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Louis Kahn




Louis Isadore Kahn ( February 20 , 1901/1902 – March 17 , 1974 ) was a world-renowned Architect who practiced in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . He later served as a professor of Architecture at the University Of Pennsylvania and at Yale University .


LIFE

Kahn (whose original surname was Schmalowski) was born in Kuressaare on the Estonia n island of Saaremaa , then part of the Russian Empire. In 1905 his Jewish family immigrated to the United States , fearing that his father would be recalled into the military during the Russo-Japanese War . He was raised in Philadelphia and became a Naturalized Citizen on May 15 , 1914 .

He trained in a rigorous Beaux-Arts Tradition , with its emphasis on drawing, at the University Of Pennsylvania . After completing his Master's degree in 1924 , Kahn made a European tour and settled in the medieval walled city of Carcassonne , rather than any of the strongholds of Classicism or Modernism . In 19251926 the Bowtie -sporting Kahn served as Chief Designer for the Sesquicentennial Exposition . From 1947 he spent a decade teaching at Yale, where his influence was paramount, then moved to Penn. His prominent apprentices include Moshe Safdie and Robert Venturi .

He died of a heart attack in a bathroom in Pennsylvania Station in New York City . He was not identified for three days, as he had crossed out the home address on his passport. He had just returned from a work trip to India, and despite his long career, he was deeply in debt at death.

Louis Kahn's work infused International Style with a fastidious, highly personal taste, a poetry of light. His few projects reflect his deep personal involvement with each. Isamu Noguchi called him "a philosopher among architects".

Kahn had three different families with three different women: his wife, Esther; , Frank Gehry , Philip Johnson , I. M. Pei , and Robert A. M. Stern , but also an insider's view of Kahn's unusual family arrangements. The unusual manner of his death is used as a point of departure and a metaphor for Kahn's life in the film.


IMPORTANT WORKS

, Dhaka hosts the national parliament of Bangladesh ]]


TIMELINE OF WORKS


All dates refer to the year work commenced


EXTERNAL LINKS