How Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Influenced Architecture in the United States of America

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Introduction

According to Frampton and Futagawa (1980), modern architecture covers the period between 1910 and 1960 where the popular architects like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd among others had significant influence over the type of residential and commercial buildings. This resulted in numerous developments such as houses, gated communities, and social institutions that become easily available to the public. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s projects were mostly undertaken with strict supervision from his associates. Some of his popular works include the development of Johnson Apartment in New York, Preliminary Campus Plan, Armour Institute of Technology in Chicago, Master Plan Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, Project: Cantor House, Indianapolis among others. His works were accomplished with a lot of care and this contributed towards his successful impact in the US architectures inclusive to other architects.

Mies’ Job in the United States

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe on arriving in the United States established himself in Chicago, Illinois where his expertise and secured his job as head of the architecture school at Chicago’s Armour Institute of Technology (Blakely & Snyder 1997). While in this position, Mies van der Rohe had the advantage to continuously design since he was the one commissioned to design the new buildings as well as the outlay of the campus. Buildings such as the Alumni Hall, the Chapel, as well as the S.R. Crown Hall, all designed by Mies still remain prominent buildings in the institution, currently known as the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT).

Mies designed the S.R. Crown Hall for the architectural kernel of the institution and hence the structure is commonly considered to be one of Mies’ masterpieces, the epitome of Miesian architecture (Blakely & Snyder 1997). However, Mies’ work took a different perspective from the early 1940s as his designs and buildings acquired a structurally oriented outlook with purity being emphasized as his major goal for the 1990s. Mies concentrated on his idealized model of enclosing open and adjustable universal spaces with comprehensibly configured structural outlines using custom-made steel shapes that were packed with large sheets of glass (Blakely & Snyder 1997).

His projects at the IIT campus which incorporated the western European International Style to the German Bauhaus were the most conspicuous in America during that period bearing in mind that most of the designs at the time were of the conventional 19th century, Chicago School leading to the perception of his work as evolutionary(Blakely & Snyder 1997). By the mid-1950s, Mies’ designs were an acknowledged style of building American cultural and academic institutions, widely acclaimed by developers and large corporations.

Significant projects in America

Apart from the buildings in the IIT campus, Mies worked on several other projects in America especially in and around Chicago. Buildings such as 860-880 Lake Shore, the Federal Center, the Farnsworth House as well as the Seagram Building in New York are among his most prominent projects in the U.S. (Frampton & Futagawa 1980).

860-880 Lake Shore Drive

Located in Chicago, Mies designed this series of middle-income high-rise apartment buildings and built them on Chicago’s Lakefront. Unlike other residential apartment buildings of the time, Mies used steel and glass instead of bricks to construct the walls. The rooms are rectangular and the lobby is separated from the perimeter columns which were open around the perimeter of the building above, creating a feeling of openness, and freedom of movement at the ground level (Blakely & Snyder 1997). The rooms represented open spaces and flat surfaces derived from the inspiration of a haven of organized transparency and tranquility amidst the anarchy of metropolitan activities (Stephens 1993).

This was however a period when the affluent in society as wells as the middle class were getting negative perceptions of the city (Benja 2002). The creators and designers of the architectural work did everything to dissociate their architectural developments from the city. In that respect, developments were built having names such as “park” “forest” “river” “hills among others and in the process avoided any word that would link that to the city. Some of the developments included the Forest Parks and Green Valley Estates incorporating the above-mentioned words (Frampton & Futagawa, 1980).

With that, the designers wanted to put forward a message to conjure up rural imagery to reflect on the real and actual landscape on the ground (Stephens 1993). Gaps in the pavement ensured that plants grew within and around the towers thus creating space for nature in his designs. Mies’ architecture of these towers ensured that each project represented new ideas regarding the creation of urbane space hence each building has its own individuality (Lang & Danielsen 1997).

The Farnsworth House

This building was designed by Mies van der Rohe and constructed over a period of five years from 1946. The building was designed for Dr. Edith Farnsworth as a weekend retreat and is located in Plano, on the outskirts of Chicago (Lang & Danielsen 1997). Mies used exposed industrial steel and glass as the basic construction materials with the intention of contravening the conventional perception of using wood and bricks as the basic construction materials for building domestic structures (MoMA n.d).

The structure is built in a forest and raised six feet above a floodplain next to the Fox River (Benja 2002). It has a white structural frame and the all-glass walls allow the surrounding natural light to fill the interior space. All the common household structures are situated within the same space with demarcation being very limited with partitions not touching the all-glass enclosed space (Blakely & Snyder 1997). Long curtains on the exterior track of the building afford complete or partial privacy when and where preferred (Frampton & Futagawa 1980).

Mies’ design of the Farnsworth House influenced the construction of several modernist glasshouses, the most outstanding being the Glass House by Philip Johnson, located close to New York City (Blakely & Snyder 1997). The Farnsworth House is regarded as a modern design made of precise and simple ideas and materials that express individual character due to differences in composition. The house has been described as an inspirational work of art and is a National landmark run by the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois as a public museum (Lang & Danielsen 1997).

The Seagram Building

Designed in 1958, the Seagram Building in New York City is regarded as the epitome of contemporary public housing architecture (Stephens 1993). Mies opted to separate the tower from the property line to construct an open space court and fountain on Park Avenue (MoMA n.d). His basic idea for The Seagram Building was the construction of a tall tower with considerable vacant space at the ground level to accentuate the presence and associate the building with stature. Mies incorporated a bronze curtain wall with peripheral H-shaped mullions, a design that drew a lot of criticism (Lang & Danielsen 1997).

Mies collaborated with Philip Johnson who was responsible for selecting the interior materials and for the luxurious designing of the Four Seasons Restaurant which was yet to be remodeled. The design certifications as well as the building of the Seagram Building were prepared in tandem, exemplifying the modern fast-track construction process which was yet to be established in the US (Kleinman et al. 2005). The blueprints of the Seagram Building were used to design various other contemporary high-rise office towers, such as the IBM Plaza in Chicago, the Westmount Square in Montreal, the Chicago Federal Center, and the Toronto-Dominion Centre (Frampton & Futagawa 1980). All of these structures have a distinctive set of exterior spaces that were the trademark for Mies’ designs (Blakely & Snyder 1997).

There were more suburban setups during this period which had seen the rise of urban inner-city counterparts. They were generally the ideal communities for many Americans since the coming of the Pilgrims (Benja 2002). On another note, gated communities normally had security developments with the ideal perimeters, which were in the form of walls or fences for restricting any outsiders. In addition to this, the gated communities had well constructed controlled entrances intended to prevent the intrusion from the nonresidents and with such considerations, the early architects like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created an impact in major cities of the country.

According to Blakely and Snyder (1997 p, 154), gated communities in 1985 created by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe only existed in a handful of places, unlike today where the designs can be found in many places thanks to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The setup reflected the notion of the community being on an island and a social bulwark against the degradation of the urban order (Blakely & Snyder 1997).

Furniture and fittings

Apart from designing buildings, Mies used his innovative and creative skills to design modern furniture pieces for example the Brno chair, the Tugendhat chair, as well as the Barcelona table and chair in cooperation with interior designer Lilly Reich(Blakely & Snyder 1997). His furniture is normally associated with luxury and class due to the fine craftsmanship and combination of conventional deluxe fabrics used such as leather with modern chrome structure (MoMA n.d). The designs are also unique in that they separate the supporting structure from the supported surfaces using girders to elucidate a sense of lightness portrayed by the subtle structural frames (Kleinman et al.2005).

Mies’ Influence on architects

Mies was a mentor in terms of building and design and he was willing to teach his version of architectural language. This was evident in the intensive and pragmatic education programs as well as the close relationship he had with his students both at school and at work (IIT 2010). Mies would develop a design model and allow his students to develop plagiaristic solutions for particular projects that were in his supervision (Benja 2002). It is through this hands-on approach that he took with his students as well as colleagues, which he was able to pass on some of his skills to subsequent architects. Some of the architecture programs at IIT for instance demonstrate his interest in conveying his design principles to young architects (Lang & Danielsen 1997).

Consequently, architects such as Gene Summers, David Haid, Ebenezer Howard, Myron Goldsmith, and Jacques Brownson, as well as firms such as C.F. Murphy and Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill among others ended up adopting Mies’ principles and standards. Others include James Ingo Freed who was Mies’ student at IIT and also worked with Mies on the Seagram Building (IIT 2010). Most prominent work is The Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. George Danforth worked under Mies as a graduate student as well as a designer in Mies’ office before becoming Mies’ first member of staff in the U.S (IIT 2010).

Among his major achievements are; Lincoln Park Zoo’s Great Ape House and Crown-Field Education and Administration Building in Chicago which is considered the most closely related structures to modernism (Frampton & Futagawa 1980). Myron Goldsmith was also a student under Mies before working under him. He also worked for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s San Francisco and Chicago offices (Blakely & Snyder 1997). The United Airlines Hangar and Flight Kitchen in San Francisco International Airport and the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope in Kitt Peak Observatory Arizona are some of his major designs (Stephens 1993).

Ebenezer Howard demonstrated the same kind of power. He was known for his innovative designs which he did in social institutions. He believed that communal building could not be achieved by physical designing alone, saying that a lot needed to be incorporated in such a task (Stephens 1993). He was thus associated with the design of the Garden City in the nineteenth century, which was one of a kind hence capturing attention to the system of governance as well as spatial form and this saw his final success in that, and various undertakings that he did thereafter (IIT 2010).

In addition to this, Ebenezer Howard ensured that each of his works was complemented by a planned plot that saw his building and finance goals come into success. In general, his developments were more of independent works meaning that they were free from any political interest and matters of the local government (Kleinman et al. 2005). His ideas were later adopted by Charles Stern Ascher who was initially a lawyer, then later turned into a planner. After some time, Ascher extended the initial ideas; that of a private government, so as to develop the master plan of Radburn suburb, New Jersey. The move was mainly driven by Ebenezer Howard’s sentiments of communal private ownership.

Influence of Mies’ minimalist concept

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was known to use the aphorism “Less is more” to illustrate his artistic approach of positioning the various essential components of a structure to create an intense sense of simplicity through the procurement of components and aspects that serve numerous visual and practical purposes(Frampton & Futagawa 1980). Minimalism in architecture was therefore introduced by Mies and this concept has greatly influenced later generations of architects. With the end of modernism and the introduction of postmodernism, numerous principles of the previous design disappeared through minimalism has managed to prevail mainly due to advances in technology (Blakely & Snyder 1997).

Architects in Japan lead in this facet with full gardens being integrated onto the roofs of buildings as a source of food as well as a lung for carbon emissions. Firms such as Sejima, Nishizawa, and Associates (SANAA), Kazuyo Sejima, and Ryue Nishizawa are known for designing dominant, minimalist buildings using common materials such as plastic for example Christian Dior Building, New Museum of Contemporary Art, and Zollverein School of Management and Design (Lang & Danielsen 1997).

In America, minimalism is still practiced by various architects for instance Joseph Fujikawa who worked with Mies on many of his most memorable projects, including Crown Hall, Promontory Apartments, and 860 Lake Shore Drive (Benja 2002). Independently, minimalism can be seen in his works such as Chicago Mercantile Exchange Center an extension of Mies’ Federal Center in Ralph H. Metcalfe Building. Other minimalist architects include Len Bass, Paul Clements, and Rick Kazman (Stephens 1993). Other modern minimalist structures that have been influenced by Mies include Hotel Puerta America in Madrid, Spain jigsaw shop, in London, U.K and Monastery in Novy Dvur, Czech Republic.

Conclusion

Apart from Ludwig Mies van der Rohen influencing the architecture in the US, other architects have also impacted hugely the development of the US as a country. In that respect, they are linked to the introduction of gated communities which have been the major achievements streaming up since the early 1980s. Most of the Americans had chosen to live in walled and fenced residential areas, which were initially integrated with spacious civic areas. This, therefore, gave rise to more of the civic space since they were considered to be political or jurisdictional constructs in the making.

The architects were more interested in manifesting cultural and social ideas in all their works. Architecture work is mostly driven by powerful knowledge that combines the social aspects as opposed to the economic factors. With that, he continues to say that a landscape or architecture is normally achieved for various reasons, one of them being to resemble a statue of a national icon. For example, in US such architecture would project on foreigners as a pictorial code, thereby expressing both affinity and estrangement. The numerous painters, landscape designers, and architects have had a huge impact not only in the US but also in England.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe had a huge impact since he was associated with a number of renowned sites, which have continued to serve the people of the country. The same case is also witnessed by the works of other architects in the same country. According to them, the various undertakings were made possible since they followed certain plans that saw the successful implementation in all their projects. Therefore, their encounters can act as a guide to future architects who are planning on establishing future projects of the same nature. However, it may be a little bit challenging since the materials that were used by the ancient architects are not available to date i.e. if one wanted to use the exact materials. On that note, other procedures such as quality aspects and policies would no doubt apply here with a few changes being implemented.

References

Benja, P. (2002) The American Architects. New York: Zuri press.

Blakely, E. J., and Snyder, M. G. (1997) Fortress America: gated communities in the United States. New York: Routledge.

Frampton, K., and Futagawa, Y. (1980) Modern Architecture. (online). Web.

Illinois Institution of Technology (IIT). (2010) Mies’ Influence. Web.

Kleinman, K., Duzer, L.V., and Rohe, M. V. (2005) Mies van der Rohe: the Krefeld. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Lang, R. E., & Danielsen, K., A. (1997) Gated communities in America: walling out the world? Housing Policy Debate. Web.

MoMA (n.d) Mies in America. Web.

Stephens, D. (1993) Fields of Vision: Landscape Imagery and National Identity in England and the United States. New York: Princeton University Press.

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