Indiana University (IU) has announced plans to open the new Mies Building for the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design in the US in 2021.

The building’s concept is inspired from the original design by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who is regarded as one of the founders of modern architecture, in 1952.

Although the architect had designed a similar building in the 1950s for the Bloomington campus, it was never built.

Thomas Phifer and Partners is the architect for the new building.

Currently under construction, the new Mies Building is a 60-foot-wide, 140-foot-long rectangular structure of steel and expansive glass. It features floor-to-ceiling windows that wrap around the entire second story.

While most of the building’s lower level is open to the air, the second or main storey is elevated above the ground plane. It also features a central exterior square atrium.

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Indiana University president Michael McRobbie said: “This new building, situated in the centre of our beautiful Bloomington campus, will serve to inspire and elevate IU’s students of art, architecture and design, as well as our excellent faculty, as it advances the growth and development of one of IU’s newest schools.”

It is part of a $20m donation to the school from Indianapolis-based philanthropists Sidney and Lois Eskenazi.

Eskenazi School founding dean Peg Faimon said: “The Mies Building will provide the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design with a shared facility, enabling faculty and students of all our programmes to come together and collaborate.”