The picture above by Joe Ravi (CC-BY-SA 3.0) shows Crown Hall at the Illinois Institute of Technology. It was designed by Mies van der Rohe, and it makes quite the setting for IIT’s School of Architecture.
I was amused by the contrast between the language on the two plaques set in the lawn in front of the building, one by the Commision on Chicago Landmarks, and one by the National Park Service (for the National Register).
Chicago landmarks: This defining structure of 20th-century architecture is one of the masterpieces of this world renowned architect. Designed to house the Illinois Institute of Technology’s departments of architecture, planning, and design, the building’s dramatic form results in an open interior space adaptable for changing needs and uses. Instead of interior columns, the roof is hung from exposed steel trusses bridging the depth of the building. it was named for S. R. Crown, a co-founder of the Material Service Corporation.
The NPS: Crown Hall was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and finished in 1953, the most monumental of Mies’ buildings at the Illinois Institute of Technology. In continuous use as a school of architecture, the building advocates modernist principles and innovative building technologies. Crown Hall possesses national significance in commemorating the history of the United States of America.
Quite the difference in tone. Interestingly, both plaques have glaring errors. The Chicago plaque is wrong in that the roof is hung from plate girders, not trusses; the NPS plaque is wrong in its use of a terminal apostrophe to indicate possession for someone whose name ends in “s”.
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