Illinois Institute of Technology Chapel and Parish House, Chicago, Illinois, Exterior Perspective

German émigré architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe began designing a new campus for the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) soon after his appointment as chair of the school’s department of architecture in 1938. With this expansion Mies sought to remake the college for the postwar world by offering high-tech research and educational opportunities. The creation of IIT’s new campus relied upon modern planning techniques such as urban renewal—the practice of razing and rebuilding large residential areas designated as “blighted”—resulting in displacement and cultural erasure in the largely African American neighborhood where the school was located.