IIT Library and Administration Building, Chicago, Illinois, Plan of main floor
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
American, born Germany. 1886–1969
c. 1944-45
A finely rendered pencil and colored‑pencil architectural drawing of the main floor for Mies van der Rohe’s IIT Library and Administration Building, created to communicate the building’s spatial order, circulation, and structural logic.
You first notice the delicate, precise graphite grid and subtle yellow highlights that delineate a calm, geometric composition—central courtyard and tightly organized reading and office blocks rendered with almost architectural restraint.
The plan embodies Mies’s modernist credo—clarity of structure, open planning, and understated expression—and helped define the visual and spatial language of mid‑century institutional architecture and the International Style.
Medium
Pencil and colored pencil on illustration board
Dimensions
18 x 25 1/2" (45.7 x 64.8 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Mies van der Rohe Archive, gift of the architect
Accession
727.1963
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
