Indiana University (IU) has shared an update of their Mies Building at the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design. The scheme, currently under construction, realizes a recently rediscovered 1952 design by Mies van der Rohe for the IU Bloomington campus. The scheme has been adapted for contemporary use by architects Thomas Phifer and Partners and is expected to open in the Fall of 2021.
When completed, the Mies Building will be a 60-foot-wide, 140-foot-long rectangular structure of thin, white-painted steel and expansive glass with 10-square-foot panes. Floor-to-ceiling windows will wrap around the entire second story, which will feature a central exterior square atrium to enhance the building’s aura of transparency. Much of the lower level is external, with the main second story elevated above the ground.
The building was originally designed by Mies in 1952 by commission from IU. Having been forgotten for over 60 years, the design resurfaced in 2013 when former student Sidney Eskenazi informed the university of Mies’ drawings of the scheme. The university subsequently sourced documentation of the project in the archives of the Art Institute of Chicago and New York’s Museum of Modern Art. In 2019, the university announced that it would realize the scheme along Mies’ vision, adapted by Thomas Phifer and Partners.
“As someone who worked with my grandfather Mies van der Rohe since 1957, I thought I knew all the projects he ever worked on,” said architect Dirk Lohan, who is also a grandson of Mies. “But I never heard about this project until Indiana University contacted me about its wish to build this 70-year-old design. After contemplating the request, I and the three other grandchildren concluded this would indeed be a wonderful assertion of Mies' significance as an architect. Looking at what is emerging here on your campus, I am convinced you have chosen a masterpiece, and we all should be grateful to the Eskenazi family for their support and to the architects Thomas Phifer and Partners for their outstanding craftsmanship to make this new, and simultaneously old, facility a reality in, and for, the 21st century. I am convinced that Mies van der Rohe, who died over 50 years ago, would have been pleased to see his iconic edifice ultimately being born."
News of the scheme comes weeks after the refurbishment of the Mies-designed Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin was completed by David Chipperfield Architects.
18 Comments
Would be interested to read about the most significant "adaptations" required to make the original design work. Also no mention of LEED or sustainability criteria, which is surprising for an educational institution.
I mean it is Mies, but no overhangs, fully glazed, thermal bridging, yada yada yada.
Thank you for this. That's why I mentioned South Wall Glass, R-12 now only made by Alpen in Colorado. I discovered it 1995, just fantastic. It should be the minimum for the whole country. Would change the climate change drastically as windows are the killer in the world
Another iteration of the Farnsworth House. This should be interesting.
It is a major 'statue' for Mies and architecture.
I do hope they used south wall R-12 glass developed by MIT 1973.
These kids of efforts are otherwise such a slap to the face when we are facing major sea level rise this century already and lower Manhattan will be flooded away, all NY City and NJ airports under water, Florida - forget about it, washington DC vanishing before our eyes, MIT and Harward gone this century
Amsterdam's Schipol airport is four meters, or thirteen feet, below sea level now and was so when it was built. Maybe a little less climate porn is warranted?
I think it's great - I just can't picture what the process is that a university has operated for 70 years without building an arts + design building and then finds out there was a forgotten design made, so they get some money together and build it. there must have been some interesting background in all this.
Think how many "isms" have come and gone since this was first designed: Brutalism, Post-Modernism, Deconstructivism, and on and on.
Good for Indiana U. for bringing this restrained elegance of Mies to life.
Someone help me here. I get that the descendents of van der Rohe are involved. But if the university paid for the study by van der Rohe and the design was in the school archives why would permission from them be required. Do architectural designs revert to the families of individuals once they die? Seems like if the school paid for the work they should own it outright.
no it's not required or even customary. it sounds like the design was in the archives of the art institute of chicago not the school, and dirk lohan is a prominent chicago architect so it was just a matter of showing respect and building political support to have his involvement.
+++++ Beautiful, classic, modern design.
God's midcentury coffee table.
I wonder what's happening on the ground floor but the structure and courtyard look great. Great idea to built or re-build great buildings never realized or demolished, assuming the context isn't harmed.
Here is a rendering. Note what looks to be like subtle stone work on the first floor.
Architecture is a cruel world...
Phillis Wheatley Elementary School in New Orleans’ Treme neighborhood was a segregated school for black students, built in 1956 Charles Colbert’
Should’ve given the scheme to Rem to do the update...
Or Daniel Libeskind. A four-story dagger sticking out of the top floor would capture Mies' elegance perfectly.
Rem oozes Mies from all his pores...
This has to be one of the few if only IU Bloomington campus building that is glass and steel and does not incorporate Indiana limestone. Maybe they'll finish the plinth in limestone. Very appropriate architect in Thomas Phifer and Partners.
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