S k e t c h o f t h e S a n c tu a r y o f A t h e n a , D e l ph i , G r e e c e by L ou i s K a hn , 1951 The Architecture of Interpretation Peter Anderson COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation 2007 THE ARCHITECTURE OF INTERPRETATION Peter Anderson Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Science in Historic Preservation Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation Columbia University October 2007 Advisor: Theodore H. M. Prudon Readers: Paul Bentel, Michael J. Mills, Robert Twombly © Copyright by Peter Anderson 2007 Dedication To Professor Lydia Goehr for interpreting the journey and for future Fitch Scholars to illuminate the way. The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them. - Albert Einstein In the dim light at the top of the stairway, the antique molding planes crowd side-by- side on makeshift wooden shelves like small, thin, earth-toned volumes in the library of some antiquarian scholar. Scores of these well-worn tools range along the narrow corridor of the carriage house attic that serves as an office for Historic New England, the oldest preservation organization in the country. The tools are a benefactor’s gift from one generation to another. They are still occasionally used when construction projects do not require large quantities of machine- produced, architectural millwork. Like oral history projected across time by traditional storytellers, architecture sustains comprehension through the utility of tools linking craftsmanship past to present. It is this connection between old and new that enlightens experience and enhances appreciation. It is the role that interpretation plays in giving purpose to the practice of preservation. i Acknowledgements Recycling Interpretation is all about re-creation, the recycling of history from a fresh point of view. It requires insight - the sight within. Louis Kahn said all creation exists within oneself, as always. He rejected principles of black-box architecture espoused by many of his contemporaries. He found inspiration in light rather than darkness. For over a year now I have been living with the subject of Louis Kahn and the Trenton Bathhouse, enriched by the diversity of views shared by those whose lives have been touched and irrevocably altered by his work. It seemed a simple beginning. A major discovery along the way was the realization of the incredible complexity and integrity that Kahn imbued in his designs for the Jewish Community Center. And for him this was just the start - his seminal creation. The structure of this thesis has evolved and matured with the growth in understanding of the implications of Kahn’s work and the responsibilities we as architects, preservationists and citizens assume in guiding the interpretation of these landmark buildings for the benefit of communities yet unknown. Louis Kahn never stopped questioning the possible, knowing that the discovery of irrefutable answers was a futile undertaking. With an awareness of that sight within, he energetically encourages us to wonder and to re-create. Let a new cycle begin. ii iii Synopsis The world knows it simply as the Trenton Bathhouse. In truth, this designation is not entirely accurate; some parts, in fact, are not true at all. Still, almost from the beginning, since the time the Jewish Community Center was constructed in the small, suburban community of Ewing, New Jersey, in the 1950s, this is how the self-professed seminal work of Louis Kahn's architectural career has been identified. For preservationists, how we choose to frame a subject largely determines how its history is remembered. The emphasis of interpretation significantly influences our perceptions as information is transferred to succeeding generations. The Architecture of Interpretation takes advantage of the unique opportunity that exists to explore strategies for interpretation concurrently with preservation plans that are being developed for Louis Kahn’s landmark buildings in New Jersey. The thesis offers the proposition that an appropriate strategy for preservation rests within the interpretation of the site as a community of relationships generating the power of self-discovery. This realization is supported but not constrained by circumstances of time and place, of age and experience, of history and the material world. These conditions exist at the edge of consciousness and hold connections to reality but are external factors. The force awakening enlightenment rests within each of us. Louis Kahn expressed as much when he observed that, "Wonder in us…is a record of the way we were made. It is, one may call it, a seed... [I]n wonder lies the source of all that we'll ever learn or feel." 1 1 Louis Kahn: Essential Texts, Edited by Robert Twombly (New York: Norton & Company, 2003) p.152. iv I believe wonder is the motivator of knowledge. And knowledge is nothing until it comes to a kind of sense of order, a sense of the harmony of systems.2…I believe that what was has always been, and what is has always been, and what will be has always been. I don't think the circumstantial play from year to year and era to era means anything, but what has become available to you from time to time as expressive instinct does. 3 The architecture of interpretation can address the general, comprehensive quality of a site's structure or, equally as valid, can focus on the interdependence between specific buildings. For this study, the Jewish Community Center is described by a range of interactions that define community. 4 Chapter 1 introduces the interpretive theories of Freeman Tilden and his assertion that the purpose of interpretation is not to instruct but to provoke, to reveal rather than to communicate. John Veverka, author and international interpretative planner, takes up Tilden’s discussion and demonstrates the need to engage 2 Louis Kahn, "Law and Rule in Architecture," Essential Texts (Princeton, 1961) p.124. 3 Ibid: p.278. "Built into us is a reverence for the elements, for water, for light, for air -- a deep reverence for the animal world and the green world. But, like everything which is deeply rooted in feeling and part of our psychic existence, it does, not come forth easily.” "Design is a circumstantial act. It is a battle with our human nature, with the nature of nature, with the laws of nature, with the rules of man, and with principles. One must see all this to put it into being. Design is a material thing. It makes dimensions. It makes sizes. Form is a realization of the difference between one thing and another, a realization of what characterizes it. Form is not a design; it is not a shape, not a dimension. It is not a material thing." Louis Kahn, Essential Texts, p.119. 4 "All of Kahn's solutions show that he was able to synthesize commonsense practicality and consideration for economically sound building with a concern for human interaction and the broadest conceptions of institutional use. These became hallmarks of his later, more elaborate projects... While Kahn's clients exhibited no effort to understand his designs and were rarely satisfied with his conceptions, their patronage challenged him to create some of his best work." Solomon, Susan G. Louis I. Kahn's Trenton Jewish Community Center (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2000) p3. conditions exist at the edge of consciousness and v the visitor in a conversation about historic significance. He asks why a visitor should care about the meaning of landmarks and then questions what he should do about such concerns. He challenges: How is this understanding useful? What value does it offer? Sam H. Ham, author and professor of communication psychology and tourism at the University of Idaho's Department of Conservation, ends the interpretive debate with the apparently indifferent rhetorical question, “So what?” He insists that effective communication is essential to convey significance. Louis Kahn understood the imperative to record the essence of one’s experiences. He wrote, “The reason for man’s living is to express. And art is his medium.” 5 He concludes that attention must be paid to the need to preserve the cultural expressions of man’s art, “his reason for living.” Chapter 2 presents a summary of how the Bathhouse and the other buildings of the Jewish Community Center came to be. The role of participants and what they sought to achieve is explored against a background of significant social, economic, political and institutional changes experienced during the 1950s with the creation of suburban America. Chapters 3 and 4 describe how themes such as time, order and style can be introduced to highlight the unique character of the buildings created for the Community Center. The fifth chapter demonstrates that communities exist as a compilation of specially structured interactions that help to define common values. Four buildings offer opportunities for the development of interpretive programs: the Day Camp, the 5 Twombly, Robert. Louis Kahn Essential Texts (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2003) p.198. vi Bathhouse, a 1950s suburban house and the main Community Center building designed by Kelly & Gruzen in 1961. Chapters 6 and 7 analyze the Day Camp and the Bathhouse in greater detail revealing the architectural character of each building’s design. The introduction of topics of youth and maturity provide a standard of evaluation for the theme Discovering Community. Whereas the topics youth and maturity can be considered developmental and non- elective, the topics family structure and tribal alliance, the focus of Chapter 8, are hierarchical and progressively selective.