S. R. Crown Hall, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago Photographed 2018
During a 2018 tour of Chicago’s modern architectural landmarks, I captured a couple of axial compositions of S. R. Crown Hall, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s masterwork, and the home of IIT’s College of Architecture.
Architect & Dates
Designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, completed in 1956
Design & Innovation
A defining example of International Style minimalism, Crown Hall features a suspended steel-and-glass roof supported by eight perimeter columns, creating a vast, uninterrupted “universal space” ideal for architectural education .
Mies famously described it as “almost nothing” and “the clearest structure we have done,” emphasizing simplicity, elegance, and flexibility .
Symbol & Site
Located at a focal point within Alfred Caldwell’s landscape masterplan, the building hovers gently over a lawn, reachable via cascading travertine steps .
Recognition & Awards
•Designated a Chicago Landmark in 1997 and a National Historic Landmark in 2001.
•Honored with a $250,000 Getty Institute Conservation Grant for restoration efforts .
•Renovation led by Krueck & Sexton and Atelier Ten in 2005 won the AIA Chicago Historic Preservation Awardand Landmarks Illinois Driehaus Preservation Award .
Personal Reflection
Photographing Crown Hall from an axial viewpoint underscored the clarity and spatial drama that make it a modernist icon. Without interior supports, the composition reveals pure geometry, light, structure, and openness in perfect balance. It remains, as Mies intended, a timeless embodiment of architectural clarity and function.
© 2018 jc buck
