IAR 221 Blog Post: Good Design for All

     I think the glass skyscraper (seen here as the Lake Shore Drive Apartments in Chicago), designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, is a great example of "good design for all."  They were built approximately 60 years ago, and were the first iteration of the glass skyscraper that is today a prominent building in any city's skyline.  In its short lifespan, the glass tower has become an important, almost necessary, building in cities around the world.  This is due largely to its versatility as a structure.  Van der Rohe built the tower as an apartment complex, but since its construction the glass skyscraper has been used as office buildings and rental offices.  The glass tower is "good design for all" because anyone can use it, for almost any purpose.  It is also, when one learns the history of it, a symbol of unity and togetherness in a very volatile time in history.  Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the man who designed the tower, was a German architect who came to America in 1937, during Hitler's rise to power.  However, construction on the tower didn't begin until 1948, after WWII had ended.  In a postwar America, Germans still remained, in the minds of many, "the enemy."  So it must have been a surprise when van der Rohe built his impressive tower.  But it was even more of a surprise when, suddenly, people started copying his building.  Despite the fact that van der Rohe was a German, in a time when Germany was for many reasons very looked down upon, people found his work to be of a higher quality than anything else before it.  His imitators were able to look past his nationality and instead focused on his work; they put their biases aside and focused on what he had built.  In a divided world, this is an important step on the path to healing and reunion:  the ability to put one's own personal views and opinions away and focus on the quality of the work; to focus on the thing produced and not the one producing it.  In this way--how van der Rohe's glass tower helped mend a postwar world--the glass skyscraper is truly a "good design for all."  It is both practical as a building and a symbol of acceptance. 

Image Source:
--http://www.aviewoncities.com/buildings/chicago/lakeshoredriveapartments.htm