Synopses & Reviews
Mies van der Rohe: A Critical Biography is a major rewriting and expansion of Franz Schulze’s acclaimed 1985 biography, the first full treatment of the master German-American modern architect. Co-authored with architect Edward Windhorst, this thoroughly revised edition features new and extensive original research and commentary and draws on the best recent work of American and German scholars and critics.
Schulze and Windhorst trace Mies’s European career in its progression to avant-garde modernism—where his work was materially rich but of modest scale—to his second maturity and world renown in the United States, where he invented a new architectural language of “objective” structural expression. Among the authors’ most exciting new discoveries is the massive transcript of the early-1950s Farnsworth House court case, which discloses for the first time the facts about Mies’s epic battle with his client Edith Farnsworth. The book reveals new information about his relationships with women, including the nature and breakup of his marriage to the wealthy Ada Bruhn, his close professional and personal ties to the gifted designer Lilly Reich, and new details from a series of illuminating interviews with his American companion, Lora Marx. This edition also gives voice to dozens of architects who knew and worked with (and sometimes against) Mies—many of them from the unique oral history collection of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Department of Architecture.
This comprehensive biography tells the compelling story of how Mies and his students and followers created some of the most significant buildings of the twentieth century.
Review
andldquo;Franz Schulzeandrsquo;s 1985 biography of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe has always been acknowledged as the most comprehensive and thoughtful biography of one of the key figures in twentieth-century architecture. This revised edition with significant new scholarship by its two authors will undoubtedly come to occupy the same position.andrdquo;
Review
and#160;andldquo;A herculean, generally successful effort to present Miesandrsquo;s work in terms of both character and context. . . .This book has obviously been a long labor of love and respect for which no source has been left untouched.andrdquo;
Review
“[A] distinguished and eloquent biography.”
Paul Goldberger, on the previous edition
Review
andldquo;The most comprehensive book ever written about the master designer and, by any measure, the best. . . . Because no writer has ever before probed into Miesandrsquo;s life at such depth, we have here the first definitive reconstruction of the architectandrsquo;s personal habits, loves, fears, triumphs, loneliness and (in his old age) agonies.andrdquo;
Review
and#8220;This excellent revised edition of a work originally published in 1985, has 138 illustrations, incisive descriptions of Miesand#8217; innovative creations and a fascinating account of his Pyrrhic victory in a lawsuit against his disaffected client Edith Farnsworth.and#8221;
Review
"One recent book, however, has been largely overlooked by reviewers, perhaps because it appears to be merely a revised edition of a volume that Mies lovers already have on their bookshelves. Other than the title, though, the book is a completely different animal. . . . Fresh research into Miesand#8217;s American commissions, among them the troubled history of his most alluring American residential workand#8212;a transparent glass house for the eminent nephrologist Dr. Edith Farnsworthand#8212;has resulted in an almost entirely new book.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;This authoritative biography of Mies van der Rohe has been updated through building records, the recollections of students and a court transcript. It's a gripping read, even if you're not a fan.and#8221;
Review
andldquo;[A] distinguished and eloquent biography.andrdquo;
Synopsis
Mies van der Rohe: A Critical Biography is a major rewriting and expansion of Franz Schulzeand#8217;s acclaimed 1985 biography, the first full treatment of the master German-American modern architect. Coauthored with architect Edward Windhorst, this revised edition, three times the length of the original text, features extensive new research and commentary and draws on the best recent work of American and German scholars. The authorsand#8217; major new discoveries include the massive transcript of the early-1950s Farnsworth House court case, which discloses for the first time the facts about Miesand#8217;s epic battle with his client Edith Farnsworth. Giving voice to dozens of architects who knew and worked with (and sometimes against) Mies, this comprehensive biography tells the compelling story of how Mies and his students and followers created some of the most significant buildings of the twentieth century.
and#160;
and#160;
Synopsis
This is a thorough revision, brimming with new material, of Franz Schulze's classic biography about architect Mies van der Rohe.and#160; The consensus among architectural historians is that Schulzeand#8217;s book is the bestand#151;and most authoritativeand#151;one ever written (not to mention the only biography) about Mies, who introduced the International Style to America and established Chicago and IIT as a hub of mid-century modern design.
About the Author
Franz Schulze is the Hollender Professor of Art Emeritus at Lake Forest College. His many books include Philip Johnson: Life and Work and, as coauthor, Chicago's Famous Buildings, the latter also published by the University of Chicago Press.Edward Windhorst studied architecture with Myron Goldsmith at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He has written two other books about modern architecture in Chicago.
Table of Contents
and#160;
List of Illustrations
Preface
Prologue
1.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Youth in Imperial Germany: 1886andndash;1905
2.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; and#160;Apprenticeship, Marriage, and World War: 1905andndash;18and#160;and#160;and#160;
3.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Europe out of the Ashes: 1918andndash;26and#160;and#160;and#160;
4.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Weimar at High Tide: 1926andndash;30and#160;and#160;and#160;
5.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Political Crises and the End of the Bauhaus: 1930andndash;36and#160;and#160;and#160;
6.and#160;and#160;and#160; and#160; America Beckons: 1936andndash;38and#160;and#160;and#160;
7.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; and#160;Architect and Educator: 1938andndash;49and#160;and#160;and#160;
8.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; A New Architectural