You Say to Brick

by Wendy Lesser

  Raymond Meier’s color pictures: These are to be found in his gorgeous book Louis Kahn Dhaka, published in Switzerland by Editions Dino Simonett in 2004.

  “I have a book of castles … thoroughly at this book”: “Law and Rule of Architecture II,” in Essential Texts, p. 147.

  “They’ve destroyed … only in photographs”: Wares interview.

  “he brought us democracy”: Shamsul Wares in My Architect.

  “This is the process … disorientation”: Wares interview.

  “Yes, yes … lose your way … within a serene context … people moving together”: Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury’s interview with the author on March 12, 2014, in Dhaka.

  “may never have been said before”: “The Room, the Street, and Human Agreement,” in Essential Texts, p. 253.

  “What is assembly … more mysterious”: Wares interview.

  ARRIVING

  Kahn’s plan for Exeter: See Jay Wickersham, “The Making of Exeter Library,” Harvard Architecture Review, 1989, pp. 139–49 for the fullest and most accurate description of the design and construction process.

  “without surrendering … to make adjustments”: Letter from Louis Kahn to Rodney Armstrong, April 17, 1968, Phillips Exeter Academy Archives; copy supplied to the author by the Academy archivist, Edouard L. Desrochers.

  “It’s my favorite … the human spirit”: Sue Ann Kahn interview.

  “The Kimbell … conception of architecture”: Robert McCarter, Louis I. Kahn, London: Phaidon Press, 2005, p. 340.

  “If you liked … love Kimbell”: Wurman interview.

  “This building feels … other hand did it”: Nell E. Johnson and Eric Lee (eds.), Light Is the Theme: Louis I. Kahn and the Kimbell Art Museum, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011, p. 73.

  disappeared silently and completely: So it seemed, at any rate, to C. K. Williams, a poet who spent many hours of his youth hanging around Kahn’s office, where his college friends Wurman and Rothstein worked. Citing a poem Czeslaw Milosz wrote about a painting in the Kimbell Museum, Williams remarked on this juxtaposition of his two “masters”: “It pleases me to think of Czeslaw making his way through those serenely elegant, luminous spaces Lou had devised: Milosz hushed in the inspiration of his experience of it, the other embodied in the very hush.” (C. K. Williams, “Kahn,” in All at Once, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014, p. 35.)

  “all-embracing … ought to be”: Leslie, p. 181.

  “The average size … up to 30 feet”: Leslie, p. 187.

  “Marshall would leave … lead person”: Wilcots interview.

  “gentle collaboration”: Marshall Meyers quoted in Latour, p. 81.

  “He never worked … from on high”: Marshall Meyers quoted in Louis I. Kahn: Conception and Meaning, an extra edition of Architecture and Urbanism. Tokyo: A + U Publishing, 1983, p. 223.

  “worked best with … a discourse”: Marshall Meyers quoted in Latour, p. 79.

  “wings,” “beam-splitter”: Leslie, pp. 192, 189.

  “Komendant is very … analyzing it”: Louis Kahn quoted in What Will Be, p. 27.

  “office boy”: Wilcots interview.

  “Lou didn’t drive … end of the driveway”: Slovic interview.

  “He had very … meatball to go around”: Nathaniel Kahn interview.

  “Since we moved … came second”: Esther Kahn quoted in Latour, p. 25.

  “his mission … being done”: Nathaniel Kahn interview.

  “that you were … all of those things”: Dialogue between Nathaniel Kahn and Harriet Pattison in My Architect.

  “He was devastated … in distress”: Nathaniel Kahn interview.

  “She said Jamie was going to be her creation”: Morton Paterson’s interview with the author on September 28, 2014, in Philadelphia.

  “Lou cried … Marie Kuo died”: Sue Ann Kahn interview.

  “If something fell … of his life, I think”: Sue Ann Kahn interview.

  “Who’s going to … your work in Venice?”: Wilcots interview.

  “Picasso said … harsh word, ugly”: Louis Kahn quoted in What Will Be, p. 19.

  “Hi, Mr. Kahn … were not quite right … three families … I told my mother … Like, why didn’t he … a people person … really good cook”: Alexandra Tyng interview.

  “The meals she served … kind of light … Anne was … or an old person”: Nathaniel Kahn interview.

  “I just decided … inject some normality … started to notice … over his head”: Alexandra Tyng interview.

  “To be fair … going to go?”: Nathaniel Kahn interview.

  “I think she … I mean that literally”: Peter Arfaa’s interview with the author on November 4, 2013, in Philadelphia.

  “in a kind of innocently … to be with her”: Slovic interview.

  “I think his loyalty … us as people”: Alexandra Tyng interview.

  “He was a man … grab things”: Wares interview.

  “He never talked … That takes confidence”: Langford interview.

  “Ricky, look at this!”: Wurman interview.

  “the beginning of … street is a community room … belong to him alone … are on trial”: “The Room, the Street, and Human Agreement,” in Essential Texts, pp. 253, 254, 255, 257, 256.

  “The burnt wood figure … constructive criticism”: Handwritten notes made by Louis Kahn on the back of a BOAC receipt for a London–Tel Aviv flight, Collection of Sue Ann Kahn.

  “He said no … with politics”: Sue Ann Kahn interview.

  “I would say Lou was completely apolitical”: Esther Kahn in Brownlee video.

  “as ruinous as … our sense of democracy … the Roosevelt Memorial … reason for living”: “Lecture at Pratt Institute,” in Essential Texts, pp. 279, 268.

  “four essential … in the world”: Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s words as engraved on the wall of the FDR Four Freedoms monument, Roosevelt Island.

  “He was trying to make … and feel safe”: Lauren Kahn’s interview with the author on June 17, 2013, in Oakland.

  “My dearest ones … all in stone”: Undated letter from Louis Kahn to Harriet Pattison, Collection of Harriet Pattison; displayed in the Vitra exhibition The Power of Architecture, London Design Museum, July 2014.

  “How far apart … bring out for him”: Samuel Hughes, “Constructing a New Kahn,” in The Pennsylvania Gazette, March/April 2013, pp. 36–49.

  “He turned me down … places that will scare me … comfortable in his relationships”: Steve Korman’s interview with the author on November 3, 2013, at Korman House.

  “When Lou brought her … the love of his life … It was kind of fun … resented this whole situation”: Norma Shapiro’s interview with the author on November 3, 2013, at Shapiro House.

  “Philadelphia was … about the affairs”: Sue Ann Kahn interview.

  “I spent … he didn’t want to”; “blacked out … care about you”: Steve Korman’s interview with the author on November 3, 2013, at Korman House.

  “It was one … but an hour?”: Toby Korman Davidov’s telephone interview with the author on November 9, 2013.

  IN SITU: INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT AHMEDABAD

  “I don’t think … sacred space”: Doshi interview.

  “began with … were students”: “Form and Design,” in Essential Texts, p. 64.

  “Economy has … can buy”: Louis Kahn delivering the lecture “Architecture and Human Agreement,” as filmed by Duncan White, 1971, The Architectural Archives.

  “What slice … side of a building”: Louis Kahn’s annotated sketch in Robert McCarter, Louis I. Kahn, London: Phaidon Press, 2005, p. 225. No Wallace Stevens poem contains anything like this exact line, but Kahn was probably thinking of the passage in the poem “Architecture” that runs:

  How shall we hew the sun,

  Split it and make blocks,

  To build a ruddy palace?…

  Pierce the interior with pouring shafts,

  In diverse chambers �
�

  (Stevens: Collected Poetry & Prose, New York: Library of America, 1997, p. 67.)

  “He wanted a thin joint … It’s like an offering … you don’t think of memory”: Doshi interview.

  BEGINNING

  “I like English … Minus-One”: Writings, Lectures, p. 329.

  “constant residence”: This and other information about the Mendelowitsch family in Latvia and Estonia comes from a 2006 archival reference report addressed to Ingrid Mald-Villand from Latvijas Valsts Vesturs Arhivs, 09.2006, Nr. 3-M-2305. Information about Leiser-Itze Schmulovsky’s birth and circumcision comes from the actual birth records in Hebrew and Russian (available online through ancestry.com at www.lvva-raduraksti.lv/en/menu/lv/7/ig/7/ie/3417/book/28766.html). The Arensburg addresses and business types for the Mendelowitsches, as well as other details about the early years of the twentieth century in Arensburg, come from Olavi Pesti’s “Kuressaare of a Century Ago,” originally published in Estonian in Ehitukunst, no. 47/48, 2006, and translated into English by Peeter Tammisto (available online at http://ehituskunst.ee/olavi-pesti-kuressaare-of-a-century-ago/?lang=en).

  “hotel”: Louis Kahn quoted in What Will Be, p. 225.

  “A building … was made”: “The Room, the Street, and Human Agreement,” in Essential Texts, p. 258.

  One of his very earliest memories: Berkeley creativity study.

  “It seems to take … three years old”: Dialogue between Louis Kahn and an unidentified student from the question-and-answer period after the lecture “Architecture and Human Agreement,” as filmed by Duncan White, 1971, The Architectural Archives.

  a strange, entrancing blue-green: There are many accounts of the burning from Lou and others, most of which include the same details. Here is Esther’s version, which takes advantage of her chemistry background: “sometimes, when there is something wrong with the oxygen, the coal burns green, which was exactly how the coal was one day. Lou was three years old and he loved the green colour. Many times he said that for all his life he would never forget that colour green. That day he wore a little pinafore, and put his hands in the fireplace to pick up the coal, save the colour and put it into his pinafore, which went up in flames. He immediately covered his eyes” (Esther Kahn quoted in Latour, p. 17).

  EPILOGUE

  “Louis I. Kahn … America and abroad”: Paul Goldberger’s obituary of Louis Kahn, The New York Times, March 20, 1974, pp. 1, 64.

  “They’re bastards … she was adamant”: Peter Arfaa’s interview with the author on November 4, 2013, in Philadelphia.

  “Alex called us … reserved for Lou”: Rhoda Kantor interview.

  “The only thing … would have liked that”: Nathaniel Kahn quoted in Samuel Hughes, “Journey to Estonia,” The Pennsylvania Gazette, January/February 2007, pp. 36–43.

  “it would have … hang in Kuressaare”: Alexandra Tyng quoted in Samuel Hughes, “Journey to Estonia,” The Pennsylvania Gazette, January/February 2007, pp. 36–43.

  “Not under the … did not want the truth”: Wurman interview.

  “always looking … cover it over”: MacAllister interview.

  “He was a mental … his creativity”: Wares interview.

  “His personal life … Anything goes”: Dubin interview.

  “Desire is … impurities can happen”: Louis Kahn quoted in What Will Be, p. 43.

  “I do not believe … in its wake”: Louis Kahn quoted in Beginnings, p. 108.

  “must begin with … be unmeasurable”: Louis Kahn quoted in Beginnings, p. 71.

  “he really lived … would find order”: Videotape of Anne Tyng interviewed by Peter Kirby on May 26, 1992, The Architectural Archives.

  “strongly believed … fit together”: Alexandra Tyng quoted in Latour, p. 59.

  “I think you … loving person”: Alexandra Tyng interview.

  “He had an enormous … closest ones”: Shamsul Wares in My Architect.

  “Motion—movement … architecture of movement”: Louis Kahn quoted in Beginnings, p. 112.

  “The other thing … a great architect”: Vincent Scully quoted in Latour, p. 147.

  “I think there’s … imperfections of the material”: MacAllister interview.

  “Lou had a lot … had a battle”: Wurman interview.

  “There was something … do battle in the world”: Nathaniel Kahn interview.

  “handsome”: Sue Ann Kahn and Alexandra Tyng interviews.

  “He just had … saw him as such”: Alexandra Tyng quoted in Latour, p. 63.

  “He had a kind … goddamn good”: Jack MacAllister quoted in What Will Be, p. 291.

  “My mother … confidence in me”: Louis Kahn quoted in What Will Be, p. 233.

  an estimated 235 designs: The figures about Kahn’s built and unbuilt projects come directly from William Whitaker or from his List of Projects in the Vitra catalogue, Louis Kahn: The Power of Architecture, Karlsruhe: Vitra Design Museum, 2012.

  “Success … sixty buildings”: I. M. Pei in My Architect.

  “My first works … reverence for him”: Frank Gehry in My Architect.

  “As time goes … sustenance to”: Moshe Safdie quoted in What Will Be, p. 295.

  “the most beloved … being an artist”: Philip Johnson in My Architect.

  “Magic … becomes architecture”: Renzo Piano quoted in the Vitra catalogue, Louis Kahn: The Power of Architecture, Karlsruhe: Vitra Design Museum, 2012, p. 259.

  “aren’t tied to the fashions of the time”: MacAllister interview.

  “It’s the making … not stylistic”: Wurman interview.

  “The idea of not having … which is geometry”: Videotape of Anne Tyng interviewed by Peter Kirby on May 26, 1992, The Architectural Archives.

  “He was influenced … and silent”: Rafael Villamil’s interview with the author on November 3, 2013, in Philadelphia, with follow-up telephone conversation on November 5, 2013.

  “Mies, Corbu … version at the beginning”: Wares interview.

  “The standout in the office … just another detail”: Wilcots interview.

  “restoring a building … architectural principles”: Marshall Meyers quoted in Latour, pp. 85–87.

  “to quit a job … someone’s kitchen”: Slovic interview.

  “Let me help … let you do it”: MacAllister interview.

  “Am I making … what interests you”: Wurman interview.

  “He would look at you … but in life”: David Rothstein’s telephone interview with the author on March 12, 2015.

  “David Wisdom … particularly Henry’s”: Moye interview.

  “amazement … He did it”: Harriet Pattison quoted in Samuel Hughes, “Constructing a New Kahn,” in The Pennsylvania Gazette, March/April 2013, pp. 36–49.

  “Denise Scott Brown … to run on?”: Marshall Meyers quoted in Louis I. Kahn: Conception and Meaning, an extra edition of Architecture and Urbanism, Tokyo: A + U Publishing, 1983. p. 227.

  With the Dominican Motherhouse project: The entire description of the design process given here derives from two excellent works by Michael Merrill, Louis Kahn: On the Thoughtful Making of Spaces: The Dominican Motherhouse and a Modern Culture of Space and Louis Kahn: Drawing to Find Out: The Dominican Motherhouse and the Patient Search for Architecture, Baden: Lars Müller Publishers, 2010.

  “parted friends”: David B. Brownlee and David G. De Long, Louis I. Kahn: In the Realm of Architecture, New York: Rizzoli, 1991, p. 388.

  “arts advisory … The Architect’s central … glass could not”: Kent Larson, Louis I. Kahn: Unbuilt Masterworks, New York: Monacelli Press, 2000, p. 115. Larson’s helpful book is the source of most of the information given here about the Memorial to the Six Million Jewish Martyrs.

  “The one—the chapel … are silent”: Museum of Modern Art press release No. 102, for an exhibition of the scale model of Kahn’s design, October 17, 1968.

  “fulfilled their … tragic memories”: Kent Larson, Louis I. Kahn: Unbuilt Masterworks, New York: Monacelli P
ress, 2000, p. 119.

  “A painter can … use round wheels”: “Law and Rule in Architecture II,” in Essential Texts, p. 150.

  FURTHER READING

  Because this book is a biography, dealing with both the man and his work, it leaves out a great deal of known information about the architecture in order to touch on all the other dimensions of Kahn’s life and still keep within a reasonable length. There are dozens of other books (not to mention hundreds if not thousands of articles) written exclusively about Louis Kahn’s architecture, and for those who have become interested in the subject, here is a brief list of recommended reading. All of these books have proven enormously instructive to me, and all can be usefully read by someone without architectural training.

  Brownlee, David B., and David G. De Long, Louis I. Kahn: In the Realm of Architecture. New York: Rizzoli, 1991.

  Goldhagen, Sarah Williams, Louis Kahn’s Situated Modernism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.

  Larson, Kent, Louis I. Kahn: Unbuilt Masterworks. New York: Monacelli Press, 2000.

  Leslie, Thomas, Louis I. Kahn: Building Art, Building Science. New York: George Braziller, 2005.

  Loud, Patricia Cummings, The Art Museums of Louis I. Kahn. Durham: Duke University Press, 1989.

  Marcus, George H., and William Whitaker, The Houses of Louis Kahn. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013.

  McCarter, Robert, Louis I. Kahn. London: Phaidon Press, 2005.

  Merrill, Michael, Louis Kahn: On the Thoughtful Making of Spaces: The Dominican Motherhouse and a Modern Culture of Space and Louis Kahn: Drawing to Find Out: The Dominican Motherhouse and the Patient Search for Architecture. Baden: Lars Müller Publishers, 2010.

  Scully, Vincent, Louis I. Kahn. New York: George Braziller, 1962.

  Solomon, Susan, Louis I. Kahn’s Trenton Jewish Community Center. Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press, 2000; and Louis I. Kahn’s Jewish Architecture: Mikveh Israel and the Midcentury American Synagogue. Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 2009.

  Twombly, Robert (ed.), Louis Kahn: Essential Texts. New York: W. W. Norton, 2003.

  Additionally, for those who might want to learn more about Kahn’s paintings and sketches, here are two good books on that subject: