IIT Metallurgical and Chemical Engineering Building (Perlstein Hall), Chicago, Illinois, Exterior perspective
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
American, born Germany. 1886–1969
c. 1944-45
A pencil and charcoal perspective on tracing paper by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe that presents his proposal for the IIT Metallurgical and Chemical Engineering Building, aiming to make legible the building’s rational steel-and-glass structure and its siting on the campus.
The image feels both precise and atmospheric: a long, low glass box articulated by a strict grid of columns and mullions, its clarity softened at the edges by quick, sketchy trees that tuck the building into the landscape.
The drawing exemplifies Mies’s spare, structural modernism and helped shape the visual language of postwar campus and corporate architecture by promoting transparency, structural order, and integrated landscape.
Medium
Pencil, charcoal on tracing paper
Dimensions
21 x 31 3/4" (53.3 x 80.6 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Mies van der Rohe Archive, gift of the architect
Accession
MR4512.661
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
