One of the most beautiful descriptions ever written about Mies’s personality is perhaps found in the first lines of the text that Peter Blake wrote in 1960, with the title: ‘Mies van der Rohe, the master of structure’.

“On almost any day of the week, around lunchtime, a massive man will climb up the delicate white steel and travertine staircase of the Chicago Arts Club. Although he now walks with a limp (due to recurring attacks of arthritis) and, generally, has to lean on a cane, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe seems remarkably nimble for his weight and age. His clothes are extremely elegant; most of his suits were tailored by Knize and make him look slim and agile. He is, indeed, something of a dandy in a subdued way: there is generally a very soft, very expensive handkerchief trailing out of his breast pocket, and he obviously likes fine quality in all his personal belongings”... [+]