My Architect: A Son's Journey

Directed, Written and Narrated by Nathaniel Kahn

Unrated

116 minutes runtime

The great architect Louis Kahn immigrated to America from Estonia to become one the leading architectural influences of the 20^th century.  Kahn was the genius’ genius, the “original wandering Jew” according to one of his peers, traveling to the far corners of the world, alone, in search of new projects, most of which never materialized.  He was a professor at Yale, Dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania and was awarded the AIA Gold Medal in 1971 and the RIBA Gold Medal in 1972 and was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1971.  In 1974 he died in a Penn Station restroom of a heart attack.  Because he had marked out the address on his passport his body went unclaimed in the New York City morgue for three days.  He left behind a company bankrupt and over a half million dollars in debt.  He also left behind three separate families and three children, only one of which he ever publicly acknowledged.

“My Architect” is the story of Louis Kahn and his three families, told by Nathanial Kahn, his son by the landscape architect Harriet Pattison, with whom Lou collaborated on a number of important designs.  The movie features Nathanial telling his and his mother’s stories of growing up is a secluded house in the Philadelphia suburbs and seeing Louis for a weekend every month or two.  Louis never acknowledged Harriet Pattison and their son Nathanial or Anne Tyng and their daughter Alexandra Tyng.  His will left everything to his acknowledged wife, Esther, and daughter, Sue Ann Kahn. 

Featuring interviews with Kahn’s great contemporaries, Philip Johnson, I. M. Pei, and Robert A. M. Stern and great archival footage of Kahn himself, the movie is a treasure trove of architectural perspective revolving around the giant stone-henge slabs that were Kahn’s trademark.  In speaking of Kahn’s vision and eccentricities, Pei is the most stirring in saying, “40, 50 buildings are fine, but two or three masterpieces, that’s better.  Quality over quantity.”  Probably the most extensive interviews are with contemporary architect Frank Gehry, whose aircraft aluminum Experience Music Project building (aka: Jimi Hendrix memorial) in Seattle is among the most radical new buildings produced in the 20^th century.

Kahn’s work culminated in the Kimbell Museum at Fort Worth, Texas, in 1972 and the National Assembly in Dacca, Bangladesh in 1974.  Of the dozens of monuments that are listed to Kahn’s credit, the movie states that only one ever made money for his firm.  I had to laugh at the comments about the Richards Research Center: the building temperatures are uneven and birds nest on the windows.  The architecture students at my alma mater, IIT, in Chicago, used to say of the leaky roof on Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s classic Crown Hall: “If it doesn’t leak, it isn’t Mies.”

Kahn’s story is one of ever increasing vision and alienation.  He was floundering amongst a variety of styles until a trip to Europe and its ancient ruins changed his vision forever.  From that point his buildings reflected the massive slab-like forms of stone henge, the pyramids and the buildings of ancient Rome.  Using reinforced concrete, he formed building elements of such simplicity and grandeur that they lent dignity and perseverance to the very land around them.  They are contemporary and yet seem to have been there for ever.  Their presence echoes the permanence of their setting.

His buildings are layered from the inside out, one layer being visible from the next through his trademark circular, rectangular and triangular openings throughout the interior and exterior of the structure.  His use of water and water falls to form moving planar sheets that compliment the structural slabs lend an air of eastern mysticism to the buildings.

As Kahn’s work became famous and the demand for his services increased, he became increasing detached from the people around him.  In the last ten years of his life, during which he produced his most famous designs, his pattern of work was one of dropping in, working for days on end, sleeping only occasionally in the studio and then leaving for the next trip.  By the time of his death he had alienated many of his trusted staff through his irregular hours and incredible demands on their time, their performance and, indeed, their lives.  He couldn’t understand when they refused to conform to his inspired, but flawed, lifestyle.

Although his professional relationships were strained, Kahn loved teaching and was always a steadfast supporter of his students at Yale, Penn and other institutions.  He was a true citizen of the world, going wherever he was wanted and working for that next great project.  Many of his greatest dreams were never realized and this documentary constantly revisits the sacrifice of a normal family life that was the price he paid for his fervent belief in visionary excellence.  His work always came first and he was always prepared to sacrifice whatever it took or himself, or others, to achieve that goal.

Nathanial’s mother Harriet refused to denounce anything that Kahn did, including his hiding of their family and virtual non-existence in the life of their son Nathanial.  She and Lou’s other mistress Anne Tyng remained inspired and loving supporters of their illegitimate husband.  Nathanial suggests that Kahn had crossed out the address on his passport, immediately prior to his death, in preparation for leaving his legal wife Esther and coming to live with him and Harriet for good.  Maybe this decision was more than Kahn could take.  We’ll never know for sure.