In honor of what would have been German architect Ludwig Miels van der Roche’s 126th birthday, Goggle is celebrating with a new doodle. The search engine replaced its official logo on its homepage with a simple picture of his modest, signature building design in black and white. Google is written in block colored letters across the front of the building. The Doodle represents van der Roche’s famous achievement in post-World War I architecture-Crown Hall at the Illinois Institute of Technology, where he was the head of the architecture school.

Van der Roche moved to Berlin during his early life in the early 1930s. While he received criticism for associating with the Nazi party while living in Germany, he moved to the United States in 1937. He became associated with his self-described “skin and bones” architecture, which has influenced building designs from Barcelona to his Illinois campus. He also designed such buildings as the Highfield House and One Charles Center in Baltimore, Manhattan’s Seagram Building and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington.

Van der Roche was known for his less is more design. He was famous for stripping architecture down to it’s purest form, as what he called “almost nothing.” He believed in revealing the underlying truth of the world through his buildings. The architect, who aimed to create free and open spaces with a minimal structural presence, died on August 17, 1969 in Chicago.

Written by: Karen Benardello