Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe had one shtick and shtuck to it: almost all his large buildings are black boxes on stilts. Considering how ubiquitous his productions were in the age of the International Style, it is surprising that Pittsburgh has only one building directly attributable to Mies and one other that came from his office but was designed by one of his minions. Mellon Hall at Duquesne University (above) is by Mies himself. The IBM building, now Four Allegheny Center, was designed by Bruno P. Costerato for Mies’ Chicago firm. We immediately notice the fundamental departure from the master’s style: this one is a white box on stilts. One wonders how Costerato got away with it without being fired.