Mies' Influence
Chicago Skyline Panorama
View an interactive presentation of Mies' influence on Chicago's skyline -- his own buildings and those created by his colleagues, students and protegees.
Looking out the windows of the cupola atop the Jeweler's Building, Kevin Harrington, Illinois Institute of Technology Professor of Architectural History and author of Chicago's Famous Buildings, offers a look at Chicago's skyline and illustrates the extensive influence that Mies van der Rohe, his IIT students, and his other protégées have had on the city.
Look north at the Wrigley Building, designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White in the early 1920s. This firm was the successor to the famous Burnham office and the predecessor to the Murphy/Jahn office that resides in the Jeweler's Building today. The firm’s chief designer, Charles Beersman, taught architecture at IIT in the 1920s. An east viewshows the Carbide & Carbon Building (1929) by the Burnham Brothers, another outgrowth of the original Burnham office, and 333 N. Michigan by Holabird & Root in 1928. John Holabird plays a key role, as he was chair of the search committee that recruited Ludwig Mies van der Rohe to Illinois Institute of Technology and Chicago.
North, east and south vistas bring to life Mies' own practice and the influence that his ideas and work had on people directly associated with him as students and colleagues and on the world famous Chicago skyline.
Mies' Students and Colleagues
The following is a partial list of some of Mies van der Rohe's most famous and influential students and colleagues. Although Mies produced myriad great works, the scope of his influence reaches far beyond his own creations, as the architects and works on this list attest.Jacques Calman Brownson (b. 1923-1994)
Major works: Continental National Insurance Building (Chicago); Chicago
Civic Center (renamed the Richard J. Daley Center
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Alfred Caldwell (1903-98)
Major works: IIT Campus; Chicago Park District, including Promontory Point at 55th street and the Lily Pool at Lincoln Park (now named the Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool);
Montreal Zoo
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George Danforth (b. 1916-2007)
Major Works: Lincoln Park Zoo’s Great Ape House and Crown-Field Education and Administration Building (Chicago)
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James Ingo Freed (b. 1930-2005)
Major Works: Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington, D.C.)
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Joseph Fujikawa (1922–2003)
Major Works: Chicago Mercantile Exchange Center; Ralph H. Metcalfe Building (extension of Mies’ Federal Center)
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Bertrand Goldberg (1913–97)
Major Works: Marina City; River City (Chicago)
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Myron Goldsmith (1918–96)
Major Works: United Airlines Hangar and Flight Kitchen (San Francisco International Airport); McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope (Kitt Peak Observatory, AZ)
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James Hammond (1918–96)
Major Works: Episcopal Church Center, St. James Cathedral (Chicago); First National Bank of Ripon (Ripon, WI)
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Dirk Lohan (b. 1938)
Major Works: Adler Planetarium Sky Pavilion (Chicago), John G. Shedd Aquarium Oceanarium (Chicago), Soldier Field and North Burnham Park Redevelopment (Chicago), McDonald’s Corporate Headquarters (Oak Brook, IL)
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William Priestley (1907–95)
Major Works: Assisted Mies in building the Resor House (Jackson Hole, WY)
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A. James Speyer (1913–86)
Major Works: Speyer designed significant residential housing, including Ben Rose House (Highland Park, IL) and the Jerome Apt House (Pittsburgh, PA)
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Gene Summers (b. 1928)
Major Works: McCormick Place Convention Center (Chicago)
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Y.C. Wong (1921–2000)
Major Works: Atrium Homes (Chicago)
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