Chicago Architecture Foundation: Mies van der Rohe Tour

Where: Chicago Architecture Foundation

Start Date & Time: May 08, 2008 at 12:00 AM
End Date & Time: October 19, 2008 at 12:00 AM

Event Details:

Significant works by master architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe are featured in the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s Farnsworth House Plus by Bus tour. The seven-hour tour includes lunch and stops at the apartment buildings at 860 - 880 N. Lake Shore Drive and the IIT campus buildings. Tours are scheduled for 9:30 a.m., selected Sundays and Thursdays, April through October with a cost of $70.00. Seniors, students and CAF members get a discount. For more information, visit http://www.architecture.org/tour_view.aspx?TourID=23

The focus of the tour is Farnsworth House, designed by Mies as an idyllic retreat in the countryside near Plano, Illinois. The design of the house is deceptively simple, but the beauty of the construction and its masterful siting along the banks of the Fox River exemplify the idea that “God is in the details.” Now owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Landmarks Illinois, Farnsworth House is considered to be one of the most iconic masterpieces of the Modernist movement.

Known for believing “less is more,” Mies emigrated to Chicago from Germany in 1938 and became the head of the architecture school at the Armour Institute (now IIT). At IIT he designed the campus buildings in a bold new style and trained a generation of architects to design the sleek modern buildings that transformed architecture in the 20th century.

The tour includes the beautifully restored Crown Hall and IIT Commons (Mies’s first “clear span” building); plus two recent and remarkable additions to the campus: Helmut Jahn’s State Street Village and McCormick-Tribune Campus Center by Rem Koolhaas.

“The tour is for Mies fans and anyone interested in modern architecture and design,” said Bill Shapiro, CAF volunteer docent and tour director for the Farnsworth House tour. “This tour provides an insiders look into the details that are attributed to Mies,”

NOTE: There is a significant walking component. Participants are urged to wear comfortable shoes and clothes appropriate to the weather conditions. Tour participants must be at least 12 years old.