One of the twentieth century’s leading architects‚ Louis Isadore Kahn (1901–1974) was born in Estonia and immigrated to the United States at the age of four. A gifted artist‚ he passed up a merit scholarship to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts‚ determined instead to study architecture at the University of Pennsylvania.
Kahn taught at Yale University from 1947 to 1957. During that time‚ he was also resident architect at the American Academy in Rome, and from there traveled throughout Italy‚ Egypt‚ and Greece‚ recording historic architecture in drawings and sketches. This was a significant period in Kahn’s life‚ as he reconciled his belief in modernism with his admiration for enduring buildings of the past.
After his tenure at Yale University‚ Kahn accepted a position at the University of Pennsylvania‚ where he became dean of the School of Architecture. From the mid-1950s onward‚ his reputation was firmly established; his later years were distinguished by honors and awards‚ plus important national and international commissions including the Salk Institute for Biological Studies (La Jolla‚ California)‚ the Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth‚ Texas), and the National Assembly Building (Dhaka, Bangladesh). Kahn’s architecture is notable for its simple geometric forms and the complex play between natural light and materials.
