You Say to Brick

by Wendy Lesser

The first objection came from some Talmudic scholars on the Committee for the Six Million, who pointed out that Jewish numerology equated the number nine with gestation, birth, and other happy subjects, so it was completely wrong for a Holocaust memorial. Others felt that the number six should be included as a nod to the Six Million. Still others grumbled at the absence of any figurative elements.

  Kahn quickly redid the design so that it now featured seven tall glass blocks: six around the perimeter and a single one, containing an arched doorway and some inscriptions, at the center. (With his typical tendency toward religious ecumenicalism, Lou noted that in this version, “The one—the chapel—speaks; the other six are silent.”) The Kreeger Committee unanimously approved the design. But the larger committee, in a heated session that might have called to mind the old Jewish joke about a roomful of twenty Jews yielding twenty-one opinions, ended up rejecting it. The arguments against Kahn’s design were various, but they essentially boiled down to the fact that the committee members did not see their sorrow and their pain expressed in these abstract pieces of glass. They did not, in fact, want something “non accusing”; they would have preferred a literal rendering that roused the sentiments and assigned blame in the appropriate quarters. The members of the Committee for the Six Million were holding out, as their spokesman explained, for a Holocaust memorial that “fulfilled their longings, represented their thoughts, or relieved their tragic memories.” Unsurprisingly, no such structure was ever built. After trying for another year or two to reach some accommodation with his clients, Kahn sent in his final bill for services. But by this time the Committee for the Six Million had run out of money, and the bill went unpaid.

  * * *

  Reading about these projects that Kahn left unfinished and contemplating the drawings, plans, and models he did for them creates an intense longing to see the buildings themselves. But it is a longing that cannot be fulfilled, even with the best of intentions. It’s not just that the remaining unbuilt structures can never be built, for reasons that range from the loss of the original site to the absence of sufficient working drawings. It’s that they cannot even be fully imagined.

  This truth is borne out by an intelligent and beautifully designed book, Louis I. Kahn: Unbuilt Masterworks, that was put together by the architect Kent Larson in 2000. Larson’s aim is to offer through computer-generated graphics a sense of what the Memorial to the Six Million Jewish Martyrs, the Palazzo dei Congressi, the Salk Meeting House, the Hurva Synagogue, and other doomed projects would have looked like in the flesh. But that is precisely the problem: the flesh is lacking. There are no human beings peopling these empty Kahn buildings (though people, in their rough form, appear in even his earliest sketches for those projects). And the buildings themselves are far too cold and perfect. They are noticeably without the idiosyncratic flaws that characterize the materials of Kahn’s finished buildings—the rough textures of the concrete, the tiny cracks in the travertine, the silvery aging of the wood, the softly rounded corners of the brick. They lack the sense that a human hand has made them, and they also lack any sense of mortality. These perfect buildings will never age, as Kahn’s own structures have done. And without that sense of mortality, it turns out, the images can never really come to life. There is a deadness to Larson’s computer renderings that may be barely detectable now, but that will become clearer and clearer to the trained eye as digital technology matures—much in the way we moviegoers of the twenty-first century, watching the last century’s special effects, can now see how creakily fake they look. But the level of graphic technique is not the only problem. However good the visual evocations of Lou’s lost buildings become, they will not be able to match the feeling we get from walking through his actual structures. Reality, a sense of presence, was and is essential to his work.

  Some people have called Louis Kahn a mystic, and perhaps he was. He certainly loved to speak in mysterious, sometimes mystifying terms, and he clearly believed in a pre-existing order which he was aiming to discover, or uncover, in his designs. That all sounds very Platonic, at the very least. But set against this philosophical aspect was another side of Kahn that included his solidity, his practicality, his down-to-earthness. Things of the flesh mattered to him; materiality mattered to him. This was part of what it meant to be an architect, in his eyes. “A painter can make doorways smaller than people; a sculptor can make square wheels on a carriage to express the futility of war,” he once pointed out. “The architect has to make doors bigger than people and has to use round wheels.”

  Maybe it is inaccurate to describe his practical qualities as if they were in opposition to his mysticism. As a man and as an architect he was of a piece, thoroughly himself at all times. Still, that self was a complicated one, covered over by or even including a whole series of performed roles—Delphic seer, wise peasant, gallant knight-errant—which had been part of him for so long they had almost become a second skin.

  But even a skin, close as it is to the person it contains and much as it may define him in the eyes of others, is only an outward surface. As Kahn’s buildings repeatedly tell us, what you see on the outside is not a true or complete guide to what lies within. In all his best creations, from the Trenton Bath House to the Dhaka Parliament, it’s necessary to penetrate to the interior in order to begin learning the building’s secrets, though in doing so you will also find that there are additional secrets forever being kept from you. And the same, it is probably safe to say, is true of the man himself.

  NOTES

  The page numbers for the notes that appear in the print version of this title are not in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for the relevant passages documented or discussed.

  All the passages in this book that are direct quotations are cited in the notes below (along with a small number of details and facts that are not quotations but seemed worthy of citation). The reader who wants to know where a particular quote comes from can simply locate the opening and closing words of the quote, keeping in mind that all quotations appear in the order given and are divided up according to the chapter in which they appear.

  Each reference is given in full the first time it appears. For sources that reappear frequently, an abbreviated version is used in every subsequent case.

  EPIGRAPH

  “I honor beginnings … always been”: “Lecture at the Pratt Institute,” in Robert Twombly (ed.), Louis Kahn: Essential Texts, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003, p. 278. [Hereafter cited as Essential Texts.]

  PROLOGUE

  “I’m too … religious”: Susan G. Solomon, Louis I. Kahn’s Jewish Architecture, Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 2009, p. 124.

  “You say to brick … an arch”: John Lobell, Between Silence and Light: Spirit in the Architecture of Louis I. Kahn, Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1979, p. 40.

  “We know … kind of man”: “Marin City Redevelopment” in Alessandra Latour (ed.), Louis I. Kahn: Writings, Lectures, Interviews, New York: Rizzoli, 1991, p. 111. [Hereafter cited as Writings, Lectures.]

  “frozen music”: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, from Johann Peter Eckermann’s Conversations with Goethe in the Last Years of His Life, translated by Margaret Fuller, Boston: Hilliard, Gray and Company, 1839, p. 282.

  ENDING

  “indigestion”: Esther Kahn quoted in Richard Saul Wurman (ed.), What Will Be Has Always Been: The Words of Louis I. Kahn, New York: Rizzoli, 1986, p. 282. [Hereafter cited as What Will Be.]

  “I find … two months or so”: Kent Larson, Louis I. Kahn: Unbuilt Masterworks, New York: Monacelli Press, 2000, p. 183.

  “Every time he talked … the spirit of light”: Balkrishna V. Doshi quoted in What Will Be, pp. 272–73.

  “I’m at the airport … I was really touched by that”: Stanley Tigerman quoted in What Will Be, p. 299, and in Carter Wiseman, Louis I. Kahn: Beyond Time and Style, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007, p. 261.

  “Prof. Louis I. Kahn … USA”: Luggage tag
on suitcase of Louis I. Kahn, Sue Ann Kahn Collection, The Architectural Archives, University of Pennsylvania. [Hereafter shortened to The Architectural Archives.]

  “Is there anything … gray”: Esther Kahn quoted in What Will Be, p. 283.

  “It was feared … too tired to call”: Kathy Condé event chronology, March 17–19, 1974, Esther Kahn Collection, The Architectural Archives.

  “lying face up … men’s room”: Police report filed by Officer Joseph K. Folmer of the NYPD on March 17, 1974, supplied to the author by the New York Police Department Legal Bureau on June 6, 2013, in response to F.O.I.L. request #2013-PL-3245.

  “Notify Esther Kahn … deceased this city”: Telegram quoted in The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 21, 1974, p. 1.

  “DOA”: Masking tape on suitcase of Louis I. Kahn, Sue Ann Kahn Collection, The Architectural Archives.

  “Of course … rescue squad”: Esther Kahn’s letter to Professore Bruno Zevi, October 15, 1974, Esther Kahn Collection, The Architectural Archives.

  “It was quite a shock … so vigorous”: Sue Ann Kahn’s interviews with the author on April 4, May 10, September 26, and December 13, 2013, in New York, with additional information supplied in various phone conversations and emails. [Hereafter cited as Sue Ann Kahn interview.]

  “Is he dead?… ever come again?”: Nathaniel Kahn’s interviews with the author on April 14, 2013, and November 4, 2013, in Philadelphia and on June 13, 2013, via telephone, with additional information supplied via email and telephone on subsequent dates. [Hereafter cited as Nathaniel Kahn interview.]

  “You never stop loving someone”: Louis Kahn’s words as told by Anne Tyng to Alexandra Tyng, from Alexandra Tyng’s interviews with the author on April 16, 2013, and November 4, 2013, in Philadelphia, with additional information supplied in numerous informal talks, phone conversations, and emails on subsequent dates. [Hereafter cited as Alexandra Tyng interview.]

  “My mother called … now he’s dead”: Alexandra Tyng interview.

  “Kahn, a Blender of Logic … strong and subtle”: The New York Times, March 20, 1974, p. 64.

  “Police Here … Kahn’s Death”: The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 21, 1974, p. 1.

  “Louis Kahn, Fundamental Genius”: The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 21, 1974, p. 10-A.

  “It is with the deepest … who all loved him”: Telegrams to Esther Kahn and the Office of Louis Kahn from Richard Nixon, Teddy Kollek, Isamu Noguchi, Buckminster Fuller, and others, March 20–22, 1974, Esther Kahn Collection, The Architectural Archives.

  “There was this group … all the students”: Ed Richards’ interview with the author on May 14, 2013, in Philadelphia. [Hereafter cited as Richards interview.]

  “I was kind of … found out later”: David Slovic’s interview with the author on May 15, 2013, in Philadelphia. [Hereafter cited as Slovic interview.]

  “I was asked to go … other members there”: Jack MacAllister’s interview with the author on June 18, 2013, in Tiburon. [Hereafter cited as MacAllister interview.]

  “in her line of sight”: Anne Meyers quoted in Carter Wiseman, Louis I. Kahn: Beyond Time and Style, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007, p. 266.

  “I remember … having him taken away”: Nathaniel Kahn interview.

  “The funeral was actually … in the office for years”: Alexandra Tyng interview.

  “When my sister … side chapel”: Sue Ann Kahn interview.

  “Alex said … my mother”: Nathaniel Kahn interview.

  “He felt … I didn’t”: Alexandra Tyng interview.

  “Rabbi Caine … friends and relatives”: The Evening Bulletin, March 22, 1974, p. C-3.

  “Esther was there … Academy Award”: Richards interview.

  “I remember … on their shoulders”: Nathaniel Kahn interview.

  “Immediately … Volkswagen bus”: The Evening Bulletin, March 22, 1974, p. C-3.

  “I remember Sue … did it together”: Alexandra Tyng interview.

  “My mother … wishing that I had”: Nathaniel Kahn interview.

  “I wish I had … at first”: Sue Ann Kahn interview.

  “1974 – Dies … to Philadelphia”: Toledo Blade, December 26, 1993.

  “a nice myth”: Dialogue quoted from Nathaniel Kahn’s documentary film My Architect, 2003. [Hereafter cited as My Architect.]

  “There is no doubt … has disappeared”: Alexandra Tyng interview.

  “Out of the mind … could do in five”: Salk poem quoted in Romaldo Giurgola, Louis I. Kahn: Works and Projects, Barcelona: Editorial Gustavo Gili, 1993, pp. 9–12.

  IN SITU: SALK INSTITUTE FOR BIOLOGICAL STUDIES

  “interstitial”: Kendall Mower, in his public tour of the Salk Institute’s architecture at noon on August 6, 2013.

  “This is the cat’s meow … daylight harvesting”: Tim Ball, giving a private tour of the Salk Institute to the author on August 6, 2013.

  “Salk … jaded”: Anonymous staff and researchers encountered in the plaza of the Salk Institute, August 6, 2013.

  “Kahn didn’t know … like it a lot”: Greg Lemke’s interview with the author on August 6, 2013, at the Salk Institute.

  PREPARING

  “I remember … very proud”: Louis Kahn quoted in What Will Be, p. 225.

  “alien passengers”: Ship’s manifest for Bertha and children’s passage from Liverpool in 1906, National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Series Title: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; NAI Number: 4492386; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787–2004; Record Group Number: 85; Series: T840; Roll: 052.

  “Leib … Hebrew”: Ship’s manifest for Leopold’s passage in 1904, National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Series Title: Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; NAI Number: 4492386; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787–2004; Record Group Number: 85; Series: T840; Roll: 046.

  “We lived in poverty … to some extent”: Architects’ Personal History and Field Interview File for Louis Kahn, including interviews and test results from the creativity study conducted under the auspices of the Institute of Personality Assessment and Research, University of California, Berkeley, December 12–14, 1958, with follow-up by mail. [Hereafter cited as Berkeley creativity study.]

  “scarface”: Nathaniel Kahn speaking in My Architect.

  “I was born … was in everyone’s life”: Louis Kahn quoted in What Will Be, p. 10.

  “One day … your drawing, not mine”: Louis Kahn quoted in What Will Be, p. 124.

  “Louis, I’m afraid … good idea”: Louis Kahn quoted in What Will Be, pp. 120–21.

  “Sawtooth Houses”: Harry Kyriakodis, Northern Liberties: The Story of a Philadelphia Ward, Charleston: History Press, 2012, p. 143.

  “A city should … someday like to be”: Louis Kahn quoted in Alexandra Tyng, Beginnings: Louis I. Kahn’s Philosophy of Architecture, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1984, pp. 127–28. [Hereafter cited as Beginnings.]

  “My son is a genius!”: Sue Ann Kahn interview.

  “I was always … just made drawings”: Louis Kahn quoted in What Will Be, p. 224.

  “natural education”: Joseph A. Burton, “The Aesthetic Education of Louis I. Kahn, 1912–1924,” Perspecta, Volume 28 (1977), p. 205. [Hereafter cited as Burton.] This extremely helpful article by Joseph A. Burton is the source of most of my information about Kahn’s three teachers, J. Liberty Tadd, William Gray, and Paul Cret. In particular, my section on Tadd is completely dependent on Burton’s account, pp. 205–10.

  “creative … better it works”; “conviction”: Videotape of Anne Tyng interviewed by Peter Kirby on May 26, 1992, The Architectural Archives.

  “speaking through the finger tips … steel bar”: Tadd quoted in Burton, p. 208.

  “box with spaces … visions ‘sans situ’”: Undated notebook with unnumbered pages, Louis I. Kahn Collection, University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Historical and
Museum Commission, catalog number 030.VII.4. [Hereafter cited as Louis I. Kahn Collection.]

  “Drawing and manual training … designing and creative work”: Tadd quoted in Burton, p. 208.

  “Form encompasses … belongs to the designer”: “Form and Design” in Essential Writings, p. 64.

  “One who accurately … any other way”: Tadd quoted in Burton, p. 208.

  “renounce forever … All the Russias”: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Washington, D.C.; Naturalization Petitions for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 1795–1930; NARA Series: M1522; Reference: (Roll 106) Petition Numbers 13876–14100.

  “Studying was … through to me”: Louis Kahn quoted in What Will Be, p. 226.

  “very poorly academically … Alexander Dumas”: Berkeley creativity study.

  “He was always … flunked”: Norman Rice quoted in What Will Be, p. 288.

  “I was to be … door is opened”: Louis Kahn quoted in Beginnings, p. 128.

  “I wouldn’t have … Central High School”: Louis Kahn quoted in What Will Be, p. 224.

  “My art teacher … intensely dedicated”: Berkeley creativity study.

  “the skyscraper … is wrong”: Gray quoted in Burton, p. 211.

  “was a matter … very nice guy”: Louis Kahn quoted in What Will Be, p. 224.

  “I was given … be selected too”: Louis Kahn quoted in Beginnings, p. 127.

  “Every year … credit was very good”: Louis Kahn quoted in What Will Be, p. 121.

  “The family … with her hands”: Esther Kahn quoted in Alessandra Latour, Louis I. Kahn: l’uomo, il maestro, Rome: Edizioni Kappa, 1986, p. 19. [Hereafter cited as Latour.]

  “my sister had … was fine, unselfish”: Berkeley creativity study.

  “worked very hard … and teacher”: Norman Rice quoted in What Will Be, p. 294.

  “modernized classicism … each floor, etc.”: Burton, p. 214.

  “the thoughtful making of spaces”: Writings, Lectures, pp. 75, 88, 101, 106.

  “For beginning … seen a library”: Louis Kahn quoted in Thomas Leslie, Louis I. Kahn: Building Art, Building Science, New York: George Braziller, 2005, pp. 18–19. [Hereafter cited as Leslie.] Thomas Leslie’s book is an invaluable source for everything to do with Kahn’s technical achievements. Even in sections where he is not quoted directly—for instance, in the descriptions of the processes that lay behind the Yale University Art Gallery and Kimbell Art Museum ceilings—I have relied heavily on Leslie’s accounts.