Our History

1937 - 1939

The school's first location was 1905 South Prairie Ave, the former home of Chicago retailing magnate Marshall Field. Initial courses include Music and Building of Musical Instruments; Intellectual Integration. The school was soon forced to relocate due to financial issues. (photo courtesy IIT Galvin Library Archives)

1937 - 1938

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy founds The New Bauhaus: Chicago School of Design at the invitation of the Chicago Association of Arts and Industries, in the hopes of modernizing the city's industrial and cultural base. (photo courtesy Moholy-Nagy Foundation)

1939 - 1944

The school relocates to 247 East Ontario Street, and reopens as the School of Design. Serge Chermayeff takes over from Moholy as Director, and begins negotiation with the Illinois Institute of Technology to merge with that university, joining Bauhaus alum Mies Van Der Rohe's College of Architecture. Classes include War Designs and Camouflage; Opportunities for Women. (photo courtesy IIT Galvin Library Archives)

1945 - 1955

ID occupies 1009 North State Street and 632 North Dearborn (now an Excalibur dance club). Courses focus more on Sociology and Economics, and the emerging professionalization of the design discipline. (photo courtesy IIT Galvin Library Archives)

1955 - 1992

ID moves to the IIT main campus, inhabiting the basement of Mies Van Der Rohe's landmark Crown Hall. Coursework in this period includes Environmental Control, Shelter Design, Problems in Filmmaking, and Volume Exploration.

1955 - 1969

Jay Doblin is hired away from New York design firm Raymond Loewy and Associates, to the chagrin of some ID faculty who believe him to be a corporate hack. Doblin transforms the program to focus on methods and frameworks, and making design more professionalized and relevant to business strategy. "Innocence," he says, "a lovely quality in a child, will be replaced by algorithm, an equally admirable quality in a professional." (photo courtesy Doblin Inc.)

1989 - present

Patrick Whitney becomes Director of the Institute of Design, and helps move the school in several new directions, including becoming a graduate-only professional program, including the first PhD in design in the US, and inhabiting a new off-campus location in downtown Chicago.

1992 - 1998

ID moves to the IIT Research Institute (IITRI Tower), and introduces new classes in Structured Planning and Understanding Users.

1998 - present

ID's current home at 350 North LaSalle Street, just north of the Chicago Loop.