330 N. Wabash - IBM Building
[330 N. Wabash/IBM Building (1971) Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Office of Mies van der Rohe, architects; C.F. Murphy & Associates, associate architects /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
In May, 1968 the International Business Machines company announced that they would be constructing a new building in Chicago designed by the internationally renowned, 82-year-old architect Mies van der Rohe.
[IBM Building, Chicago /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
The dark brown tower would be Mies last Chicago building, the end in a long line of projects built in the designer's home city of the past 30 years. The building contained all the signature elements of the Miesian method, keeping things down to the essentials, resulting in a purely modern structure for a modern time. Often faulted for the starkness of his buildings, the architect made no excuses for the lack of decoration for decorations sake, firmly believing that architecture should be a reflection of its historic era. To him, the buildings he designed embraced the technology of his times, no different than what medieval masons did when they figured out how to use the tools and materials at hand to build the great cathedrals. Mies started out as a brick mason, and often mentioned how much he admired those fired blocks of clay.
[330 N. Wabash Avenue, Chicago /Image & Artwork: designslinger]
He was often taken to task for decrying decoration yet applying rolled steel I-beams to his exteriors, which some argued were purely decorative. The thin vertical belt structurally supported the floor to ceiling windows, although he may have been able to come up with a less obvious or less decorative choice. If nothing else, they helped push the eye up the surface of the building, emphasizing the vertical nature inherent in a tall building with a kind of restrained elegance. They just didn't seem to conform to his dictum, "Less is more," which was repeated so often anytime his name was mentioned that those three words became as identified with the Miesian brand as the apple has become identified with a lifestyle.
While Mies was involved in the design of the IBM tower, he didn't live to see it to its completion in 1971, he died 2 years earlier at the age of 83. Gone but certainly not forgotten, he was recently saluted as one of architecture's greats in a series of celebrations around the world commemorating the modern master on the anniversary of his 125th birthday, March 27th.
See another one of Mies later projects at: Federally Funded.
Posted by designslinger at 4/5/2011 3:27 AM 
Categories: Architecture, Architects, History
Tags: Mies van der Rohe commercial architecture
Categories: Architecture, Architects, History
Tags: Mies van der Rohe commercial architecture
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