Mies van der Rohe's 126th birthday marked with a Google doodle Known simply as Mies, he left his home of Aachen, Germany at the age of 19 and designed his first building, the Riehl House, aged 21. His 50x50 house was one of his iconic projects that was designed as a solution to address the problems with mass housing but it was never built. The image used in the Google doodle reflects the design of the SR Crown Hall at the Illinois Institute of Technology, which was completed in 1956. Described as a masterpiece, it features only steel and glass in its exterior. Mies ignored advice to include railings on the porch, wanting it to appear to float. Construction was hindered when a heater used for drying the concrete exploded, destroying almost half of the new first floor and causing $100,000 of damage. But it was finally finished in 1956 to much acclaim. The architect Ben Nicholson said: "The effect is monumental, for it gives the appearance of the building having transubstantiated and elevated to a point where it seems as if the whole is rising from itself."