“In the temple of science are many mansions,” remarked Albert Einstein a century ago, yet in his wildest fantasies it is doubtful that he could have imagined how Louis Kahn’s Salk Institute would monumentalize his metaphor. Perhaps the most globally renowned laboratory architecture of our time, the Salk Institute (1965) marked a pinnacle in the career of Kahn. Synthesizing his experiences as an architect studying Kahn’s work, Jeffry Kieffer explores the genesis and growth of the La Jolla, California, landmark. The tale he tells illuminates design issues extending beyond this masterwork and makes this study compelling reading for more than followers of Kahn.
Rather than limiting his focus to the Salk Institute, Kieffer analyzes several Kahn projects before it (e.g., the Trenton Bath House, 1959) and after (such as the National Assembly building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, 1962–83). Additional chapters clarify Kahn’s fascination with utopianism, spiritual mysticism, and transcendental philosophy. The appendices include a transcript of a 1984 lecture by Jonas Salk hinting at a future addition to Kahn’s architecture, and a variety of letters by a who’s who of major American architects protesting the East Building Annex, supported by Salk and completed in 1995 by Anshen + Allen.
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