The School of Architects and Engineers: Mies, Kornacker, and Their Followers

Abstract

From the times of the fist Chicago school of architecture, architects and engineers collaborated in Chicago, forming teams, often in pairs, in order to respond to the needs of their time, developing the structural typology of high-rise buildings, and characterizing them with their own expressions. Continuing this legacy, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe coined the term “structural architecture,” and collaborated with the engineer Frank J. Kornacker. The duo and their term eventually epitomized the rise of a new school, which in turn left its legacy in the city and abroad.[1]

1. “The [Promontory Apartments] building launched Mies on a career that was literally to transform the skyline of Chicago and to inaugurate what the editors of Architectural Forum were to call the Second Chicago School of Architecture.” Condit, 1930–1970: Building,