Architecture and Trivia at Mies’ Birthday Celebration

A celebration of the 124th birthday of famed architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, “Riddle Mies This,” will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., Thursday, March 25, in Illinois Institute of Technology’s (IIT) S. R. Crown Hall, 3360 South State Street, Chicago. The party celebrates Mies’ contributions to Chicago and modern architecture, while challenging attendees and guest architecture experts to a round of Mies trivia.

Party attendees will enjoy cocktails and hors d’oeuvres while architecture experts including architecture critic Lee Bey, architects Kevin Harrington, Edward Keegan, and Edward Windhorst, cultural critic Edward Lifson, and IIT College of Architecture Dean Donna Robertson, test their knowledge of Mies and modern architecture. WTTW host and producer Geoffrey Baer serves as the trivia show host. IIT architecture students will also participate in the trivia, along with guest experts, including architect Dirk Lohan and art and architecture critic Franz Schulze.

Tickets for the birthday party are $90 per person and include a Mies van der Rohe Society one-year membership at the Brick level. Tickets for current Mies Society members are $40. Please visitwww.mies.iit.edu for more information.

One of the most influential architects of the 20th century and director of the College of Architecture at IIT for 20 years, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe expressed his modernist vision in the IIT campus, which he designed in the 1940s and 1950s. Mies elevated Chicago’s skyline and changed the world of architecture and living. His influence reaches every skyline in the world. IIT’s S. R. Crown Hall is considered one of Mies’ greatest masterworks and is a National Historic Landmark. IIT's Mies van der Rohe Society is restoring his masterworks on the campus, enhancing the buildings to serve educational needs, and reinforcing Chicago's international reputation for architectural distinction. The Mies Society is a membership organization whose fundraising has supported the award-winning restoration of S. R. Crown Hall, Wishnick Hall, and currently, Carr Memorial Chapel, Mies’ only religious building.

Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting university with more than 7,300 students in engineering, sciences, architecture, psychology, design, humanities, business and law. IIT's interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum is designed to advance knowledge through research and scholarship, to cultivate invention improving the human condition, and to prepare students from throughout the world for a life of professional achievement, service to society, and individual fulfillment. Visit www.iit.edu.