Illinois Institute of Technology - Integral / Lewis Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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In retrospect it seems natural that Mies van der Rohe came to America and Chicago in 1938 Since the pioneering work of the architects and builders of the Chicago School in the 1880 s time had been lost as a result of the disruptive and debilitating influence of the Columbian Ilxposi tion of 1893 Architecture had been wandering about in a world of historical revisalism It ne gated the lessons of jenney Root and Sullivan it denied having any relationship to or logic il outgrowth of the structural methods which marked the epoch It seems natural that Mies should be asked to come here, because in his every work is the essence of the spirit of the Chicago School of architecture so long gone unrealized. But not only was architecture generally without direction or substance, architectural education to was struggling along with curricula equally uncertain and nebulous. It was into this anachronistic cultural situation that Mies came as Director of the Department of Architecture of what was then known as Armour Institute of Technology. Even before coming to this country he was world renowned as an architect and educator, in the latter capacity as the last Director of the Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany, before it was closed by the Third Reich. In fact, it was the hopelessness of the conditions in Germany at that time which prompted Mies to accept the invitation to come to America, as he has said, not to escape but to work, to remain productive. The idea of Henry T. Heald, then President of the Institute, to develop an important school was the challenge Mies needed. In fulfilling this challenge he demonstrated his genius to penetrate and reside within a cul- ture foreign in many ways to his own, and through his architecture to manifest the technological nature of that culture, and its spirit, in physical form. It is this quality of vision, this mind free from parochialism or the fear of meeting new circumstances, that especially signalize his free spirit. To this his architecture and his teaching are vigorous evidence. His philosophy is one of seeking the very essence of the problem of architecture, its pertinent facts and the meaning of these facts. It is this return to a search for and an understanding of basic principles that characterizes Mies' teaching and distinguishes his significant contribution to the world of architecture. In both areas he has brought Illinois Tech to the attention of architects, planners, engineers, and artists of the world. To his students and associates he has shown a way of work which, reject- ing all random aesthetic speculation, results in an architecture, as Mies himself has said, rooted in the practical, extending through all degrees of value into the realm of pure art. He has created a vocabulary with which they can develop their architectural identities. To Illinois Tech he has given the nucleus of a campus, the architecture of which is the most evident symbol that could stand for a center of learning, the symbol of architectural truth. . . . E . 4 I . . . , . J . . . . . W . . 4 .- I . . Y . - J J C

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