orig. Maria Ludwig Michael Mies
born March 27, 1886, Aachen, Ger.
died Aug. 17, 1969, Chicago, Ill., U.S.
German-born U.S. architect and designer.
Mies learned masonry from his father and later worked in the office of Bauhaus in 1930–33, first in Dessau and then, during its final months, in Berlin. After moving to the U.S. in 1937, he became director of the School of Architecture at Chicago's Armour Institute (now the Illinois Institute of Technology), where he designed the school's new campus (1939–41). The International Style , with Mies its undisputed leader, reached its zenith during the next 20 years. His other projects included Chicago's Lake Shore Drive Apartments (1949–51), and the Seagram Building (1956–58, with Philip Johnson) in New York City. These buildings, steel skeletons sheathed in glass curtain-wall facades, exemplify Mies's dictum that "less is more." His later works include Berlin's New National Gallery (1963–68). Modernist steel-and-glass office buildings influenced by his work were built all over the world over the course of the 20th century.
The Lake Shore Drive Apartments, Chicago, designed by Mies van der Rohe; photographed in 1955
Ezra Stoller c. Esto