Art History 162
Fall 2003
Denise Seif, Instructor
Assignment II: Essay
Ludwig Miës van der Rohe
and the Seagram Building
Architecture:
Seagram Building (1958),
Architects:
Ludwig Miës van der Rohe (1896-1969)
Philip
Johnson (1906- )
If you have ever traveled through or lived in a medium-
to large-sized American city, chances are you have noticed or visited one of those
“glass boxes” that are so much a part of the skylines now – a steel-framed glass
office or apartment tower complex. The
buildings of this type are representative of an architectural movement known as
the “International Style,” which flourished not only here in this country, but
practically world-wide in the decades following World War II until the
late-seventies.[1] The recognized master of this style and
certainly one of its founders was the German expatriate, Ludwig Miës van der
Rohe.[2]
Miës van der Rohe was born Maria Ludwig Miës, the son of
a stone mason in 1896 at
Despite
the lack of a strictly formal education in architecture, Miës helped to
establish the principles of the International Style’s architectural vocabulary
in a canon that can best be summed up with his famous dictum, “less is more.”[4] Those principles, reductionism and
functionalism, reduce a building’s architecture to a stark simplicity and base
its design strictly on its function.[5]
The
The need
of the corporate world for an architecture that had a universal appeal and
adaptability along with an expression of modernity reflecting the new postwar
world order, was satisfied in skyscrapers and towers like the
The
Bauhaus, an institution founded in Germany after the end of World War I to
“help rebuild the country and form a new social order,”[8] emphasized “principles of Classical
architecture in their most pure form: without ornamentation of any kind.”[9] In the 1920’s Miës had done a series of
drawings “that depicted steel and glass skyscrapers (Friedrichstrasse, Berlin),”[10]
and in 1929 designed Germany’s pavilion at the International Exposition in
Barcelona, Spain as a modernist masterpiece that garnered him considerable
acclaim.
As
director of the Bauhaus he continued in this philosophical and stylistic
direction until the institution was disbanded by the Nazis. Along with other
Bauhaus teachers and leaders Miës emigrated to the
Miës’
commission for the 39-story
Situated
on one of
Considered the crown jewel of the International Style,
the
Note: New construction of nearby buildings and
additions to the Seagram tower itself have changed the unique siting of the
tower in its integration with the
Text body word count: 949
References:
[1] Website: Dr. Tom Paradis, Northern Arizona
Univ., http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~twp/architecture/international
[2] Martin Pawley, Introd. and Notes, Miës van der Rohe, Library of Contemporary Architects (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1970)
[3] Ibid., p. 9
[4] Ibid., p. 19
[5] Website:
Arapahoe Acres Historic District, http://www.arapahoeacres.org/international_style.htm
[6] “A Personal Testament” by Philip Johnson, p. 111, The Verbatim Record of a Symposium Held at the School of Architecture, Columbia University, March-May 1961, Four Great Makers of Modern Architecture, Gropius, Le Corbusier, Miës van der Rohe, Wright (New York: De Capo Press, 1970)
[7] Jürgen Tietz, The Story of Architecture of the 20th Century (Cologne: Könemann, 1999), p. 60
[8] Website: What You Need to Know About, http://architecture.about.com/library/blgloss-bauhaus.htm
[9] Ibid.
[10]
Website: Personal webpage of Andreas
Angelidakis, (CV: Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design,
[11] Website: What You Need to Know About, http://architecture.about.com/library/blgloss-bauhaus.htm
[12] Martin Pawley, Introd. and Notes, Miës van der Rohe, Library of Contemporary Architects (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1970), p. 127
[13]
Website: The Midtown Book, The
[14] Sidney LeBlanc, Whitney Guide 20th Century American Architecture, A Traveler’s Guide to 220 Key Buildings, Revised and Expanded 2nd Ed., (New York: Watson-Guptill, 1996), p. 105
[15] Paul Goldberger, On the Rise, Architecture and Design in a Postmodern Age, (New York: Penguin Books, 1985), p. 51
[16] Sidney
LeBlanc, Whitney Guide 20th
Century American Architecture, A Traveler’s Guide to 220 Key Buildings,
Revised and Expanded 2nd Ed., (New York: Watson-Guptill, 1996), p.
105
Note: All websites accessed