1956 Municipal Administrative Building
1999 Seattle Public Library
| |
2001.07.23
Koolhaas reenacting Kahn/Tyng?
There is an striking resemblance between the Koolhaas/OMA Seattle Public Library and Louis Kahn's and Anne Tyng's Municipal Administrative Building project from 1956-57, a design for downtown Philadelphia. See [inactive link] for an elevation and section of the Philadelphia design, and any web search of 'koolhaas seattle library' will provide you with an image of the Seattle design. [The Kahn/Tyng image is a digital snapshot of a detail of page 31 of Louis I. Kahn: Complete Works 1935-1974.]
Could it be that Koolhaas has moved on from reenacting late unbuilt Le Corbusier and American Mies, and is now finding inspiration in early unbuilt Kahn?
And, not to put too fine on it, but doesn't Kahn's extra marital relationship with Tyng seem to also be reenacted by Koolhaas as well?
Quondam minds want to know what's the next big inspiration, maybe early unbuilt Venturi & Rauch?!? Oops! I forgot, Koolhaas already reenacted the National Football Hall of Fame with a design for Karlsruhe.
| |
2003.05.12 14:01
Koolhaas the reenactor
A good look at very early Kahn, particularly his projects for Philadelphia, will shed interesting light on architecture of the 90s and the 00s.
| |
| |
|