Guiding students over the road to creative work
In his 1938 inaugural speech as director of the school of architecture at what is now the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe set forth his vision for the development of the school and spoke about the aims of artistic and architectural education.
“If teaching has any purpose,” Mies said, “it is to implant true insight and responsibility. Education must lead us from irresponsible opinion to true responsible judgment. It must lead us from chance and arbitrariness to rational clarity and intellectual order. Therefore,” he continued, “let us guide our students over the road of discipline from materials, through function, to creative work.”[1]
Today we dedicate the first building designed by Mies, who passed away in 1969, to have been built since the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston opened in 1974. There may never be another. And in so dedicating, Indiana University and the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design share the ideals articulated with such clarity by Mies.
Here, in this splendid new building, the school’s faculty, from across the rich art and design spectrum, will guide students as they traverse, with that rational clarity of which Mies spoke, the road of discipline from materials, through function, to creative work.
And we should not underestimate the significance of the addition of this building to the IU Bloomington campus. To acquire a building designed by Mies van der Rohe is the architectural equivalent of IU’s Eskenazi Museum of Art acquiring a new Picasso or a new Pollock.
The Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design
The school that the building serves has traversed quite a road of its own over just the last few years.
The school is part of a long tradition of excellence in the fine arts at IU Bloomington dating back over a century. It has historical roots in the Department of Studio Art, which grew to become one of the nation’s premier art programs.
In 2015, with the enthusiastic support of the faculty, the IU Trustees approved the establishment of the School of Art + Design. This was formed through a merger of the departments of studio art and apparel merchandising and interior design. The new school was established, in part, in response to the dramatic transformation brought about by the digital convergence of every form of design—from architecture to fashion—through extraordinary innovations like 3D printing.
Our goal in establishing the school was to provide a state-of-the-art education in these fields to students who would be seeking careers in this radically new world where design is of fundamental importance to all areas of business and industry, and where design theories, technologies, and methods of delivery and consumption are rapidly changing.
Later that same year, the Community Education Coalition of Columbus, Indiana, asked IU to consider establishing a master's degree program in architecture to involve the city of Columbus—a city whose architecture has been nationally and internationally acclaimed, and which has been ranked the sixth most architecturally significant city in the United States by the American Institute of Architects. IU rapidly developed the details for this program, and it was approved by the IU Board of Trustees in June of 2016. Subsequently, the program was named in honor of J. Irwin Miller, the visionary former chairman and CEO of Cummins, who established the Cummins Foundation, which paid the architectural fees for world-class architects to design so many of the magnificent buildings in Columbus. With the addition, then, of the J. Irwin Miller architecture program, the school was renamed the School of Art, Architecture + Design in 2017.
The Mies van der Rohe Building: The transformative power of philanthropy
The magnificent new building we dedicate today features lecture, workshop, student collaboration, administrative, and office spaces that will benefit students, faculty, and staff across the Eskenazi School.
The new building will also stand as a testament to the transformative power of philanthropy—and to the great strength of the relationships that this university has fostered over many years.
As I noted, the building has been made possible by the enormous generosity of Sid and Lois Eskenazi. In April of 2019, I had the great pleasure of announcing Sid and Lois’s landmark $20 million gift to the School of Art, Architecture + Design and that the school would be named in their honor in recognition of their generosity and their longstanding commitment to IU and the arts.
In addition to the scholarships, faculty development programs, and other initiatives that their generous gift has made possible, it also made possible the construction of the building we dedicate today.
Mies’ original design was for a proposed Bloomington campus building for the Alpha Theta Chapter of the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity. It was ultimately not constructed in the 1950s, and the project was largely forgotten until Sid, who was an IU student in the early 1950s, mentioned his knowledge of the design at a breakfast I had with him in 2013. I expressed great interest in knowing more about this remarkable claim, and after extensive research, the original plans and documentation for the building were found.
The building, then, will serve as an enduring symbol of the legacy of generosity of Sid and Lois Eskenazi, and an enduring symbol and part of the very founding of architectural modernism.
Special thanks
On behalf of Indiana University, I want to offer our most sincere and grateful thanks to Sid and Lois Eskenazi for their extraordinarily generous gift that has made this new building possible. Their generosity will touch the lives of countless students, faculty, and staff. And it will have a transformative impact on the mission of a school that is providing a state-of-the-art education in art, architecture, and design, and is helping to build a vibrant culture of building and making at Indiana University and right across the state.
The entire university community is profoundly grateful to Sid and Lois—not only for their support for this building—but also for all they have done to further IU’s rich and longstanding traditions in the arts and humanities and for their remarkable and continued generosity to the university. Would you join me in expressing our thanks to them with an enthusiastic round of applause?
I also want to thank Provost Lauren Robel, who has been an indefatigable supporter of this project, Founding Dean of the Eskenazi School, Peg Faimon and the faculty and staff of the school; Vice President for Capital Planning and Facilities Tom Morrison; Associate Vice President for Capital Planning Adam Thies; Architect Thomas Phifer and his colleagues at Thomas Phifer and Partners; and our many other Indiana University colleagues for their dedication and skill that have helped make this new facility possible.
A building that will be lived in and loved
In an interview in 1950, Mies van der Rohe was asked if he ever designed buildings without a client in mind just because he thought a site needed a particular building. Mies replied that most of his designs were developed long before there was any practical possibility of carrying them out. “I do that on purpose,” Mies said, “just to hope that one day the building will be lived in and liked.”[2]
While the scenario he described is not exactly the history of the building we dedicate today, it may have set a new record for the time between Mies’ conception and design of a building and its construction.
What is certain is that this splendid building will soon be lived in—and not just “liked”—but beloved by those who work, learn, and create within.
All of us look forward to witnessing the inspired creativity and path-breaking contributions from coming generations of students and faculty at the Eskenazi School that will enrich Indiana University and the cultural heritage of our state, the nation, and the world.
Source notes
[1] Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, as quoted in Peter Blake, The Master Builders: Le Corbusier, Mies Van Der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright, (W. W. Norton & Company, 1996), 230-231.
[2] Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Moisés Puente, Conversations with Mies van der Rohe, (Princeton Architectural Press, 2008), 17.