Louis Kahn Steps Out Again in Philadelphia
With a slate of public events in support of the first major retrospective of Kahn’s work since the early 1990s, the legendary architect and longtime PennDesign faculty member was again a presence in the city where he spent most of his life.
With a slate of public events in support of the first major retrospective of Kahn’s work since the early 1990s, the legendary architect and longtime PennDesign faculty member was again a presence in the city where he spent most of his life.
The exhibition, “Louis Kahn: The Power of Architecture,” touring internationally over the course of five years, made a final stop in Philadelphia in 2017 at The Fabric Workshop and Museum.
The Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania is the permanent home of the objects in the exhibit, representing tens of thousands of drawings, models, project files, and correspondence from Kahn’s office.
Open to the public since 1979, the Louis I. Kahn Collection continues to attract a steady stream of international visitors. It has been an invaluable resource for scholars and curators, and was instrumental to his resurgence and continued relevance.
Managed by William Whitaker (MArch’96), a leading Kahn scholar, the Architectural Archives provides a portal to the evolution of American architecture, featuring pieces from the 17th century to the present, and is home to collections of more than 400 designers including fellow PennDesign luminaries Edmund Bacon, Ian McHarg, Robert