It started with a bang. Or more accurately, a smash.
On May 17, more than 120 IIT trustees, guests, and donors gathered in the emptied out, wrapped S. R. Crown Hall to witness the ceremonial kick-off of the $3.6-million façade restoration of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s architectural masterpiece. ‘Smash Bash’ marked the 50th anniversary of Crown Hall and the commencement of its restoration.
A Venerable Cast
It was an historic night, with descendants of both the man who designed Crown Hall and the man whose generosity made it possible in attendance. President Lew Collens, addressing the gathering, said, “Crown Hall is not just a National Historic Landmark, it’s a Chicago landmark. It is a gift to the people of Chicago and a vital part of the city’s architectural landscape. Fifty years ago it was made possible in large part through the generosity of IIT Trustee Colonel Henry Crown and named in honor of his brother Sol. Crown Hall marked the beginning of a long and wonderful relationship with the Crown family, for which we are profoundly grateful.”
A Striking Blow for Posterity
The centerpiece of the event was the breaking of three 10-foot plate glass windows next to the famed south porch. The first person to take up the sledgehammer was Dirk Lohan, Mies’ grandson and co-founder of Lohan Anderson, an architectural design firm. The opportunity to smash the glass was auctioned off on eBay, and Lohan beat out his competitors by placing the high bid.
“It is an honor to be a part of Crown Hall’s restoration and its 50th anniversary celebration. As a longtime IIT supporter, this means very much to me. But it means even more on a personal level,” Lohan said.
Wearing hard hats, Lohan and his 10-year-old son, Carsten, swung the golden sledgehammer at the glass, only to have it bounce back. Undaunted by President Collens’ shout of ‘Strike one!’ Lohan and son swung again, this time with enough force to shatter the tempered glass, leaving a hole the size of a watermelon in the center.
The next person to wield the hammer was Ralph Wanger, a $1-million contributor to the Mies Society. (The newly renovated south porch was recently named the Ralph and Leah Wanger Porch in honor of the couple’s generosity.) The third pane was broken by 14-year-old Jonathan Star, great-grandson of Henry Crown.
Once all three windows had been shattered, the guests left the building and gathered around the south porch. President Collens invited IIT Regent Robert Pritzker to do the honors by lowering the official draping on the remaining uncovered section. Crown Hall is scheduled to be reopened at an unwrapping ceremony on August 25, in time for the beginning of the fall semester, and there will be additional improvements to ensure that Crown Hall will continue to serve future architects as ‘the best one-room schoolhouse in the world.’
Work will comply with current building codes and will adhere as closely as possible to the original appearance of Crown Hall.
Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin has called Crown Hall “one of the finest embodiments of Mies’ philosophy of “less is more” and one of the seminal structures of the twentieth century. It [is] the High Church of High Modernism. It is the prototype for thousands of convention centers and low-slung suburban office buildings, most of which utterly fail to match its incredibly refined sense of proportions and details.”
Beginning with the May 17, 2005, glass breaking, the project team will renovate the curtain wall of windows of Crown Hall. This restoration includes:
- removal of existing glazing and steel stops
- sandblast removal of all lead-based paint from the interior and exterior steel
- repairs to corroding steel
- refurbishment and reactivation of louvers
- refurbishment of select steel stops with new replacement stops (as required)
- recoating (painting) of steel stops and louvers
- disassembling and retrofitting with electromagnetic release hardware
- refurbishing of original Ellison stainless steel doors on north and south façades