Restoring the “God Box”: Mies van der Rohe's Carr Chapel at IIT

Abstract

Perhaps no building designed by Mies van der Rohe better exemplifies his dictum, “less is more”, than Carr Chapel. Its rectangular prismatic form and unadorned architecture led to its being called “the God Box” by the students it served at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). When a building is so simple and direct, every little detail needs to understood and attended to with great care in its conservation treatment. Combined with a chronic lack of funding, a seemingly simple project can become quite challenging and take over a decade to complete.