linguistic:paraphrasing
Death and legacy

In 1961, a program at Columbia University's School of Architecture celebrated the four great founders of contemporary architecture: Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright. It included addresses by Le Corbusier and Gropius as well as an interview with Mies van der Rohe. Discussion focused upon philosophies of design, aspects of their various architectural projects, and the juncture of architecture and city planning.

In 1963, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1966 Robert Venturi coined the postmodern motto "less is a bore" as countervision to Mies's motto "less is more".

Technological advances in the manufacturing of architectural glass generated renewed interest in Mies's 1922 designs for a high-rise block on Friedrichstrasse in Berlin. Mies's Farnsworth House in Plano Illinois became a recurrent theme in 20th century architecture because it resembled a glass house. Technological limits meant that Mies's vision for a "skin and bones" architecture, where the steel frame was exposed internally and externally could never be fully realized. Mies also inspired the minimalism movement which fused Japanese architecture with Zen gardens.

Mies van der Rohe died on August 17, 1969, from esophageal cancer caused by his smoking habit. After cremation, his ashes were buried near Chicago's other famous architects in Chicago 's Graceland Cemetery. His grave is marked by an intentionally unadorned, clean-line black slab of polished granite.

While Mies's work had enormous influence and critical recognition, his approach failed to sustain a creative force as a style after his death and was eclipsed by the new wave of Post Modernism by the 1980s.