The return of Mies van der Rohe

The strong impact of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s architecture on his adopted country is obvious from the extent of the American centennial celebration of his birth. Parties are occurring at all the proper places.

The big exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art organized by Arthur Drexler—“Mies van der Rohe Centennial Exhibition”—harkens back to Philip Johnson’s MOMA exhibition of 1947, which introduced Mies to the American public in a comprehensive manner. Together with Johnson’s catalogue, that exhibition provided the first extended survey of the architect’s work anywhere in the world—this when Mies was already sixty. In some way, Mies uniquely belongs to MOMA. Not only did Johnson consider him to be the greatest of all modern architects (Johnson began his architectural career as an...