Court House Project, Exterior sketches: elevation, two perspectives, and aerial perspective
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
American, born Germany. 1886–1969
n.d.
Three precise ink (one with graphite) drawings on tracing paper showing an elevation, two perspectives, and an aerial view for an unbuilt courthouse project in which Mies van der Rohe explores austere, rational spatial composition.
Crisp, economical lines and the translucency of tracing paper produce a cool clarity—planar facades, regular colonnade rhythms, and a bird’s-eye ordering of volumes make the design feel both weightless and rigorously measured.
These working sketches expose Mies’s disciplined design process and the visual logic behind the modernist language of minimal structure, open plans, and glass-and-steel form that transformed twentieth-century civic architecture.
Medium
.1: ink on tracing paper
.2: ink, graphite on tracing paper
.3: ink on tracing paper
Dimensions
Each: 8 1/4 x 11 3/4" (20.9 x 29.8 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Mies van der Rohe Archive, gift of the architect
Accession
689.1963.1-3
Art Terms
Exhibitions
