You Say to Brick
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“She was a compelling … awe and idealization”: Berkeley creativity study.
“often from abroad to this country”: Donald W. MacKinnon, “Some Critical Issues for Future Research in Creativity,” collected in the volume Frontiers of Creativity Research, ed. Scott G. Isaksen, Buffalo: Bearly, 1987, pp. 127–28; see also Donald W. MacKinnon, “Architects, Personality Types, and Creativity,” collected in The Creativity Question, ed. Albert Rothenberg and Carl R. Haussman, Durham: Duke University Press, 1976, pp. 175–89.
“character sketch … I suffered severe burning … Constant disagreements … became water”: Berkeley creativity study.
“Bob Venturi … all of us combined”: Kahn colleague quoted in Nathaniel Kahn interview.
“Bob Venturi’s girlfriend”: Sue Ann Kahn interview.
“Dearest Best … her faith in him … a great great work”: Undated letter from Louis Kahn to Harriet Pattison, Collection of Harriet Pattison; displayed in Vitra exhibition The Power of Architecture, London Design Museum, July 2014.
“The building is … desire for creation … a new image”: Letter from Louis Kahn to Harriet Pattison, September 15, 1959, Collection of Harriet Pattison; quoted in George H. Marcus and William Whitaker, The Houses of Louis Kahn, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013, p. 63.
“Tout le monde … tres importante”: Undated postcard (postmarked 1959) from Louis Kahn to Esther Kahn, Collection of Sue Ann Kahn. The English translation, omitting Lou’s ever-present solecisms, is roughly: “Everybody, all of France, is beautiful and agreeable. Carcassonne is very important architecture.”
“I suggested to Lou … someone else”: The Rome Letters, p. 202.
“When I was about five … cover up the truth”: Alexandra Tyng interview.
“If you could … special moment … come in tomorrow?”: Wurman interview.
“I remember … in time for dinner”: Emails from Edward Abelson and Sandra Abelson forwarded to the author by Sue Ann Kahn.
“He spent more … not with his family”: MacAllister interview.
“Everyone had a different Lou … I had no funding … all sounding boards”: Wurman interview.
“He ran the office … he would choose”: Sue Ann Kahn interview.
“Everyone remarked … maybe he did”: Sue Ann Kahn interview.
“Early in my … I pay Gabor”: Gary Moye’s interview with the author, conducted via email starting on May 25, 2014, with numerous exchanges extending into 2015. [Hereafter cited as Moye interview.]
“About a month ago … not just little things”: Writings, Lectures, pp. 155–56.
“Gabor was bizarre … talking to him”: Wurman interview.
“The distinction … minor lack”: Berkeley creativity study.
“Yes … love-hate affair … cope with him”: Gianopulos interview.
“Kaddish/kiddush”: Susan Solomon, Louis I. Kahn’s Jewish Architecture: Mikveh Israel and the Midcentury American Synagogue, Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 2009, p. 106. My debt to Solomon’s book extends far beyond this single quotation; in fact, just about everything in my description of the Mikveh Israel process stems from her extraordinarily detailed and well-researched work.
the money changers out of the temple: This is the one fact about Mikveh Israel that does not come from Solomon. It comes instead from the author’s interview with Fred Langford on April 3, 2014, in Cape May Courthouse. [Hereafter cited as Langford interview.]
“probably the single … since the war”: MoMA catalog for the Richards Building exhibition, New York, 1961, p. 3.
“Why is … waiting for you”: Anne Tyng’s account as told to her daughter, quoted in Alexandra Tyng interview.
“If the world … bath house in Trenton”: Louis Kahn quoted in Robert McCarter, Louis I. Kahn, London: Phaidon Press, 2005, p. 122. Again, as with Solomon, my debt to McCarter’s excellent book is far larger than a few individual citations can suggest.
IN SITU: PHILLIPS EXETER LIBRARY
chamfered edges: As Nathaniel Kahn demonstrates in My Architect, this design—a brick building with four chamfered edges—is reminiscent of one of the industrial buildings that Louis Kahn would have seen during his childhood in the Northern Liberties. It’s never easy to track the influences on Kahn, but in this case, just as with his Indian Institute of Management, Philadelphia probably belongs in there with Rome.
“Will my coat … be okay”: Author’s conversation with anonymous Exeter students on October 24, 2013.
“Need is so many … know what it is”: Louis Kahn quoted in What Will Be, p. 29.
“Because it is not … on the stairway”: Louis Kahn quoted in What Will Be, p. 79.
“He loved used … what the book’s about”: MacAllister interview.
“I like English history … Volume Zero”: Louis Kahn quoted in Beginnings, pp. 177–78.
“What would happen … all over again”: Berkeley creativity study.
“You plan a library … could be the beginning”: Louis Kahn quoted in Robert McCarter, Louis I. Kahn, London: Phaidon Press, 2005, pp. 305–6, 318.
“I see a library … go to the light”: Louis Kahn quoted in David B. Brownlee and David G. De Long, Louis I. Kahn: In the Realm of Architecture, New York: Rizzoli, 1991, p. 390.
“It was eerie … what’s outside”: Gail Scanlon’s interview with the author on October 24, 2013, in Exeter.
“I really think … rather than artistic”: Drew Gatto’s interview with the author on October 24, 2013, in Exeter.
“so-called beauty”: Louis Kahn quoted in What Will Be, p. 79.
“No space … how it was made … the wall does not … opening, it cries”: “Law and Rule in Architecture,” in Essential Texts, pp. 130–31.
“those open circles … It’s impossible … overall feeling … lightness below us”: Drew Gatto’s interview with the author on October 24, 2013, in Exeter.
ACHIEVING
“Dr. Salk to office, 1501 Walnut”: 1962 office calendar, Louis I. Kahn Collection, Box 121.
“He lived … from there … I remember … windowsill”: Alexandra Tyng interview.
“There’s a picture … businessman”: Langford interview.
“I found … warms my heart”: Jonas Salk quoted in What Will Be, p. 296.
“I have to say … many difficulties”: Jonas Salk speaking in Signature Against the Sky, a documentary film made for WCAU-TV Philadelphia, directed by Bob Olander, c. 1967, The Architectural Archives. [Hereafter cited as Signature Against the Sky.]
“When you ask … as myself”: Louis Kahn quoted in What Will Be, p. 131.
“folded plate scheme”: Leslie, p. 138.
“It was twilight … two alleys … greater building”: Jonas Salk quoted in What Will Be, p. 296.
“When the folded … Vierendeel truss … drunken sailor … Jack is quick … man can draw … be tough … makes two of us … it becomes powder … color Lou loved … old castles … in repose”: Langford interview.
“Lou loved ruins … it will look like”: MacAllister interview.
“Precast is … more machine-like … bleeds … becomes a scar … reuse out of it”: Langford interview.
“He was very interested … vision of concrete”: MacAllister interview.
“The main thing … logic to it”: Langford interview.
“The fact … related to his face”: MacAllister interview.
“When I first … his personality”: Langford interview.
“I think it was … three-digit IQs”: MacAllister interview.
“I think he was … such a life themselves”: Slovic interview.
“Not again!”: Harriet Pattison quoting Louis Kahn in My Architect.
“outsiders”: For details about the Noguchi playground and the reasons it was never built, see Hayden Herrera, Listening to Stone: The Art and Life of Isamu Noguchi, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015, pp. 378–84.
“There is no meeting … get some antiques … if he heard
me … Who shall I say … supported him all her life”: Sue Ann Kahn interview.
“Mrs. Kahn … No calls”: 1962 office calendar, Louis I. Kahn Collection, Box 121.
“There were two … in the office then”: Wurman interview.
“They had these … own pace”: Slovic interview.
“we did work … a week”: Langford interview.
“He could really … he didn’t care”: Richards interview.
“Lou brought … talked about things”: Dubin interview.
“The biggest lesson … the right answer”: MacAllister interview.
“Lou was very … his Penn class”: Langford interview.
“It’s very hard … it’s fabulous”: Richards interview.
“universal elements … the column became”: Charles Dagit, Louis I. Kahn Architect, New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2013, p. 40.
“If he owed you … it’s a process”: Richards interview.
“He didn’t … wonderful spaces”: Dubin interview.
“Lou would walk … Whose is it?”: Charles Dagit, Louis I. Kahn Architect, New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2013, p. 38.
“He came in … say it was crap”: Richards interview.
“The time that Lou … towards the end … pull it off”: Slovic interview.
“He went … he saw too much”: Richards interview.
“easy to work with … Mr. Magoo … am on the site”: Langford interview.
“He was just … scream about it”: MacAllister interview.
“broker’s pencil … embedded in the drawings”: Slovic interview.
“When I was a student … freer with charcoal”: Richards interview.
“I think he … want to change it”: Langford interview.
“I will help you realize your dream”: Balkrishna V. Doshi’s interview with the author on March 3, 2014, in Ahmedabad. [Hereafter cited as Doshi interview.]
“he started talking … the embassy plan”: Balkrishna V. Doshi, Le Corbusier and Louis I. Kahn: The Acrobat and the Yogi of Architecture, Ahmedabad: Vastu-Shilpa Foundation for Studies and Research in Environmental Design, 2012, p. 38–39. [Hereafter cited as Acrobat and Yogi.]
“I came back … ruins around buildings”: Writings, Lectures, pp. 118, 123.
“the new idiom … haunt me … their pursuits”: Acrobat and Yogi, p. 40.
“He was very worried … rather than compromise”: Wurman interview.
“the grand old … patron of architects”: Acrobat and Yogi, p. 43.
“I said … good as Corbusier”: Doshi interview.
“to promote … universalism”: Mission Statement of the Tagore Society of Philadelphia, Louis I. Kahn Collection, File 030.II.A.64.18.
“dislikes irrationality … formal religion”: Berkeley creativity study.
“He is the one … are hard … be proud”: Scully, pp. 10, 43.
“First of all … make an arch”: Doshi interview.
“Why don’t … what people have”: Moshe Safdie’s interview with the author on April 25, 2014, in Cambridge.
“From 2:30 … very organized”: Doshi interview.
“Tell him … Nothing, nothing”: Yatin Pandya’s interview with the author on March 5, 2014, in Ahmedabad.
“It was Kasturbhai’s … turning corridor”: Doshi interview.
“He is a man … made of good stuff”: Jules David Prown and Karen E. Denavit, Louis I. Kahn in Conversation: Interviews with John W. Cook and Heinrich Klotz, 1969–70, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014, pp. 225, 233, 234.
“This is like … another century”: Doshi interview.
“duplicate the work … worth living for”: Louis Kahn in Signature Against the Sky.
“ill health … When you look at … whispering in Kahn’s ear”: Nurur Rahman Khan’s interview with the author on March 10, 2014, in Dhaka.
“I was asked … it’s okay … He liked going … had run out”: Henry Wilcots’ interview with the author on November 4, 2013, in Philadelphia, supplemented by many additional email exchanges. [Hereafter cited as Wilcots interview.]
“a no man’s land … give the meaning it lacked”: Letter from Louis Kahn to Harriet Pattison, January 1963, Collection of Harriet Pattison; published in Vitra Chronology, p. 27.
“In Dacca … five times a day”: Louis Kahn quoted in What Will Be, pp. 24–25.
“Spirituality … truth is obscure”: Shamsul Wares’s interview with the author on March 10, 2014, in Dhaka. [Hereafter cited as Wares interview.]
“didn’t have … that once”: Wurman interview.
“Leopold was never … came by bus”: Leonard Traines’s telephone interview with the author on October 27, 2015.
“He demanded … my grandmother”: Rhoda Kantor interview.
“He was the noise … like a bandbox”: Alan Kahn interview.
“I remember Leopold … incoherent or anything”: Ona Russell interview.
“He was seeing bugs … system breakdown”: Alan Kahn interview.
“babysit”: Langford interview.
“I remember him … in that setting”: Ona Russell interview.
“Brooks Brothers … was Lou saying?”: Jeff Kahn’s interview with the author on June 17, 2013, in Oakland.
“When he talked … he was saying”: Lauren Kahn’s interview with the author on June 17, 2013, in Oakland.
“It was hysterical … feel his equal”: Rhoda Kantor interview.
“There was a mystique … Lou is coming!”: Ona Russell interview.
“Your father is … How was your day?”: Alexandra Tyng interview.
“In 1964 … giving me work”: The Rome Letters, p. 210.
“Anne would … crazy-making”: MacAllister interview.
“Lou would never … talking about”: Richards interview.
“One day … Anne was a brilliant … something in her”: Moshe Safdie’s interview with the author on April 25, 2014, in Cambridge.
“Anne made the decision … little terror”: Richards interview.
“I think he just … when I was ten”: Alexandra Tyng interview.
“He always … the same intensity”: Alexandra Tyng quoted in Latour, p. 57.
“He was on the fifth … we all knew … Lou about something”: Slovic interview.
“It was humiliating in some ways”: Harriet Pattison in My Architect.
“We always used to … he was smiling … had mistresses”: Richards interview.
“It was the age … giant free-for-all”: MacAllister interview.
“The only one … a boy involved”: Langford interview.
“I was an outsider … what he was talking about”: Doshi interview.
“I called him … went to Philadelphia … We met on the telephone … Wonderful woman … His house was filled … got along”: Wilcots interview.
“the well-named Quaker”: MacAllister interview.
“Dave was different … packing case together”: Wurman interview.
“Dave was the office … Do such and such”; “Dave’s details were all very practical … go storming out”: Henry Wilcots quoted in Michael Borowski, “The Ultimate Manager: The Role of Wisdom in Louis Kahn’s Office,” published in Andrew Pressman, Professional Practice 101: Business Strategies and Case Studies in Architecture, New York: Wiley, 2006, p. 164.
“Dave was not a rah-rah man … lot of those”: Wilcots interview.
“We brought this matter … willingness to speak up to Lou”: Moye interview.
“old-time friends … didn’t get upset”: Wilcots interview.
“Dave Wisdom … not individually strong”: Slovic interview.
“Dave Wisdom … like everyone else”: Richards interview.
“a real nice person … antagonistic brothers”: Langford interview.
“Day or night … as a professional business”: Moye interview.
“He was there in the morning … everyone else did”: Langford interview.
“Right … because o
f your religion?”: Wilcots interview.
“To the end … working on Sunday”: David Wisdom quoted in Louis I. Kahn: Conception and Meaning, an extra edition of Architecture and Urbanism, Tokyo: A + U Publishing, 1983, p. 222.
“He would come to your … cheap tracing paper”: Langford interview.
“The beauty of … you had to follow that”: Wilcots interview.
“Never having … top this one”: Louise Badgley quoted in What Will Be, p. 266.
“Once during one of … key to Kahn’s architecture”: Vitra Chronology, p. 27.
“a disgracefully … a terrible square”: Vincent Scully quoted in What Will Be, p. 297.
“It was busy … was ever fired”: Wilcots interview.
“At the end of … run out of money”: Richards interview.
“the mother hen, a very jolly kind of person”: Wilcots interview.
“He turned on the charm … helped Lou in this way”: Moye interview.
“They were very open … paying proposition”: Slovic interview.
“President Khan … Why didn’t I think of that?”: MacAllister interview.
“I introduced myself … some of his architect friends”; “Okay, you win … painting the walls”: Rafael Villamil’s interview with the author on November 3, 2013, in Philadelphia, with follow-up telephone conversation on November 5, 2013.
“I also feel … ways of nature”: Letter from Louis Kahn to Luis Barragán, January 20, 1965, Collection of the Barragan Foundation, Basel, Switzerland; displayed at the Vitra exhibition The Power of Architecture, London Design Museum, July 2014.
“There should be no … the Pacific”: Louis Kahn quoted in What Will Be, p. 3.
“Lou liked it … the United States”: MacAllister interview.
“Standard Western reinforcing … make up for it”: Langford interview.
“because Lou owed … conventional honor”: Gianopulos interview.
“A disaster … not so heavy … Favorite uncle”: Langford interview.
“I would also … will always treasure”: Fred Langford, “A Report on Concrete and Formwork: The National Assembly Building Second Capital Project,” submitted on behalf of Louis I. Kahn Architect to the Pakistan Public Works Department, June 30, 1966, p. 95, The Architectural Archives.
IN SITU: NATIONAL ASSEMBLY BUILDING OF BANGLADESH