Don't Tell That to Mies!

As I mentioned in my last post, Clare and I recently toured the Farnsworth house in Plano, IL. This was a summer house designed by the famous modernist architect, Mies van der Rohe.

The tour is a pretty cool experience abet a slightly expensive one at $20. While on the tour we learned two things you apparently don't tell Mies van der Rohe:
#1 "That can't be done."
and
#2 "I'm not paying this bill."

The thing that kind of struck me was that the tour guide kept refering to him as Mies. As in, "Mies wanted the occupants to feel like part of nature." and "Mies designed this chair." and (most often) "They said it couldn't be done, but you don't tell that to Mies." It's like the tour guide was his buddy or something. When you tour Robie house, I don't think they would say stuff like, "Frank designed these stained-glass windows because that's what Frank wanted. You know how Frank is."

I thought it was strange until I read this article that says his birth name was Maria Ludwig Michael Mies. He apparently changed it when he became an architect. This pissed me off because it's not quite as funny when his last name is in fact, Mies.