Architecture News Plus (ANP) – Architecture and Design Magazine

Mies van der Rohe Plaza

This is a project by PEG office of landscape + architecture and it is located at Michigan, United States. There are seven images for Mies van der Rohe Plaza.

: © PEG office of landscape + architecture

Project images

Designer's statement

This project was the result of a two-stage invited competition sponsored by the owner of the Shops at Lafayette, a project adjacent to Mies van der Rohe’s seminal Lafayette Park in Detroit, MI. The project is located in the small plaza between the two buildings which form the Shops at Lafayette. The Shops, though not designed by Mies, recently underwent a major renovation and the owner requested proposals to commemorate Mies’ work through the creation of a monument or sculpture. The total project size is 3,300 square feet and is comprised of custom-fabricated concrete pavers, aluminum plate and vegetation, drawing on the materials of the adjacent Lafayette Park.

Mies went to great lengths to create smooth, polished surfaces of large stone slabs in many of his projects. When used on exterior terraces, the slabs are spaced such that water falls between them and is discarded below. In contrast, our proposal renders water visible, conflating the material and the functional, while playing off of Mies’ signature elements: the plinth, the grid and the “book-matched” slabs of stone. By “extruding” the rectangular pattern of concrete, we created a bas relief. This slightly modulated and thickened surface, comprised of custom-fabricated concrete tiles, was placed symmetrically within the plaza yet asymmetrically in its “z” axis. This simple modification allowed one end to be elevated above plaza grade for seating. At its terminus, the surface continues vertically, under a grove of trees, forming a wall.

A series of ten CNC-milled forms were used to cast 192 concrete tiles. The custom tiles that comprise the surface are made from five forms and their mirrored counterparts. Pairs are set end to end within the plinth, drawing on Mies’ trademark of cutting stone slabs symmetrically across their dominant pattern. The bas-relief strategy of both the overall plinth figure and the concrete tiles are seen in contrast to the uniformity of the surface visible in the Lafayette tower’s façades that sit within view of our project. In order to accommodate vegetation within the field of concrete, each tile has one non-parallel edge and one corresponding shallow corner, thereby creating “openings” within the field of tiles and directing water into the openings. This simple modification to the form creates infinite variety in the overall pattern of the openings. These are planted with five species of drought-tolerant plants.

Project: Two-stage invited competition for a plaza design at the Shops at Lafayette; First Place awarded
Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA
Date: Completed April 2005
Size: 3300 sf
Client: First Commercial Realty
Budget: $70,000 USD
Principals: Karen M’Closkey and Keith VanDerSys (PEG); Craig Borum and Karl Daubmann (PLY)
Team: Carl Lorenz, Jen Maigre