“I have learned that architecture must stem from sustaining and driving forces of civilization. And that it can be, at its best, an expression of the innermost structure of its time. The structure of civilization is not simple, being in part the past, in part the present, and in part the future. It is difficult to define and understand. Nothing of the past can be changed, by its very nature. The present has to be accepted, and should be mastered. But the future is open - open for creative thought and action.”

- Mies van der Rohe on the occasion of receiving the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects, April, 1960