DOCSLIB.ORG

Louis I. Kahn's Reading of Volume Zero Stanford Anderson

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Louis I. Kahn's Reading of Volume Zero Stanford Anderson Public Institutions: Louis I. Kahn's Reading of Volume Zero Stanford Anderson Journal of Architectural Education (1984-), Vol. 49, No. 1. (Sep., 1995), pp. 10-21. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1046-4883%28199509%2949%3A1%3C10%3APILIKR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-N Journal of Architectural Education (1984-) is currently published by Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, Inc.. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/journals/acsa.html. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to and preserving a digital archive of scholarly journals. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. http://www.jstor.org Wed May 16 23:15:41 2007 Public Institutions: Louis I. Kahn's Reading of Volume Zero STANFORDANDERSON, Massachusetts Institute of Technology In the work of architects like Louis I. Kahn or Volume Zero as a Temporal Concept but I never read anything but the first vol- Frank Lloyd Wright, we discover imagination and ume. Even at that, I only read the first three profound understanding not only of architecture, but also of the societal forces that enable and Louis Kahn frequently revealed his concern or four chapters. My purpose is to read Vol- employ architecture. Such imagination and for institutions. He sought to understand ume Zero, which has yet not been written. understanding require critical, reflective, and what it is that people within a given com- That's a kind of strange mind which causes imaginative minds-fueled by criticism of our present condition and hypotheses of what is best munity share. His search was not primarily one to look for this kind of thing. From and most sustaining in our experience. Difficult for physical, built institutions, but rather for such a realization, one thinks of the emer- as such an enterprise is, we have a right to what underlies or motivates these associa- gence of a mind. The first feeling is that of expect this ambition in architects, particularly when they are entrusted to shape our civic and tions. His intuitions or reconstructions of beauty. Not the beautiful, just beauty. It is public realm. institutions were characteristically immate- the aura of the perfect harmony."' rial, abstract, formal. He sought- to under- "Not the beautiful, just beauty," stand the patterns of human association and Kahn says. Rejecting an idealist position their reasons for being. Only then could an (the beautiful), Kahn attends to what is architect build properly-whether the great given (just beauty). Yet he also says, "It is institutions of a society or the more humble the aura of the perfect harmony." In the institutions of house or street. end, Kahn knows what isgiuen to our senses This paper came into being in re- as the evocation of something more. Kahn sponse to two events recognizing major walks a tightrope, seeking "the aura of the public institutions. It emerged in a confer- perfect harmony." ence at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- For now, I am specifically interested nology that examined Kahn's own National in Kahn's attention to English history. Capitol Complex in Dacca, Bangladesh What is this strange mind of Louis Kahn, (1962-1982). Late in 1992, the article was and what is it searching for? Eighteen further developed in a conference on public months later, Kahn returned to the same buildings, held on the occasion of the dedi- theme and gave us more clues: "Then I cation of the new Supreme Court in Jerusa- thought, What would be a harking back, lem, designed by Ada and Ram Karmi. The startingfiom the beginning?. I'm particu- organizers of the Jerusalem seminar set forth larly interested in English history, which h- two themes that they considered problem- cinates me. Though it's a bloody history, it atic in the creation of major institutions: still has this quality of a search. However, "the form and language of the contempo- every time I start to read Volume I, I linger rary public building and its obligation to on Chapter One, and I re-read it and re- express the quality and identity of public in- read it and always feel something else in it. 1. Janus sculpture, Roman, Vatican Museums. (From Of course my idea is probably to read Vol- Taidehistoriallisia Tutkimuksia Konsthistoriska Shrdier 4 stitutions." [19781:102.) I propose that Louis Kahn addressed ume Zero, . just to peer into this terrific these issues well in both concept and pro- thing-man, who has this great capacity for duction. The National Capitol Complex in putting things into being that nature cannot Dacca documents Kahn's exceptional built put into being."' work in this realm. However, I would argue Kahn's search, his harking back, is the that Kahn characteristically established his search for a beginning-a beginning not in architectural position through a more ab- nature, but for that which man puts into stract search. I propose that Kahn addressed being and nature cannot. It is a search for these issues through a reading of history and the archaic, for the prehistoric, as the num- law-in his case, English history and law: "I ber on his impossible book, Volume Zero, Journal ofArchitectura1Education, pp. 10-2 1 like English history. I have volumes of it, reveals. The search for the prehistoric is not O 1995 ACSA, Inc. September 1995 JA€ 49/1 10 3. Louis I. Kahn, travel sketch of the Acropolis. Athens, 1951. (R. Wurman and E. Feldman, eds., Notebooks and Drawings of Louis I. Kahn [Cambr'idge, MA: MIT Press, 19731, plate 18.) 2. Paestum. Basilica. (Photograph by Serge Moulinier. From Elizabeth Ayrton. The Doric Temple) London: Thames & Hudson, 19611, p. 17.) implausible. That is what anthropologists sought, at least until recently. It was and still remains what archaeologists seek in the physical remains of ancient sites. One might imagine an architect, an architect with Louis Kahn's turn of mind, to be particularly in- terested to pursue his search among the physical, often architectural, remains of ar- chaic societies. And, of course Kahn did; he preferred Paestum to the Parthenon (Figure 2).3In a drawing of the Acropolis, Kahn gave a curious attention to what is non- canonical (Figure 3). Or again, there is his attention to still more archaic ancient sites (Figure 4). Nonetheless, in the passages quoted, Kahn speaks of the books he collected and of his renewed searches for the archaic by turning to modern texts, to history. Why English history? Why should this Jewish man, who emigrated from Estonia to America as a boy, direct his attention to - England? From the second quotation, we learn that this reference is more than inci- 4. Kahn, travel sketch of the hypostyle hall. Kalmak. 1951. (Wurman and Feldman. eds dental: He tells us that he is particularly in- Notebooks and Drawings, plate 10.) terested in English history; it fascinates him. 1 1 Anderson Then he offers a reason: "Though it's a ductive structure. Roman law and Catholic there is an earlier, original form to which bloody history, it still has this quality of a canon law are codified. Such law presides appeal can be made, this may well be a fun- search." The search is now not only Kahn's over historical change. Codified law is given, damentalist revolt. To continue from search for beginnings; he reads English his- not searched-searched neither backward Pocock: Wherever it [the original form of tory as itself a search. This must also be a nor forward. The English conception of that the law] survives, or even can be imagined, search extended in time, a search that is also moment is, however, very like the moment there is the possibility of a fundamentalist directed forward. we are entertaining in Kahn's thought: a Ja- revolt, a demand for return to the original Janus-like, Kahn's search for begin- nus-like construction in which we look back sources. Such revolts, at once radical and nings is not merely antiquarian nor merely through the succession of events to a time reactionary, involve the repudiation of tra- the identification of sources for imitation, immemorial in order that we may confirm dition; they raise the problems of how the but rather the search for an impulse that may an ancient, unwritten constitution and thus original form of authority may be known, still inform us today. But again, why English affirm the customs and institutions that also and what relation (other than traditional) it history? I suggest two reasons, one quite or- must be adapted as one meets the contingen- may bear to the present [emphasis added].5 dinary and the other more profound, that cies of the present and future. There is the Yet, at least in this passage, I think stem from Kahn's own claim that English English sense of law, custom, and institu- Pocock fails to emphasize the difference be- history has the quality of a search. The ordi- tion, which relies on ancient, but constantly tween (1) a fundamentalist revolt that relies nary is this: Though an immigrant boy from renewed, agreement rather than rule-reli- on the survival of what is taken to be the another culture, Kahn grew up and worked ance on agreement whether we search back- original form of the law and (2) a fundamen- in a society with English roots.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • US Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay
    NAVAL AIR STATION KANEOHE, ADMINISTRATION AND HABS Hl-311-P OPERATIONS BUILDING HABS H/-311-P (U.S. Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay, Facility 215) E Street between 3rd and 4th streets Kq1n,@0t1e Honolulu County Hawaii PHOTOGRAPHS WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA FIELD RECORDS HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS SURVEY National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior 1849 C Street NW Washington, DC 20240-0001 HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS SURVEY U.S. NAVAL AIR STATION KANEOHE, OAHU, ADMINISTRATION AND OPERATIONS BUILDING (U.S. Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay, Facility 215) HABS No. Hl-311-P Location: Honolulu County, Hawaii U.S.G.S. Mokapu Point quadrangle, 1998 7.5 Minute Series (Topographic) (Scale - 1 :24,000) NAD83 datum. Universal Transverse Mercator Coordinates: 04.628510.2371690. Lat./ Long. Coordinates: 21 °26'35.05" N 157°45'35.45" W Date of Construction: 1941 Designer: Albert Kahn, Inc., Detroit, Michigan Builder: Contractors, Pacific Naval Air Bases Owner: U.S. Marine Corps Present Use: Offices Significance: Facility 215, Administration and Operations Building, is significant for its association with U.S. Naval Air Station (NAS) Kaneohe and its role before the onset of World War II (WWII) in the Pacific. It was one of the primary buildings during the establishment of the U.S. Naval Air Station Kaneohe and headquarters for the station coll1111ander. The building contained the offices for numerous important administrative and coll1111unication functions of the station. The ca. 1939 building is also significant as a part of the original design of the station. In addition, Facility 215 at Kaneohe, along with forty-three other facilities there, is significant because it embodies distinctive characteristics of building types in this period that were designed by the notable architectural firm of Albert Kahn, Inc.
    [Show full text]
  • The Sixties and the Forgotten Man: a Non-Modest Proposal
    The Sixties and the Forgotten Man: A Non-Modest Proposal Peter E. Austin Peter E. Austin was Honors Professor of History and University Studies for sixteen years at St. Edward’s University. He is author of Baring Brothers and the Birth of Modern Finance (Pickering & Chatto, 2007), and is completing a manuscript on the historical relationship between lawyers and the economic growth of nations. Currently he directs The 1960s Project, a large study of the era that grew out of a large lecture course for college freshmen on the same topic. One July day long ago, a young man from Kansas decided to try his luck in the 1500- meter run at the annual US vs. British Commonwealth meet in Los Angeles. He set a world record that day against the Kenyan runner Kip Keino that stood for seven years. This was not new. As a younger man, he had shown promise in high school and was the first athlete his age to run a mile in under four minutes. By graduation, he had bested his own record several times and by nineteen had set a string of world records in the mile and half-mile. Ironically, this Topeka native had been cut from his school’s basketball, baseball, and track and field teams as a teenager, and running cross-country was a last resort. Determined by grit or his Presbyterian faith, Jim Ryun became the youngest male track athlete ever to qualify for the Olympics. Eventually he medaled in three sets of Games over twelve years, received Athlete of the Year Awards, was elected to the National Track and Field Hall of Fame; and upon retirement from 1 running, entered business, then national politics as a Congressman on the Republican ticket, and received the Medal of Freedom from President Trump in 2020.
    [Show full text]
  • Hurvat Hamidrash—The Ruin of the Oracle
    11.949 City Visions: Past and Future Prof. Diane Davis and Prof. Larry Vale With the MIT Jerusalem 2050 Lecture Series: “Cities against Nationalism: Urbanism as Visionary Politics” Hurvat haMidrash—the Ruin of the Oracle The Hurvah Synagogue of Louis Kahn and the Semantics of Nationalism Eric Orozco 15 May 2004 Fig. 1 Hurvah Synagogue, first proposal. Louis I. Kahn, 1968. (Model reconstruction by Kent Larson). Fig. 2 Temple of Amon, Karnak, Egypt. Louis I. Kahn, 1951. Hurvat haMidrash—the Ruin of the Oracle The Hurvah Synagogue of Louis Kahn and the Semantics of Nationalism In the Pantheon of 20th century architects, Louis Kahn occupies a singular place. Although Kahn was not exactly the “mystic” seer that some claim he is, his personal mythical quest for the “origins” of architecture gives him the status of something like a divine personage or Biblical prophet among architects, says Alexander Gorlin. We often lump Mies, Corbu and Gropius in one breath, and may trace out in a good day their family trees through their Team X and Situationist scions and their prattling post-modern grandchildren. But somewhere standing alone in the margins is the Ezekiel figure of Kahn, straddling simultaneously the Beaux-Arts universe of the early 20th century, CIAM modernism, and Neolithic and Bronze Age architecture. When Kahn was a toddler, the legend goes, he was drawn to inspect the light of glowing coal, which flared up suddenly in his face and permanently scarred the features around his mouth. Devotees of Kahn love to recount that story. As Gorlin observes, “The incident recalls the passage from the Book of Isaiah (XI, 66) where ‘one of the angels, with a glowing stone in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from off the altar, touched my mouth with it to cleanse me of sin.’”1 Actually, a closer precedent occurs in a Jewish Agaddic tale that recounts a similar event in the life of Moses, who purportedly placed a glowing coal in his mouth as a babe so that it scorched his tongue and made him “halting in speech”.
    [Show full text]
  • Philadelphia Area Jewish Genealogical Resource Directory
    PPhhiillaaddeellpphhiiaa AArreeaa JJeewwiisshh GGeenneeaallooggiiccaall RReessoouurrccee DDiirreeccttoorryy VV 88..00 66//11//0099 V.8.0 7/23/09 1 DDeeddiiccaattiioonn This guide is dedicated to HARRY BOONIN, founding President of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Philadelphia. Harry has • been a trailblazer in Jewish genealogy • conducted presentations, • conducted significant personal family • developed and led tours of Philadelphia’s Jewish genealogical research, Quarter, • innovatively circumvented barriers in Eastern • selflessly responded to requests for help Europe and Russia to access records, • and graciously offered sage advice, insight and • researched Jewish history in Philadelphia, wise counsel. • written extensively, In Harry’s words: “We join a genealogical society to find our family and what we find many times are friends with kindred spirits and kind souls.” Harry, you are the kindred spirit - the kind and giving soul for many of us. We have learned from you how to contribute to our community, through your disciplined research, active participation, writing, tours and humility. We hope to continue sharing your unselfish contributions, valuable perspective and good humor. Harry at Alliance Cemetery – October 2008 – Picture courtesy of Lois Sernoff. V.8.0 7/23/09 2 3 IInn AApppprreecciiaattiioonn This resource guide was developed as a project of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Philadelphia with help from the Jewish community. We appreciate the responses in answering our questions, reviewing our findings and
    [Show full text]
  • Rafael Moneo Was Born in Tudela, Navarra (Spain) in May of 1937. He Obtained His Architectural Degree in 1961 from the Technical School of Architecture in Madrid
    Rafael Moneo was born in Tudela, Navarra (Spain) in May of 1937. He obtained his architectural degree in 1961 from the Technical School of Architecture in Madrid. In 1963, Professor Moneo was awarded a two-year fellowship at the Spanish Academy of Rome. Upon his return to Spain, Rafael Moneo taught at the Technical School of Architecture in Madrid (1966-70). In 1970 he won a chaired professorship in architectural theory at the Technical School of Architecture in Barcelona, where he taught until 1980. In that year he was named chaired professor at the School of Architecture in Madrid, where he taught until 1985. In 1976, Rafael Moneo was invited to the U.S. as a Visiting Fellow by the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies of New York City (1976-77) and by the Cooper Union School of Architecture (NYC, 1976-77). During the late seventies and early eighties he was visiting professor at the architecture schools at Princeton and Harvard, and later at the architecture department of the Federal Polytechnic School in Lausanne, Switzerland. In 1985, Rafael Moneo was named Chairman of the architecture department of the GSD, a position he held until the end of his term in 1990. He was named Josep Lluís Sert Professor of Architecture in 1991. Prof. Moneo's pedagogical activities have extended to numerous symposia and lectures delivered at, among other institutions, the University of Chicago, Columbia University, Princeton University, Yale University, Tulane University, Rhode Island School of Design (U.S.), the Architectural Association School
    [Show full text]
  • Louis Kahn: the Power of Architecture Synagogue (1961-1972, Unbuilt, Philadelphia, USA)
    NEWS Louis Kahn: The Power of Architecture Synagogue (1961-1972, unbuilt, Philadelphia, USA). Kahn’s clever use of concrete in each of Exhibition at London Design Museum his projects is well represented in this section through the use of different materials in London, UK, 9 July – 12 October 2014 models and drawings. Apart from the aesthetics of the building, Kahn was also concerned with the elements Louis Kahn: The Power of Architecture is a conse- studies relating the structure of the building that surround every construction, which led quent review and historic summary of Louis to science, with the ultimate result being the us to the “Grounding. Earth, water, wind, I. Kahn’s life, 20 years after the last exhibition project (unbuilt) of the City Tower (designed light” part, where we can find the best rep- about him1. This exhibition, compiling the in collaboration with Anne Tyng, 1952-1957, resentative projects designed by him, related main works and research projects of Kahn, is Philadelphia, USA) whose structure directly to nature. This is seen through his utilization a full experience that allows the public to get evokes the DNA formula. This part ends with of colorful expressive sketches of projects: to know the life of one of the most important the comparison between drawings and the The General Motors Exhibit at the 1964 American architects of the 20th century2. timber models of the Alfred Newton Rich- World’s Fair (1960-1961), the Salk Institute for The starting point of the exhibition is a ards Medical Research and Biology Buildings Biological Studies (1959-1965, La Jolla, USA) chronological list of projects (1926-1974) of (1957-1965, Philadelphia, USA), the Library and the Kimbell Art Museum (1966-1972, Fort Kahn, entailing his works as a design consul- and Dining Hall at Phillips Exeter Academy Worth, USA).
    [Show full text]
  • The Uncharted Kahn: the Visuality of Planning and Promotion in the 1930S and 1940S Andrew M
    The Uncharted Kahn: The Visuality of Planning and Promotion in the 1930s and 1940s Andrew M. Shanken An often overlooked change occurred in urban planning arcane and technical languages of urban planning to the lay between the 1920s and the 1940s, one represented in the public. following two images. In the first, the frontispiece of a 1936 Kahn's engagement with diagrams offers an illuminating report on city planning in New York City, the allegorical study of a larger international phenomenon in which an figure of city planning, in her guise as "Enlightment," strides array of graphic techniques drawn from other fields altered down a New York City avenue toppling buildings and eradi- the representational basis of architecture and planning. In cating slums (Fig. 1).1 In her wake emerges a shining, white the 1930s, architects worked extensively with images that one city: the gossamer of her dress sweeps away the human stain. is tempted to call unarchitectural: graphs, charts, diagrams, orga- It is an image of beautification, a term associated with city and the promotional material put out by city planning planning in the first decades of the twentieth century. The nizations, materials that described neither the architectonic qualities of buildings. Naturally, charts and City Beautiful Movement emerged in name and practice nor the spatial planning from this rhetoric, growing out of the French embellisement, a diagrams have played a role in architecture and throughout history. But their use intensified in the 1930s with word used to describe Georges Haussmann's accomplish- the rise of the government as the largest client, the emer- ment in Paris.
    [Show full text]
  • Louis I. Kahn and the Ruins of Rome
    Louis I. Kahn and the Ruins of Rome Kahn wanted to deal with begin­ nings-with the primeval reality by Vincent Scully ofarchitecture as a physical mass. Vincent Scully gave his lecture on Louis Kahn, from others to shape a space-a theater for human which this article is adapted, on November 12, 1992, action. Caltech's theater seems to be one of the as the first James Michelin Distinguished Visitor. The gentlest, most cloistered and wonderfully empty Michelin Distinguished Visitor Program was estab­ campus spaces I've ever seen. Caltech must be Kahn's mature style, lished by a gift from New York designer Bonnie the most elite of institutions because all day long in which he succeed­ ed in "wrapping ruins Cashin to foster creative interaction between the arts I haven't seen anybody. And I find that I like around buildings"­ and the sciences by inviting annually to Caltech visitors that very much the older I get. buildings that appear who will stimulate thought and discussion on a wide Cal tech also demonstrates some of the basic to have neither glass nor function-is best range of topics. Cashin, an influential fashion ttuths about the problems of modern architec­ represented by his designer, with more than 60 screen credits for costume ture; that is, once, before there was modernism, great buildings on the designs and numerous national and international Caltech had a very good plan by Bertram Good­ Indian subcontinent. This is housing for awards, was the principal founder of the Innovative hue. To modern historians like myself Goodhue government officials Design Fund to encourage the development of ideas from used to be the enemy, a Beaux-Arts architect who at Sher-e-Bangla creative designers.
    [Show full text]
  • Jewish News PHOENIX,ARIZONA
    Jewish News PHOENIX,ARIZONA Second class Every other Friday except VOL. XVII.No. 7 postage paid at monthly, July, August. December 27, 1963 Phoenix, Ariz. $3.50 per year BY ALPERT IN EARLY JANUARY UJWF Business-Professional Co-Chairmen Are Announced Israel Is Preparing For Visit of Pope JERUSALEM (JTA) this Israel’s Ministerial ate process of decision cussion and dialogue among Commit- and action to rectify ancient American Jews. The tee is making arrangements ferment wrongs. of re-examination is as healthy for the forthcoming visit by “At the same for Jews as Pope time, I myself for Catholics. Paul VI and setting in have been disheartened to “A plane will speed the Pope motion the detailed plans learn that my own recent state- in hours to the Holy Land. for the proper reception of ments on the significance of But, as he himself well knows, the Pontiff. Jesus as a prophet in the main- bold ideas for a new human A special subcommittee stream of the Jewish tradition accord, which must run the is expected to be set up by have caused some of my co- full gamut of fixed historical the religionists to rush to the con- attitudes, travel more slowly Ministerial Committee clusion that I was to facilitate news speaking to the human conscience. I coverage officially for Reform pray that, the whole- to coverage Judaism. through facilitate news of Needless to say, I was Pope’s and hearted efforts of all men of the visit. Already, am now speaking my- dozens for good will, mankind will speed- of newsmen from all self alone.
    [Show full text]
  • Rapport D'activités 2012
    Alliance israélite univer selle Rapport d’activité 2012 présenté par le directeur général au Conseil d’administration le 16 avril 2013 Alliance israélite universelle Rapport d’activité de l’Alliance israélite universelle pour l’année 2012 1 1 Rapport d’activité de l’Alliance israélite universelle pour l’année 2012 Sommaire Avant propos du directeur général ………………………………………………… 5 Les faits marquants de l’année 2012 ……………………………………………… 9 Première partie …………………………………………………………………… 15 Les pôles d’activité de l’Alliance israélite universelle I Le réseau scolaire de l’AIU ………………………………………………… 17 1.1. Identité et sécurité : les deux priorités de l’année 2012 ……………………… 17 ■ Adoption de la Charte du réseau scolaire de l’Alliance ………………… 17 ■ Le renforcement de la sécurité ……………………………………………… 17 1.2. Développement et innovations pédagogiques ………………………………… 18 ■ La pédagogie active appliquée à l’enseignement des fêtes juives en hébreu facile, en français et en anglais ………………………………… 18 ■ Initiation du projet Histoire juive …………………………………………… 18 ■ Éveil de la curiosité scientifique …………………………………………… 19 ■ Le Projet Alliance Europe au cœur de la pédagogie du judaïsme ……… 19 ■ Le Campus d’été « Charles Netter » à Mikvé Israël ……………………… 20 1.3. Bilan et Évolution dans les principaux établissements du réseau …………… 20 1.4. Des personnalités associées aux chantiers pédagogiques …………………… 22 II L’enseignement supérieur ……………………………………………………… 23 2.1. L’Institut européen Emmanuel Levinas ………………………………………… 23 ■ Enseignements ……………………………………………………………… 24 ■ Cycles de
    [Show full text]
  • Dorothy-Shipley-White-House.-717-Glengarry-Rd.-Complete.Pdf
    NOMINATION OF HISTORIC BUILDING, STRUCTURE, SITE, OR OBJECT PHILADELPHIA REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES PHILADELPHIA HISTORICAL COMMISSION SUBMIT ALL ATTACHED MATERIALS ON PAPER AND IN ELECTRONIC FORM ON CD (MS WORD FORMAT) 1. ADDRESS OF HISTORIC RESOURCE (must comply with a Board of Revision of Taxes address) Street address: 717 Glengarry Road Postal code: 19118 Councilmanic District: 8th 2. NAME OF HISTORIC RESOURCE Historic Name: Dorothy Shipley White Residence; Mrs. Thomas Raeburn White Residence Common Name: 3. TYPE OF HISTORIC RESOURCE Building Structure Site Object 4. PROPERTY INFORMATION Condition: excellent good fair poor ruins Occupancy: occupied vacant under construction unknown Current use: Vacant 5. BOUNDARY DESCRIPTION – SEE ATTACHED SEE ATTACHED 6. DESCRIPTION – SEE ATTACHED SEE ATTACHED 7. SIGNIFICANCE Period of Significance (from year to year): 1963-1978 Date(s) of construction and/or alteration: 1963 Architect, engineer, and/or designer: Mitchell/Giurgola Associates Builder, contractor, and/or artisan: H. Pierre LaSalle Original owner: Dorothy Shipley White Other significant persons: CRITERIA FOR DESIGNATION: The historic resource satisfies the following criteria for designation (check all that apply): (a) Has significant character, interest or value as part of the development, heritage or cultural characteristics of the City, Commonwealth or Nation or is associated with the life of a person significant in the past; or, (b) Is associated with an event of importance to the history of the City, Commonwealth or Nation; or,
    [Show full text]
  • Columns of Light Louis Kahn's Design for Sanctuary of The
    QUOTATION: What does history have in store for architecture today? Columns of Light Louis Kahn’s Design For Sanctuary Of The Mikveh Israel Synagogue (Philadelphia, 1961-72) Peter Kohane UNSW Sydney Abstract The conference theme of quotation is addressed by considering Kahn’s studies during the 1950s of renowned past and present buildings, including medieval monuments in Albi, the Chapel Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp and the Temple of Apollo in Corinth. These will contribute to an interpretation of his scheme for the Mikveh Israel Synagogue (Philadelphia, un-built, 1961-72). Emphasis is placed on hollow columns, which he discerned in buildings seen when travelling in Europe and invoked in the synagogue project. Its most significant interior, which is the sanctuary, incorporates peripheral columns of light. In a series of sketches made in Albi, Kahn stressed that the Bishop’s Palace and the cathedral are linked through their shared use of hollow columns. This informed work in his office on the Mikveh Israel project, specifically models that demonstrated the role of a basic column: it was adapted and repeated to create versions that articulate and connect the three main buildings. These are brought together as an ensemble. When studying the interior of Le Corbusier’s building, Kahn noted that pilgrims worship within the three peripheral chapels. This inspired the scheme for the sanctuary, including a perspective from 1963, where members of the congregation are within hollow columns configured as luminous rooms. Analysis is based on two comparable drawings that accentuate light. In The Room, light resides within the two occupants.
    [Show full text]