Digging Deeper

Well my reading has pulled up many interesting factoids, and I just feel like I’ve hit the tip of the iceberg.

Reading about Mies and his connections with the Bauhaus in Germany, I’m learning that he was something else.

And reading about Phillip Johnson, who brought Mies to Chicago, he was even more something else.

Phillip Johnson basically coined the term “international style”. International style is basically synonymous with “modern” meaning that the building has no historical context, no ornament. You could take our Federal Plaza (mies) and stick in Germany and no one would know the difference.

If you took the Harold Washington Library and put it in Germany, it would make no sense. It’s very contextual with lots of allusions to Chicago and it’s architecture, this is the new reason I actually like this building.

So Phillip Johnson coined the term, brought Mies here, built a building with him and then changed his mind and started to build in the “Postmodern” style. His building 190 S. LaSalle is a lovely example of postmodernism, with references to the Rookery across the street and the now demolished Masonic Temple.

BUT! I’ve been reading all about Johnson and his political beliefs, which were very pro-German, pro 3rd Reich. He wrote papers and essays about preserving the “race” and what the Jews were doing to destroy it.

Meanwhile Mies is at IIT demanding that everyone builds like he does, and they do.

I’m fascinated and plan to read as much as possible.

One last thing, what is it with girls who swing their ponytails on purpose? No one sways enough when they walk to swing it like that naturally. They bug me.