Why did Ludwig Mies van der Rohe add nonstructural I-beams to the facades of the Lake Shore Drive Apartments?

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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe added nonstructural I-beams to the facades of the 860–880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments to visually express the nature of the building's actual steel structure.

While the towers utilized steel frames and cantilevered floors, the true structural elements remained concealed behind the exterior to comply with fire-safety regulations. By applying these nonstructural I-beams to the facade, Mies sought to maintain the architectural expression of the underlying skeleton, a design choice he later repeated on the Seagram Building in New York City.1