Current Restoration Project
As the steward of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s legacy, Illinois Institute of Technology is committed to maintaining and restoring his masterworks. The Mies van der Rohe Society—a membership organization devoted to ensuring the university’s distinctiveness in architecture and preserving Mies’ buildings—raises funds for a number of capital and educational projects.
Preserving Mies at Illinois Institute of Technology
Illinois Tech has been committed to innovation and experimentation since it was founded. This commitment finds its most visible expression in the architecture of campus—which features contributions by world-class architects like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Rem Koolhaas, Helmut Jahn, and John Ronan—as well as in major cities around the globe, where countless Illinois Tech faculty and alumni have shaped the built environment as architects and engineers. Mies Society is committed to sustaining and promoting the university’s rich architectural legacy through preservation efforts: To date, we have helped restore several Mies-designed buildings on Illinois Tech’s campus, including Wishnick Hall, S. R. Crown Hall, and the Robert F. Carr Memorial Chapel of St. Savior.
Image courtesy of Hoerr Schaudt
The Restoration of Landscape on Mies Campus
The landscape on Mies Campus has a vibrant history of its own, dating back to the earliest days of Armour Institute of Technology (AIT), but as with so much of the school’s building program, Mies’ tenure figures heavily in the development of the grounds as they present themselves today. During World War II, Mies struck up a relationship with famed Chicago landscape architect Alfred Caldwell, in whom he reposed sufficient confidence to invite him to redesign the campus landscape. He also appointed him faculty of the department of architecture, and in the course of the 1940s and 1950s, Caldwell left his imprint on the campus. Nearly everything he achieved is apparent today, but largely on account of the restorative efforts of later designers. Over the years, many plantings were lost; and in 1999 Illinois Tech undertook a landscape master plan in order to recreate Caldwell’s work and enhance it appropriately [1]. Throughout his career, Caldwell underlined the ideal relationship between structure and natural growth as exemplified by his work at Illinois Tech in planning the campus with Mies and Ludwig Hilberseimer.
Caldwell’s philosophy of total space: from the house to the garden to the landscape itself led him to develop a farm in Bristol, Wisconsin, where he was the laborer, the contractor, the stone mason, the carpenter, the plumber, the gardener, the dreamer, the architect, and the taxpayer. The farm became a labor of love and a tool by which to teach his students—that the architect should know how to design and build every part of the project, from initial concept to its final details. As a second home to escape the confines of the urban city and to give the mind a much needed break, Caldwell found comfort in spending time on his farm. This became a place to explore the relationship of people, nature, and architecture as a unified whole and where creativity and pedagogy would converge [2].
But the ongoing restoration of landscape on Mies Campus at Illinois Tech continues! Achieving Arboretum Status has been achieved at the first level as the campus landscape exists today. The Arboretum Accreditation Program provides standards for the establishment and development of an official or bona fide arboretum.
The arboretum or public garden is now officially part of the institution and will maintain plants and trees for the purposes of public education and enjoyment. In addition to research and conservation, higher learning will be encouraged. The campus and its “gardens” are open to the public; and its resources and accommodations are welcoming and available to all visitors.
Read more about Mies Campus’ recent landscape development here.
1Franz Schulze, The Campus Guide, Illinois Institute of Technology, An Architectural Tour by Franz Schulze, with Photographs by Richard Barnes, Foreword by Lew Collens (Princeton Press, New York, 2005), pp. 90-91.
2Werner Blaser, The Work of Alfred Caldwell, Preface by Phyllis Lambert, (Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel, Boston, Stuttgart. Grant from Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal).
Mies van der Rohe Society Gallery for Illinois Institute of Technology Campus & History and Auditorium
Mies van der Rohe Society’s current fundraising project at Illinois Tech is the rehabilitation of the west lobby gallery space and auditorium in the Michael Paul Galvin Tower (formerly IIT Tower). Through human-centered design, the project will breathe life into these underutilized spaces on Mies Campus to attract artistic exhibition, performance, and cultural and educational opportunities, as well as transform the gallery and auditorium into a platform for the arts and create a gathering place for our local and global communities.
“In all these years, I have learned architecture is not a play with forms. I have come to understand the close relationship between architecture and civilization.” - Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Architectural design serves its community—and Illinois Tech’s community reaches far beyond the Bronzeville neighborhood. An international audience is drawn to its campus, which is filled with architectural masterpieces from Romanesque buildings to Mies’ mid-century modern designs and bold new buildings by Rem Koolhaas, Helmut Jahn, and John Ronan. At the pulse of this project is the power of exhibition and performance that echoes Mies’ reverence for the arts. Not only did art influence Mies’ work; but his work has also inspired countless artists and a variety of mediums, such as modern dance, paintings, sculptures, fashion, and textile design.
The Project Stage
On March 3, 2022, the Mies Society announced the project at the virtual gallery opening that exhibited the work of Florence Knoll, the pioneer of modern office interior design and the influence of Mies van der Rohe—her mentor and professor at Illinois Tech. The exhibit was on display through April 2022.
Currently in its design phase, the project is the subject of Mindful Modern Building, an Illinois Tech Interprofessional Projects (IPRO) Program taught by Mies Society Director Cynthia Vranas Olsen (M.A.S. ARCH. ʼ01, Ph.D. ʼ17), where students from multidisciplinary backgrounds collaborate on project design.
Join Us!
Mies Society invites you to join us in this project that will benefit our Illinois Tech community and beyond. Your generous support will help to further Mies’ legacy and establish the Mies van der Rohe Society Gallery for Illinois Institute of Technology Campus & History and Auditorium on the world-renowned campus that Mies designed.
History
The Michael Paul Galvin Tower serves as a gateway to Mies Campus. The twenty-story concrete and glass building (built in 1964 by Schmidt, Garden, and Erikson) is the tallest building on campus and the surrounding area. It houses a range of university administrative offices, start-up companies, and social and government agencies. The transparent lobby embodies the teachings and philosophies of modernist pioneer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
The tower was renamed in October 2021 in recognition of the current Board of Trustees Chair Michael P. Galvin (LAW ’78), whose unwavering support of the university has further shaped the vision and future of Illinois Tech.
Restoration in Progress
As the symbolic front door...
to all-things architecture at Illinois Tech, the “South Porch”, two board flights of stairs divided by an intermediate platform paved in travertine stone at the main entrance of the iconic S. R. Crown Hall, welcomes guests to one of Mies’ most acclaimed buildings that is home to Illinois Tech’s College of Architecture. Restoration of the stairs is essential to the first impression of the integrity and prominence of the building’s design. Restoration also reinforces the building’s landmark quality to architecture students and the many architecture professionals and enthusiasts from around the world who visit Chicago and Mies Campus year after year.
The project exceeded its $250,000 goal and is currently undergoing significant structural renovation.
The work will complement the previous $4 million restoration of S. R. Crown Hall that stabilized the building’s structure and envelope, returned the translucent glass closer to Mies’ original intent, repainted the steel structure back to charcoal (Mies black), and addressed energy efficiency, electrical, accessibility, and infrastructure issues in 2005.