Though I was born in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mntns in Virginia, I grew up in the west suburbs of Chicago. So the Windy City always holds a special place in my heart, even if my memory is of the consistently gray and dismal winters, and even if I now feel more at home in New York City.
Somehow, in the 13+ years I lived in the Chicago area, I never made it down to the Illinois Institute of Technology to see Mies van der Rohe's master campus on the South Side. Even after studying it
in college as part of a Modern Architecture class, I never took the opportunity to visit. So at the tail end of a recent trip visiting family, I took advantage of a few hours of free time before my flight back east to check out the campus, especially the McCormick Tribune Campus Center by Rem Koolhaas (his first building completed in the US).
My first impression of the IIT campus- it's urban, but not dense. The busy thoroughfare of State Street runs through the heart of it, and when I was there, traffic was crawling along at a snail's pace. Though the campus vernacular is unified, composed of variations of Mies' black girder-framed box, each building is a singular statement, separated by a drab expanse of sidewalk and grass from one to the next. To me it felt cold and institutional. Others have speculated that the Modernist box works best when set within a lush environment, so that hard angles are offset by soft foliage- IIT could certainly benefit from some
more trees and bushes here and there. I guess the clean slate was a part of Mies' Teutonic need for rationalized order, but it isn't very inviting.
I only had a limited amount of time to spend on the campus and unfortunately didn't make it to Crown Hall. I spent most of my time poking around Campus Center (I wonder what the students call it?) The L train runs in a giant silver corrugated tube over the top of the structure, while the rest is clad in a ridiculous but fun zebra stripe graphic pattern. It looked like a haphazard-looking stencil was made and then sprayed on in a series to the outside of the building. The Center incorporates an existing Mies structure, the Commons Building, which seems to function as a dining hall.
Different functions within the building blend and melt into one another along angled interior "streets." Materials used inside are dynamic and high-tech, but somewhat cheap and flimsy feeling, as if the building was built by Ikea. It's often a dark and sexy space, and the computer trench feels more like a nightclub than a place to get work done. I really liked the giant wall clock, although I wish they had kept it running in the 24-hour mode, as it looks like that's how it was envisioned.
The West side of the building, which contains the public entrance, is defined by the Mies Wrap. It imparts a warm and otherworldly orange glow to that side of the building. Notice the ceiling, which is raw, unfinished and shows its sealed seams and attachment points. There's also a nice little homage to Mies in the conspicuous black girders.
The Mies Wrap is really trippy- it reads as a smooth orange surface from a distance, but up close a circle of transparency appears that perceptually moves as you shift position. It's incredibly psychedelic and disorienting.
Upon closer inspection, one discovers that the Mies Wrap is composed of a bunch of little orange tubes laid lengthwise, like looking through a bundle of drinking straws. OMA at
work, indeed.
All-in-all, the McTrib Center (my name for it) adds up to a mixed experience. I appreciate how the Mies Wall adds some warmth and light to a typically dreary overcast Chicago day through a clever visual effect. A variety of programmatic conditions are effectively blended in a relatively small space. But, despite all that it does well, the building feels detached from human experience, or perhaps overly abstracted.
My case in point is this- in the middle of the center is an area called the "Hanging Garden," an enclosed courtyard suspended above the
student cafe at the heart of the building. While effectively serving the purpose of bringing light into the center of what would otherwise be a very dark space, the courtyard is a completely closed-off "natural space." One can appreciate the sunlight and grass displayed within, but only through the mediated experience of looking through a glass partition, as if examining a museum specimen... Given the already sterile campus environment within which it sits, this distancing gesture seems particularly insensitive.
8 Comments
you gots the makings of a critic, g. your visit is nicely described and very clear. don't lose this ability to communicate the fullness of an experience when you get into school and start learning language that's supposed to help.
when i lived in chicago i went to a presentation about this project at the chicago architecture foundation. it was a rather disappointing talk given by some young woman from oma's office who said like and umm a lot. also, some woman from iit was there raving about it all. well, after the lecture talk whatever, many people were milling around the model in the atrium space of the building and miles' "so what" starts playing. i think i was the only one who caught the unintended irony.
lovely anecdote, vado, as usual.
g, Steven's point is quite, ummm...pointed. You're demonstrating a keen eye and using normal language to describe what you see. Don't fall victim to architecture school's epidemic of obfuscation... <---for some of us, it's too late...
I was born in suburban Chicago. Although I quickly moved South to Miami, I still visit regularly (most of my family still lives there). Each summer trip or Christmas vacation usually included at least one visit to the city...but I never really paid attention until after starting design school...new way of seeing, I suppose...
anyway, you're off to an awesome start - I like the idea of an 'undecided' blog, and your're doing it justice...
crown hall is only across the street! how could you!
its like going to notre dam in paris and spending time at the starbucks instead! and as your mission is to check out schools thats where the action is.
i am found of rem but if you've seen one rem you've seen them all! and how photos lie! the painted 'eifis' or dryvit is real crap! mies roled over in his grave.
this is supposed to be rem's ode to mies so you missed the contectural link.
I know, I know... us kids these days, no respect for the elders... I was going to go across the street to see Crown Hall, but ran out of time and had to get to Midway so I wouldn't miss my flight. Some might say that going to the Starbucks in Paris is no more or less culturally revealing than seeing the Notre Dame, but that's a different conversation altogether.
Thanks for the kind words, all. I was an Art History major in undergrad, and then used my fair share of business-speak in the dot-com era, so writing with obfuscating jargon is not foreign to me. I find Archispeak pretty repulsive, so I'll do my best to stay clear and concise.
shameless plug: orange surfaces by Panelite...
excellent "post-grad school" employer :)
Students call it the BUTT (building under the tube...or, um, it's shape). Helmut Jahn's dorms next door are sometimes referred to as the giant toaster.
ladsnine- that's awesome. Leave it to the students to get to the heart of the matter. I'm curious- do they like the building?
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