Mies Van der Rohe was born on March 27, 1886 in Aachen, Germany. After working for his families stone carving business he joined the office of Peter Behrens in Berlin where Mies Van der Rohe developed a design approach based on advanced structural techniques and Prussian Classicism. He also developed a sympathy for the aesthetic credos of both Russian Constructivism and the Dutch De Stijl group. He borrowed from the post and lintel construction of Karl Friedrich Schinkel for his designs in steel and glass.
1930 he reluctantly fled to the United States as he saw the Nazis growing in power. When Mies Van der Rohe arrived in the United States, he was already a somewhat influential designer. He had been the director of the Bauhaus design school for several years and had won several commissions for several architectural projects.

Mies Van der Rohe believed that 'Less was More' and 'God is in the details', Mies attempted to create contemplative, neutral spaces through an architecture based on honesty and structural integrity. During the last twenty years of Van der Rohe's life, he achieved his vision of a monumental 'skin and bone' architecture.

Mies latter settled in Chicago where he was appointed as head of the architecture school at Chicago's Armour Institute of Technology (later renamed Illinois Institute of Technology - IIT) His one condition on taking this position was that he would be able to redesign the campus. Some of Mies Van der Rohe most famous buildings still stand there including Crown Hall, the home of IIT's School of Architecture.