S. R. Crown Hall
Photo by Bill Zbaren
3360 South State Street, IIT Campus, Chicago
Mies van der Rohe, 1950-56
Located on the Illinois Institute of Technology's Chicago campus, S. R. Crown Hall epitomizes "Miesian" modern architecture as well as the International Style. As conceived, the building carefully combines form and function into one harmonious composition. Its delicate proportion, rhythm, and visual purity were expressed both inside and out, using only the most basic elements, minimalist materials, and simplest details. Mies’s combination of structure, materials, and adaptable space advanced the possibilities of Modernist values in steel and glass construction, thereby meriting continued attention by current architectural practice. Mies himself described the building as “the clearest structure we have done, the best to express our philosophy.”
