Josef Paul Kleihues

Josef P. Kleihues has achieved international recognition with his work as planning director of the Internationale Bauaustellung in Berlin (International Building Exhibition, IBA 1984/87) and as architect for a large number of remarkable buildings and projects. The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, completed in 1996, was his first building in the USA.
The Chicago museum places Kleihues in the long line of German architects who have planned and built in this important metropolis. His particular concern was to examine the different architectural traditions of Europe and America. This publication takes this examination by Kleihues as a starting-point for demonstrating the various aspects of the place and to bring out the significance of the new building by the fact that it appears in the spirit of the genius loci as the point where different historical and urban qualities meet. For this reason the detailed documentation of the building is completed by chapters on the urban development of the site, the Chicago School of Architecture and the German architects who planned and built in Chicago from the mid 19th century.