Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
(1886-1969)
Birthplace
Germany
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe began his career
working in his father's stonemasonry business. After an
apprenticeship with furniture designer Bruno Paul in Berlin, he
joined the office of architect Peter Behrens, whose work presaged
the modern movement. In 1912, Mies established his own office in
Berlin, and later became a member of the Deutscher Werkbund and
Director of the Bauhaus. He immigrated to the United States in
1938, setting up a practice in Chicago. His buildings include the
German Pavilion for the 1929 Barcelona Exposition, the Tugendhat
Villa in Brno, Czechoslovakia, the Seagram Building, designed with
Philip Johnson, a cluster of residential towers along
Chicago’s Lakeshore Drive in Chicago, and the Illinois
Institute of Technology campus, where he was the director of
architecture.
