In 1938 James Speyer departed Harvard’s School of Design in order to become Mies van der Rohe’s first American graduate student at the Armour Institute of Technology in Chicago. During the 40s and 50s he taught architecture under Mies while at the same time, as an architect in his own right, he completed houses in Chicago and Pittsburgh that represented the cutting edge of new glass-and-steel design. In 1957 Speyer traveled to Greece on a Fulbright fellowship, where he taught at the Polytechneon in Athens; upon returning to America, he became Curator of Twentieth Century Painting and Sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago. He held this position for the next twenty-five years, and his tenure witnessed over 125 exhibitions and a remarkable expansion to the Institute’s permanent collection.

This volume includes a biographical essay by Franz Schulze and six accounts from Speyer’s friends and colleagues who remember different aspects of his life and work. Floor plans and photographs direct special attention to Speyer’s extraordinary, ultra-modernist designs—not only for houses but also for innovative exhibitions at the Art Institute during the 60s and 70s.