Salk Institute for Biological Studies (Laboratory, Meeting House, and Housing), La Jolla, California (Laboratory: perspective)
Louis I. Kahn
American, born Estonia. 1901–1974
1962
A charcoal on tracing paper perspective sketch in which Louis Kahn seeks to present the Salk Institute’s laboratory, meeting house, and housing as an integrated, human-scaled composition set within trees and open space.
You first notice the broad horizontal sweep and spare, rhythmic charcoal strokes—gestural tree trunks in the foreground that frame and partially veil the rectilinear volumes, giving the scene both monumentality and intimacy.
The drawing captures Kahn’s late‑modern ideal of ordered, light-filled civic architecture where geometric concrete forms and landscape coexist, a persuasive hand-drawn precedent that influenced institutional design and how architects communicate poetic spatial ideas.
Medium
Charcoal on tracing paper
Dimensions
19 1/2 x 38 3/4" (49.5 x 98.4 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the architect
Accession
384.1967
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
