A landmark survey offering a nuanced and deeply researched account of the career and life of
the iconic modern architect "A balanced look at the architect in the context of his reception
and impact complete with photographs of Mies's realized works and a selection of his early
sketches. . . . In describing the architect's often radical sometimes brilliant and deeply
flawed vision . . . Mr. Neumann simultaneously tells the story of 20th-century American and
European modernism."-Cammy Brothers Wall Street Journal "Holiday Gift Books: Architecture"
"There has never been and probably never will be a book with as much new information on Mies.
. . . The definitive reference."-Barry Bergdoll Burlington Magazine Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
(1886-1969) was a German-born American architect and designer whose work in Europe and North
America has had an enduring influence on modern and contemporary architecture worldwide. During
his sixty-year career he fundamentally rethought architectural types that shaped modern life
including the office building apartment building and private home. True to his alleged dictum
"less is more " Mies van der Rohe's style is characterized by utmost simplicity elegance of
materials and radical formal and functional innovation as exemplified by such iconic projects
as the Farnsworth House in Plano Illinois and the Seagram Building in New York. In this book
renowned architectural historian Dietrich Neumann presents a new critical look at Mies and
complicates the established narrative about him. Diverging from the reverential posture of many
existing accounts Neumann insists on the importance of the contemporary context-social
political and architectural-for understanding the architect's life and work. The book draws on
many overlooked archival and primary sources to demonstrate how and why Mies's designs were
shaped and received foregrounding contemporary critics' responses and the work of Mies's
collaborators and peers. It presents several previously unknown buildings projects and
furniture designs and challenges long-established interpretations of key works. Comprehensively
illustrated and covering the entirety of Mies's career this ambitious book is the most
substantial account to date of the life and work of one of the most important architects of the
twentieth century.
