Louis I. Kahn in Conversation: Interviews with John W. Cook and Heinrich Klotz, 1969–70

Edited by Jules David Prown and Karen E. Denavit

Published by the Yale Center for British Art in association with Manuscripts and Archives, Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University; the Architectural Archives, University of Pennsylvania; and distributed by Yale University Press

208 pages, 7 1/2 x 10 inches, 73 color illustrations, cloth, ISBN: 9780300208146

Publication date: May 19, 2015

Description

In 1969 and 1970, Louis I. Kahn (1901–1974)—one of America’s greatest twentieth-century architects—participated in a series of interviews with a young German architectural historian, Heinrich Klotz, then a visiting professor at Yale University, and John W. Cook, who was teaching architecture at the Yale Divinity School. Louis I. Kahn in Conversation provides the first full edited transcript of these candid, illuminating interviews, which provide remarkable insights into Kahn’s philosophy of architecture. The conversations touch on many of his iconic works, including the unbuilt City Tower Project for Philadelphia, the Yale University Art Gallery, the First Unitarian Church in Rochester, and major international projects then under construction, as well as the Yale Center for British Art, Kahn’s final building, on which he was beginning work at the time. Illustrated with dozens of plans, drawings, and photographs, the book also features an introduction by Jules David Prown.

Jules David Prown is Paul Mellon Professor Emeritus of the History of Art, Yale University. As the founding director of the Yale Center for British Art, he recommended Louis Kahn as the architect, worked closely with Kahn until he died in 1974, and several years later returned to full-time teaching. He is currently Senior Research Fellow at the Center.

Karen E. Denavit is the information analyst at the Yale Center for British Art. Since 2006 she has worked with Prown on research projects pertaining to the Center’s institutional history, including the design and construction of its building. Denavit received a BS in Art Education from Kansas State University, a BFA in Painting from the University of Kansas, and an MLS from the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman’s University.