Louis I. Kahn Park / How this site became Louis I. Kahn Park

Louis I. Kahn Park, also, How this site became Louis I. Kahn Park. . , Louis I. Kahn Park , This park was named in memory of Louis I. Kahn (1901-1974), a Philadelphia architect and educator of international acclaim and a resident of this neighborhood. Born in Estonia, Kahn emigrated in 1905 to Philadelphia, where he lived the rest of his life. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania where he later served with distinction as Cret Professor of Architecture., Buildings designed by Kahn are seen throughout the United States, India and Bangladesh. His works exhibit a masterly handling of structure, materials (in particular reinforced concrete and brick), simple geometries and a visual concern for natural light. Architecture, Kahn said, is the thoughtful making of spaces., Kahn's most famous works confirm his guiding principles based on three human institutions - the school, the street, the village green - symbolizing respectively the human desire to learn, places for people to gather, and the search for common goals. For Kahn, a city was the assembly of these institutions and a potential source of inspiration for its citizens. He described the city as a place where children walking through the streets will sense what they would someday like to be., How this site became Louis I. Kahn Park , From early in the 19th century until after the Civil War, the future home of Kahn Park was the Linnard Lumberyard, which extended across much of this block. In 1889, the site was chosen for Philadelphia's first multistory apartment hotel, the Gladstone, which was designed by Theophilus parsons Chandler Jr., an architect who had a profound influence on the city during the late 19th century. Chandler also founded the Department of Architecture of the University of Pennsylvania, which now houses the Louis I. Kahn archives., In the mid-1950s, the Gladstone was renamed the Greystone and used solely for apartments. Despite preservationists' efforts, the building was demolished in 1971, making way for this park. The Philadelphia Department of Recreation's original design produced a low-maintenance space with few plantings and emphasis on concrete. (Hence its nickname, "concrete park.") It was later renamed in memory of the Philadelphia architect Louis I. Kahn who, with his wife Esther, had lived nearby on Clinton Street., Tired of the park's barren landscape and its poor condition, a group of neighbors founded The Friends of Louis I. Kahn Park in 1983 to improve the original setting by creating a greener, more inviting design. For more than 15 years, until her death in 1996, Esther Kahn was active in raising money and assisting with the park's annual fair and summer concerts. At the dedication of the fountain, she remarked on Louis preference for water in or near his sites., Kahn Park, now lush with plantings, is one of few green oases between Washington and Rittenhouse Squares, the commercial heart of the city. For its size , less than an acre , the park is one of the most intensively used public spaces in Philadelphia.