Alfred Newton Richards Medical Research Building and Biology Building, University of Pennslylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Preliminary version: perspective

Louis I. Kahn

1957

This charcoal-on-tracing-paper perspective is a preliminary design for two University of Pennsylvania research buildings in which Kahn sought to express a monumental, columnar massing—using slender service towers and cubed cap-rooms to define the laboratories’ order and scale.

You’d be struck by a repeated, forest-like rhythm of tall vertical shafts capped by blocky forms, sketched with vigorous shading and spare lines that make the tiny figures at ground level feel dwarfed by their civic presence.

The sketch makes visible Kahn’s served-and-servant idea—turning functional service towers into sculptural elements—and helped shift mid‑20th‑century institutional architecture toward an expressive honesty about structure and program.

Palette

Art Terms

Architectural drawing Drawing Charcoal Perspective Sketch Architecture

Exhibitions

Built in the U.S.A., 1932–44

1944

Richards Medical Research Building, Louis I. Kahn, Architect

1961

Architectural Models from the Collection

1974

Modern Architecture: International Exhibition

1932