Crown Hall

Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe – Institute of tecnology, Chicago, Illinois, USA, 1950-1956

The S.R. Crown Hall, designed by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, is the home of the College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, Illinois USA.

Widely considered one of Mies van der Rohe’s masterpieces, Crown Hall, completed in 1956, is one of the most architecturally significant buildings of the 20th century modernist movement. Crown Hall is considered architecturally significant because Mies van der Rohe perfected the basic steel and glass style, beautifully capturing simplicity and openness.

Its open and transparent structure, characterised by an enormous hall without internal columns, offers a remarkable sense of space and luminosity. Its formal simplicity and the clarity of its lines perfectly reflect the philosophy of Mies van der Rohe, who sought the essence of architecture through purity of form and the innovative use of modern materials such as steel and glass.

When designing Crown Hall, Mies remained true to his famous words, ‘less is more‘ and considered the building the best embodiment of the maxim.