S.R. Crown Hall, (Chicago, USA); 1956-Present, Modern

Front Facade

Mies Van Der Rohe was a German Architect and the last director for the Bauhaus. After the Nazi’s took over Germany, he fled to Chicago. He was a designer in Modernism, which the Nazi’s were against, causing the end to the Bauhaus. He was a big believer in “less is more” and “God is in the details.” What does this mean? Well, what does a building really need? Structure, enclosure, and a Programmatic goal. For Mies, he wanted the programmatic goal to be changeable, so his building would never be about the past, but about the future. In his work on the IIT Campus, he does a great job at showing his point in the architecture wing, also known as the S.R Crown Hall.

The entire campus is broken up into a 24x24 grid. Van der Rohe never wanted anything to be out of place. He had the furniture, desks, drafting tables, and lab tables to define the room size. The room sizes would then add up to the building size and then all together that would create the campus, within this grid. Fitting along with the buildings in the grid were the walking and nature spaces. Since everything was rationally thought out, it created a relationship between the nature and the buildings.

Specifically in the S.R. Crown Hall building, Mies is doing something interesting with the steel. On one hand the steel is suspending the roof with 4 steel plate girders, that are spaced 60 feet apart. On the other hand it is holding up the glass exterior walls on all elevations. Even though the steel is doing two distinct things, Mies is able to combine the two making it look as one. Since the enclosure and structure are working as a shell over the programmatic space, Mies is able to accomplish his goal of “universal space.” On the inside he separates the space with only moveable oak partitions. 

The building was split up between a very open volume above ground and then another semi-buried volume. Below houses the workshops, meeting areas, and offices. Above ground, the frosted glass around the bottom half of the windows creates a disconnect of what is going on inside to what is going on outside. Once inside, the trees and outside vegetation appear above the frosted glass. This was a way to create a calming environment, but also to keep distraction, such as people walking around campus, away. Along the bottom of the glass were louvered ventilation to accommodate for such a large open space. Since the exterior walls are working like a shell, the faculty and students have the option to meet as a whole or split into smaller groups, really pushing the multi-functionality of the building.

Frosted Glass

Basement Level

The S.R Crown Hall being a very memorable building, was granted the National Historic Landmark status in 2001 by the National Park Service, U.S Department of the Interior. Along with the American Institute of Architects naming it one of the 200 most significant buildings, we can see the impact that Mies’ ideas of “universal space,” lets the space change, while the minimalist design creates the permanence.

Section

Works Cited

Perez, Adelyn. “AD Classics: AD Classics: IIT Master Plan and Buildings / Mies Van Der Rohe.” ArchDaily, 16 May 2010, www.archdaily.com/59816/ad-classics-iit-master-plan-and-buildings-mies-van-der-rohe.

“S. R. Crown Hall.” IIT College of Architecture, arch.iit.edu/about/buildings.

Recalde, Estefy, director. S R Crown Hall Mies Van Der Rohe. YouTube, YouTube, 7 Oct. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T1EPS4GUEQ.
Mies van der Rohe. from John Zukowsky, organizer. Mies Reconsidered: His Career, Legacy, and Disciples.