Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois, Library and Administration Building Proposal

This architectural drawing presents an intriguing attribution puzzle. While labeled as being by Willem van der Vliet (c. 1584-1642), a Dutch Golden Age painter from Delft known for historical allegories and portraits, the subject matter—a mid-20th century modernist building proposal for the Illinois Institute of Technology—makes this attribution highly implausible. Van der Vliet, who worked in 17th-century Netherlands and died in 1642, could not have created a drawing for a 20th-century Chicago institution. This appears to be either a mislabeling or a curatorial error.

The drawing itself depicts a proposed library and administration building for IIT's Chicago campus, rendered in charcoal, graphite, and yellow pencil on tracing paper. The medium and scale suggest this is a working architectural study, likely from the mid-20th century when IIT's campus was being developed under the direction of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The use of tracing paper was standard practice for architectural offices of that era, allowing for overlay drawings and iterative design refinements. The combination of drawing media—charcoal for tonal values, graphite for precision, and yellow pencil possibly for highlighting or notation—indicates a sophisticated presentation drawing meant to communicate spatial qualities and design intent to clients or stakeholders.