORLD WAR I IN 1914 PUT MIES’S CAREER ON HOLD, AND DURING THE CONFLICT,
HE SERVED IN THE GERMAN MILITARY, HELPING BUILD BRIDGES AND ROADS. RETURNING TO HIS WORK
AFTER THE WAR, MIES DEBUTED HIS VISION OF A GLASS SKYSCRAPER, SUBMITTING THE FUTURISTIC
DESIGN FOR A 1921 COMPETITION. AROUND THIS TIME, MIES ADDED “VAN DER ROHE” TO HIS NAME, AN
ADAPTATION OF HIS MOTHER'S MAIDEN NAME.
 CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS
WORK

•   HE BELIEVED THAT THE CONFIGURATION AND ARRANGEMENT OF

EVERY ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENT MUST CONTRIBUTE TO A
UNIFIED EXPRESSION. 
•  EVERY ASPECT OF ARCHITECTURE, FROM OVERALL CONCEPT TO
THE SMALLEST DETAIL, SUPPORTS HIS EFFORT TO EXPRESS THE
MODERN AGE. 
•  HE CALLED HIS BUILDINGS "SKIN AND BONES" ARCHITECTURE. 
•  HE IS OFTEN ASSOCIATED WITH THE APHORISMS "LESS IS MORE"
AND "GOD IS IN THE DETAILS. 
•  HIS MATURE BUILDINGS MADE USE OF MODERN MATERIALS SUCH
AS INDUSTRIAL STEEL AND PLATE GLASS TO DEFINE INTERIOR
SPACES. 
• HE STRIVED TOWARDS AN ARCHITECTURE WITH A MINIMAL
FRAMEWORK OF STRUCTURAL ORDER BALANCED AGAINST THE
IMPLIED FREEDOM OF FREE- FLOWING OPEN SPACE
 FEATURES AND STYLE

• He strove toward an architecture

His mature buildings made use of • He called his buildings "skin and
with a minimal framework of
modern materials such as industrial bones" architecture. • Mies found
structural order balanced against the
steel and plate glass to define interior appeal in the use of simple rectilinear
implied freedom of unobstructed
spaces. and planar forms, clean
free-flowing open space. 

lines, pure use of color, and the

extension of space around and
beyond interior walls. Mies, like Mies' architecture has been described He created an influential twentieth-
many of his post-World War I as being expressive of the industrial century architectural style, stated
contemporaries, sought to establish a age.  with extreme clarity and simplicity.
new architectural style that could
represent modern times. 
  TRADITIONALISM TO MODERNISM 

• AFTER WORLD WAR I, MIES BEGAN, WHILE STILL DESIGNING

TRADITIONAL NEOCLASSICAL HOMES, A PARALLEL EXPERIMENTAL
EFFORT. BOLDLY ABANDONING ORNAMENT ALTOGETHER, MIES MADE
A DRAMATIC MODERNIST DEBUT WITH HIS STUNNING COMPETITION
PROPOSAL FOR THE FACETED ALL-GLASS FRIEDRICHSTRASSE
SKYSCRAPER IN 1921, FOLLOWED BY A TALLER CURVED VERSION IN
1922 NAMED THE GLASS SKYSCRAPER
• HE JOINED THE GERMAN AVANT-GARDE, WORKING WITH THE
PROGRESSIVE DESIGN MAGAZINE G WHICH STARTED IN JULY 1923. HE
DEVELOPED PROMINENCE AS ARCHITECTURAL DIRECTOR OF THE
WERKBUND, ORGANIZING THE INFLUENTIAL WEISSENHOF ESTATE
PROTOTYPE MODERNIST HOUSING EXHIBITION. 
HE WAS ALSO ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE ARCHITECTURAL
ASSOCIATION DER RING. 
• HE JOINED THE AVANT- GARDE BAUHAUS DESIGN SCHOOL AS THEIR
DIRECTOR OF ARCHITECTURE, ADOPTING AND DEVELOPING THEIR
FUNCTIONALIST APPLICATION OF SIMPLE GEOMETRIC FORMS IN THE
DESIGN OF USEFUL OBJECTS. HE SERVED AS ITS LAST DIRECTOR
 Mies pursued an ambitious lifelong mission to create a new architectural
language that could be used to represent the new era of technology and
production. He saw a need for an architecture expressive of and in harmony
with his epoch. 

SIGNIFIANCE He applied a disciplined design process using rational thought to achieve his
spiritual goals

One notable way that Mies connected his buildings with nature was by
extending outdoor plaza tiles into the floor of a lobby, synthesizing the
exterior and interior spaces of the site. The device accentuated the effortless
flow between natural conditions and artificial structures. This characteristic is
often found in his large building projects such as the Seagram Building. •
 simplicity and clarity of forms and elimination of "unnecessary detail"

materials at 90 degrees to each other 

 CHARACTERISTIC visual expression of structure (as opposed to the hiding of structural elements) 
FEATURES
the related concept of "Truth to materials", meaning that the true nature or
natural appearance of a material ought to be seen rather than concealed or
altered to represent something else 

use of industrially-produced materials; adoption of the machine aesthetic

STRUCTURE IS PARAMOUNTESS IS MORE 

• FOR MIES, STRUCTURE WAS PARAMOUNT, HENCE HIS

EMPHASIS ON THE RECTILINEAR FRAME CONSTRUCTED
OF FAMILIAR BUILDING ELEMENTS, INCLUDING MOST
IMPORTANTLY THE WIDE-FLANGE BEAM.
 • MIES BELIEVED IN CREATING FRIENDLY FUNCTIONAL
STRUCTURES TO SERVE PEOPLE, RATHER THAN
DECORATIVE STRUCTURES TO SERVE HISTORICAL
NOTIONS OF ARTISTIC STYLE. HIS FOCUS ON
MINIMALISM WAS EXPRESSED IN HIS FAMOUS
APHORISM “LESS IS MORE.”
 • BY THE LATE 1950S, THE FIRST SIGNS OF A MIESIAN
SCHOOL WERE BEGINNING TO APPEAR, MOST
NOTICEABLY IN CHICAGO. BUT WITHIN A DECADE, THIS
"MIESIAN" SCHOOL HAD EXPANDED TO BECOME A
"CHICAGO" SCHOOL IN ORDER TO REFLECT THE
GROWING BODY OF CHICAGO ARCHITECTURE WHICH
WAS DERIVATIVE BUT NOT DIRECTLY IMITATIVE OF HIM.
SECOND CHICAGO SCHOOL

 • IN THE 1940S, A "SECOND CHICAGO SCHOOL" EMERGED FROM

THE WORK OF LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE AND HIS EFFORTS
OF EDUCATION AT THE ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
IN CHICAGO. ITS FIRST AND PUREST EXPRESSION WAS THE 860-
880 LAKE SHORE DRIVE APARTMENTS (1951) AND THEIR
TECHNOLOGICAL ACHIEVEMENTS.
 • IT WAS MIES VAN DER ROHE, SUPPORTED BY A GENERAL
POSTWAR DESIRE IN AMERICA FOR "MODERN" RATHER THAN
"TRADITIONAL" THINGS, WHO ACTED AS THE CATALYST FOR
THE EMERGENCE OF THE SECOND CHICAGO SCHOOL.
 • HIS FIRST JOB WAS THE RECONSTITUTION OF THE IIT
CAMPUS, ONE OF THE MOST AMBITIOUS PROJECTS HE EVER
CONCEIVED. ITS REVOLUTIONARY LAYOUT, LANDSCAPING
AND USE OF NEW MATERIALS, SUCH AS STEEL AND CONCRETE
FRAMES WITH CURTAIN WALLS OF BRICK AND GLASS,
EXEMPLIFIES 20TH CENTURY THINKING - JUST LIKE THE REST
OF HIS ARCHITECTURAL COMMISSIONS.
 • MIES, OFTEN IN COLLABORATION WITH LILLY REICH,
DESIGNED MODERN FURNITURE PIECES USING NEW
INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGIES THAT HAVE BECOME
FURNITURE POPULAR CLASSICS, SUCH AS THE BARCELONA CHAIR
AND TABLE, THE BRNO CHAIR, AND THE TUGENDHAT
CHAIR
 WORKS

          THE BARCELONA PAVILION

 • THE GERMAN PAVILION AT THE
BARCELONA EXPOSITION HAD SIMPLICITY
AND CLARITY OF MEANS AND
INTENTIONS—EVERYTHING IS OPEN,
NOTHING IS CONCEALED.”
 • FREE OF EXTERNAL ORNAMENT, THE
BUILDING WAS MADE OF THE MOST
LUXURIOUS MATERIALS. WALLS WERE
FASHIONED OF THIN PLATES OF
LUMINOUS SEMI-PRECIOUS STONE, FROM
GREEN POLISHED MARBLE TO
GOLDENONYX. 
• THEY DIDN’T PHYSICALLY LIMIT SPACE.
• MATERIALS: GLASS, STEEL AND FOUR
TYPES OF MARBLES.
 S. R. CROWN HALL 

• S.R. CROWN HALL IS THE HOME OF THE COLLEGE OF

ARCHITECTURE AT THE ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
IN CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
 • MIES REFINED THE BASIC STEEL AND GLASS
CONSTRUCTION STYLE, BEAUTIFULLY CAPTURING
SIMPLICITY AND OPENNESS.
 • THE BUILDING IS CONFIGURED AS A SELF- CONTAINED IN A
RECTANGULAR SHAPE ON TWO LEVELS.
• IS A FREE VOLUME WITH ITS FOUR WALLS OF GLASS,
SURROUNDED BY A LARGE GREEN AREA, WITH LARGE TREES,
MAINLY IN THE SOUTH FACADE. THE GLAZING ON ALL SIDES
THAT ALLOWS THE FACULTY DO NOT GIVE BACK THE REST OF
THE BUILDINGS, WHILE RESPECTING THE CONTEXT.
 • IT IS CHARACTERIZED BY AN INDUSTRIAL AESTHETIC OF
SIMPLICITY, CLEARLY STATED IN THEIR STEEL FRAMES. 
• THE BUILDING IS DIVIDED INTO TWO LEVELS: THE MAIN
FLOOR, SHAPED LIKE A LARGE SPACE AND A SEMI-BURIED
WHERE THEY ARE LOCATED THE OFFICES, MEETING ROOMS
AND SERVICES.
   FARNSWORTH HOUSE 
         

                              
•BETWEEN 1946 AND 1951, MIES VAN DER ROHE DESIGNED
AND BUILT THE FARNSWORTH HOUSE.
 • MIES EXPLORED THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PEOPLE,
SHELTER, AND NATURE.
 • THE GLASS PAVILION IS RAISED SIX FEET ABOVE A
FLOODPLAIN NEXT TO THE FOX RIVER, SURROUNDED BY
FOREST AND RURAL PRAIRIES.
 • HE ENVISIONED A “SKIN AND BONES” ARCHITECTURE
THAT SEPARATED THE STRUCTURE FROM THE FREE
FLOWING SPACE.
 SEAGRAM BUILDING

• THE INTEGRAL PLAZA, BUILDING, STONE FACED

LOBBY AND DISTINCTIVE GLASS AND BRONZE
EXTERIOR WERE DESIGNED BY MIES VAN DER ROHE. IT
IS A 160M TALL SKYSCRAPER. IT STANDS AS ONE OF THE
FINEST EXAMPLES OF THE FUNCTIONALIST AESTHETIC
AND A MASTERPIECE OF CORPORATE MODERNISM. THE
FUNCTIONAL UTILITY OF THE BUILDING’S STRUCTURAL
ELEMENTS WERE MADE VISIBLE. IT WAS BUILT OF A
STEEL FRAME, FROM WHICH NON-STRUCTURAL GLASS
WALLS WERE HUNG. THIS BUILLDING EMPHASISES
TRANSPARENCY THROUGH THE USE OF GLASS.
                                                            
      IBM BUILDING

                                                            
 • THE LOFTIEST CHICAGO BUILDING HE DESIGNED WAS THE
695-FOOT-TALL IBM BUILDING (1971) - TODAY CALLED 330
NORTH WABASH - WHICH MAKES THE MOST OF ITS
PROMINENT LOCATION ON THE NORTH BANK OF THE
CHICAGO RIVER.
• BLACK ANODIZED ALUMINUM AND GRAY-TINTED GLASS
ARE USED TOGETHER TO CREATE A UNIFORM SKIN THAT
GIVES THE APPEARANCE OF A SINGLE IMPOSING AND
IMPRESSIVE VOLUME. IT'S STRENGTH AND CLARITY OF
FORM ARE DISTINGUISHABLE AND APPRECIATED ALONG
THE CHICAGO SKYLINE, A TRIBUTE TO THE LIFELONG
STUDY OF STRUCTURAL EXPRESSION, ORGANIZATIONAL
SCALE, MATERIAL SIMPLICITY, PROPORTION, AND
CONSTRUCTIVE DETAIL.
 CHICAGO FEDERAL COMPLEX

 • CHICAGO FEDERAL CENTER PLAZA, ALSO KNOWN AS

CHICAGO FEDERAL PLAZA, UNIFIED THREE BUILDINGS OF
VARYING SCALES: THE MID-RISE EVERETT MCKINLEY
DIRKSEN BUILDING, THE HIGH-RISE JOHN C. KLUCZYNSKI
BUILDING, AND THE SINGLE-STORY POST OFFICE BUILDING.
 • THE STRUCTURAL FRAMING OF THE BUILDINGS IS
FORMED OF HIGH-TENSILE BOLTED STEEL AND CONCRETE.
THE EXTERIOR CURTAIN WALLS ARE DEFINED BY
PROJECTING STEEL I-BEAM MULLIONS COVERED WITH
FLAT BLACK GRAPHITE PAINT, CHARACTERISTIC OF MIES'S
DESIGNS. THE BALANCE OF THE CURTAIN WALLS ARE OF
BRONZE- TINTED GLASS PANES, FRAMED IN SHINY
ALUMINUM, AND SEPARATED BY STEEL SPANDRELS, ALSO
COVERED WITH FLAT BLACK GRAPHITE PAINT.
 860–880 LAKE SHORE DRIVE 

• MIES DESIGNED A SERIES OF FOUR MIDDLE-INCOME HIGH-

RISE APARTMENT BUILDINGS FOR DEVELOPER HERBERT
GREENWALD: THE 860– 880 (WHICH WAS BUILT BETWEEN 1949
AND 1951) AND 900–910 LAKE SHORE DRIVE TOWERS ON
CHICAGO'S LAKEFRONT.
• THESE TOWERS, WITH FAÇADES OF STEEL AND GLASS, WERE
RADICAL DEPARTURES FROM THE TYPICAL
RESIDENTIAL BRICK APARTMENT BUILDINGS OF THE TIME..
 • JUST AS WITH HIS INTERIORS, HE CREATED FREE
FLOWING SPACES AND FLAT SURFACES THAT REPRESENTED
THE IDEA OF AN OASIS OF UNCLUTTERED CLARITY AND CALM
WITHIN THE CHAOS OF THE CITY. HE INCLUDED NATURE BY
LEAVING OPENINGS IN THE PAVEMENT, THROUGH WHICH
PLANTS SEEM TO GROW UNFETTERED BY URBANIZATION,
JUST AS IN THE PRE-SETTLEMENT ENVIRONMENT.
MUSEUM OF FINE
ARTS, HOUSTON

•MIES DESIGNED TWO BUILDINGS FOR

THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, HOUSTON
(MFAH) AS ADDITIONS TO THE CAROLINE
WEISS LAW BUILDING. IN 1953, THE
MFAH COMMISSIONED MIES VAN DER
ROHE TO CREATE A MASTER PLAN FOR
THE INSTITUTION. HE DESIGNED TWO
ADDITIONS TO THE BUILDING—
CULLINAN HALL, COMPLETED IN 1958,
AND THE BROWN PAVILION, COMPLETED
IN 1974. A RENOWNED EXAMPLE OF THE
INTERNATIONAL STYLE, THESE
PORTIONS OF THE CAROLINE WIESS LAW
BUILDING COMPRISE ONE OF ONLY TWO
MIES-DESIGNED MUSEUMS IN THE
WORLD.
           NATIONAL GALLERY, BERLIN 

• MIES'S LAST WORK WAS THE NEUE NATIONALGALERIE ART

MUSEUM, THE NEW NATIONAL GALLERY FOR THE BERLIN
NATIONAL GALLERY. CONSIDERED ONE OF THE MOST
PERFECT STATEMENTS OF HIS ARCHITECTURAL APPROACH,
THE UPPER PAVILION IS A PRECISE COMPOSITION OF
MONUMENTAL STEEL COLUMNS AND A CANTILEVERED
(OVERHANGING) ROOF PLANE WITH A GLASS ENCLOSURE.
• THE SIMPLE SQUARE GLASS PAVILION IS A POWERFUL
EXPRESSION OF HIS IDEAS ABOUT FLEXIBLE
• INTERIOR SPACE, DEFINED BY TRANSPARENT WALLS AND
SUPPORTED BY AN EXTERNAL STRUCTURAL FRAME
 TORONTO-DOMINION BANK TOWER

•THE TALLEST STRUCTURE EVER DESIGNED BY MIES,

THE BANK TOWER FORMS PART OF THE TORONTO-
DOMINION CENTRE, OR T-D CENTRE - A GROUP OF
BUILDINGS IN DOWNTOWN TORONTO, CONSISTING OF
SIX TOWERS AND A PAVILION - FOR WHICH MIES
SERVED AS DESIGN CONSULTANT TO THE ARCHITECTS,
JOHN B. PARKIN & ASSOCIATES, AND BREGMAN &
HAMANN.
• MIES WAS PERMITTED THE WIDEST POSSIBLE
LATITUDE IN DESIGNING THE COMPLEX, AND THE
RESULT IS A CLASSIC EXAMPLE OF HIS INTERNATIONAL
STYLE MODERNISM. IT REPRESENTS A FITTING END TO
THE EVOLUTION OF MIES' NORTH AMERICAN CAREER.
                 AWARDS

POUR LE MERITE AIA GOLD MEDAL

1959 1960

1959 1963
ROYAL GOLD MEDAL PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM
THANKYOU 
HAFSAH SIDDIQUA 
19251AA018