【Editor's Note】 In April 1919, the German hinterland town of Weimar welcomed an experimental school of architecture and art education, and the founder and first headmaster, Walter Gropius, named the school after the German word "bauhous", and the Bauhaus Academy, the birthplace of modernist architecture, was born.
Today, a hundred years later, when we try to trace the migration trajectory of the Bauhaus schoolhouse, from Weimar to Dessau to Berlin, while looking back at this design trend that has become distant, we cannot avoid re-confrontation with such an aesthetic force that the Bauhaus represents to promote social renewal, involving its journey from trickle to rolling torrent and finally sweeping the world. From London to Barcelona, from Chicago to Tel Aviv, and even on the streets of Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong that we are familiar with, we can find evidence of the continuation of its spiritual core.
The Stone Gold Building, completed in 1943, was van der Royce's first work in Chicago. The pictures in this article are all infographics
In 1933, the term of office of the third rector of the Bauhaus, Mies van der Rowe, finally came to an end. The simplified modernist architecture promoted by the Bauhaus was seen by the Nazi authorities as a product of socialist ideology, and the frequent interrogation bombings of the Gestapo led to the escape of several standard-bearer figures from Berlin. In 1937, Van de Rowe traveled to Chicago, and the same year Walter Gropius traveled to Harvard via London, where the two were entrusted with the responsibilities of the Illinois Institute of Technology and the Harvard Design Institute, respectively, to write about the influence of architecture on the 20th century city on new lands. Looking back at this history, perhaps we can borrow Dickens's famous phrase as a summary - "This is the best of times, this is the worst times."
Van de Rowe lived in Chicago for 32 years until his death in 1969. If during the Bauhaus period, the architectural genius of the bottom counterattack (van de Royce was born in a poor community in the small town of Aachen, and three generations of ancestors were stonemasons) left a public impression close to that of the provincial youth in Balzac's Disillusionment, then in Chicago, the ambition and tenacity of his personality were further replaced by arbitrariness and determination. Van de Rowe became a powerful urban blueprint planner, taking over from the early 20th-century architects Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, and leading Chicago to the throne of the modern American metropolis that was constantly being emulated and never overtaken. As for himself, he has also changed from a professional who is far away from ordinary people's lives to a rock star-like existence. People living in the city will probably speak of him with reverence or gossip, "the German who built the American city."
Exterior view of the Crown Auditorium.
Illinois Institute of Technology was the starting point for Van de Rowe's work and life in Chicago, and is one of the top landmarks for architecture fans today to explore the city's architectural heritage. Illinois Institute of Technology was formerly known as Armand Technical College and Lewis Institute of Technology. When Van de Rou first arrived in Chicago, he began his activities as a teacher in the architecture department of the Armand Technical College. In 1940, when the two schools merged under the illinois Institute of Technology, van de Rowe took his first project outside of Europe: the addition of several grand teaching buildings to the new campus. Works from this phase, in chronological order after completion, are the Minerals and Metals Building, the Alumni Hall, the Wishnick Hall, the Perlstein Hall, and the S.R. Crown Hall. crown hall）。
Completed in 1956, the Crown Auditorium is the heart of Illinois Institute of Technology and is still used by architecture faculty and students. It is an intriguing work, and on the surface the entire space is composed of two white square columns, a huge roof, and a wall and structure made of glass and steel beams instead of the outer wall, which looks like an empty matchbox. In fact, if one stands in front of a building and stares, it won't be long before one finds lines and shapes that resemble Batman's helmets from the contours that become blurred, and in a way, it's a building that changes with perspective, light, shadow, and surrounding landscape. The interior of the Crown Auditorium is also very distinctive, van der Rowe uses movable wooden partition walls and standing cabinets instead of traditional brick and stone walls to partition different spaces such as halls, libraries, study rooms, etc., creating a pure and joyful atmosphere of curiosity in the transparent and open space.
The buildings surrounding the Crown Auditorium are also characterized by the contradictions of external ruggedness and inner elegance, which is reminiscent of the contrast between Van de Roach and his work, who is considered a cold, inaccessible loner, while his work is warm, welcoming and really inclusive. I suspect that visitors interested in taking a walk around campus on autumn mornings, seeing abstract paintings of black buildings, green bushes, and gray gravel trails, might unconsciously create the illusion of being in Kyoto.
Interior view of the Crown Auditorium.
While working at illinois Institute of Technology, Van de Rowe was also commissioned several home designs, the most controversial and famous of which was the world's first glass-walled villa, farnsworth house, built for Dr. Edith Vansworth in 1951. Visitors drive east along Interstate 55 and follow Plano's indicators to a mini-town on the outskirts of the city with only a few houses. The Farnsworth House sits on the banks of the Fox River embankment in an empty cornfield.
The building structure of the residence has been reduced to just a frame, to be precise, it is left with only a single room and a toilet. The large-scale glass curtain wall brings a transparent and open façade, and also makes residents feel anxious about the inability to meet their personal privacy and basic needs of life, and even must not tear their faces to the court, asking the architect to modify the design plan himself. In a series of twists and turns in fate, the house was eventually sold by Edith, bought by Peter Palembo from British property developer, and opened to the public as a collectible. It is worth mentioning that, in addition to van de Royce's representative residential projects, Palembo also collects works by Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright.
Vansworth Residence.
2400 Lakeview Avenue, the last home of Van de Rowe, was completed in 1963 and filmed in the apartment by Mel Gibson's film What a Woman Wants, home to the protagonist Nick Marshall. Speaking of which, van de Rowe's work has plummeted since entering the 1960s, and after the completion of 2400 Lakeview Avenue, he has only three works: the Federal Center, the University of Chicago's School of Social Services Management and the One Ibm Plaza, which was not completed until 1973, four years after the architect's own death. After ibm's relocation, ibm plaza at 330 North Vabashi Street was acquired by the Langham Hotel and transformed into a palatial tower by architect Dick Lohan, van de Rowe's grandson. Right now, it's one of the best places to see Chicago's skyline.
2400 Lakeview Avenue.
There is also a hidden "Van de Rowe Landmark", located at the corner of the Arts Club Building on Ontario Street. This work is one of the most anonymous works in the architect's collection, and until now, people have not found a suitable word to name it, so let's call it "suspended staircase".
Founded in 1916, the Art Club of Chicago has a high status among Chicago's many high-end private clubs, predates the opening of the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1929, as the only European modern art exhibition venue in the United States, and has hosted the first exhibition of works by Picasso and other famous international artists in the United States. In 1951, the Art Club of Chicago commissioned Van de Rowe to design a cluster of new exhibition spaces with galleries, restaurants, and lounges, but unfortunately, the pavilion was razed to the ground in 1995 and became the foundation for high-rise apartments. The new Art Club, which opened two years later, at 201 Ontario Street, not only follows part of the interior designed by Van de Rowe in the old museum, but also preserves the entire staircase, allowing it to continue as a connecting component of the upper and lower spaces of the exhibition hall, jumping from one wall to another, creating a light and elegant sense of weightlessness. Today, it is also considered one of the art club's most worthwhile permanent collections to see.
The Chicago Art Club is on the stairs, with IBM Plaza, which has been converted into a hotel.