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 avowed disciple), but Alfred Barr also admired his work. So much was this the case that in the mid-1930s Barr attempted (in vain) to convince his trustees to make Mies the architect for the museum. In gratitude, Mies left his formidable collection of drawings and office correspondence to MOMA, making what is officially called the Mies van der Rohe Archive the most important source for scholarship on the architect anywhere in the world. So the exhibition at MOMA is something of a family affair.

But of course Mies belongs to Chicago, too, where he was welcomed as an emigre in 1938 and where he established his office and taught. Two exhibitions are scheduled there. The first, entitled “Mies van der