Happy Birthday Mies
architect /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
If architect Mies van der Rohe were still alive, he would have celebrated his 124th birthday
on Saturday. There has been so much written about the man that there's nothing new I can add to the vast amount of scholarship, criticism and biographical information that exists. I am not a scholar, expert critic, or biographer, but I did attend architectural classes in the building he designed, pictured above, IIT's Crown Hall. And it was during that short span of time in my young, adult life that I learned about design and how to appreciate that even the smallest detail can have an enormous impact on the way things look. It completely changed my view of the visual world.
Images & Artwork: designslinger]
Laymen and critics alike love him or hate him. I've heard so many people blame Mies
for the desecration of the city and its urban architecture. Have you ever heard the saying, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." In his case, sloppy, lazy, untalented imitators have ruined the landscape and Mies has become the fall guy.
designslinger]
He was famous for his attention to detail, an 1/8 of an inch mattered to this man. At first
glance his buildings may appear plain and unornamented, but if you look at the way he handled the glass curtain wall as it approached the building corner, there is a lot going on there. It would have been much simpler, easier and probably less expensive to have the two walls meet, but then the corner would have been just any old corner on any old building. That detail tells us a story about steel, the skyscraper and modern technology. And, he was as meticulous about the materials and finishes on his buildings as he was with the furniture he designed.
Perhaps his work isn't as accessible in the world of popular culture in the way that say,
Frank Lloyd Wright is. I'm a huge fan of Wright, but whereas Wright wanted to burst open the box, Mies actually did it. For me, Mies put the modern in modern architecture.
Before I close this birthday tribute, I have to share a story with you that my classmates
and I heard during my tenure at IIT, euphemistically known as the "Mies van der Rohe School of Architecture." All of the instructors who had reached professorial rank by the late 70s had been students when Mies was the head of "The School." They loved to regale us with Mies stories, and the best one was about Mies being driven up to the staircase outside Crown Hall in a huge Cadillac convertible. The top was down, and there he was sitting in the back seat with his cigar between his fingers, accompanied by two very attractive young woman with a huge grin on his face. True or not, that story turned a towering, iconic, presence into a down-to-earth guy that I would have thoroughly enjoyed meeting.
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He was a bit larger than life I believe. Wasn't it said that he started work at 2pm every day, and only after a couple of stiff drinks?
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Have heard lots of stories, but never that one. Yet.
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