Pilgrims see crumbling modern masterpieces

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Archiseek / Ireland / News / 1999 / September 16 1999: Pilgrims see crumbling modern masterpieces

The RIAI's Chicago conference was as much a pilgrimage as anything else, as Irish architects availed of tours to see and experience some of the icons of 20th century architecture by two of its great masters, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright.

For it was in the Windy City that they left the largest concentrations of their work, Wright in the leafy suburb of Oak Park - described by Hemingway, who grew up there, as having "wide lawns and narrow minds" - and Mies at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT).

Wright is a popular favourite in the US and his "prairie-style" houses are looked after by foundations or by private owners. There would be no question nowadays of any of his buildings being demolished, a threat that once hung over even his outstanding Robie House.

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