First Unitarian Church and School, Rochester, New York, Final version: elevation
Louis I. Kahn
American, born Estonia. 1901–1974
1961
A graphite-on-tracing-paper elevation by Louis Kahn that reduces a church and school to a measured rhythm of solid blocks and recessed openings, testing how mass and light shape communal architecture.
At first glance it reads as a faint, measured frieze: repeating vertical piers and deep-set windows rendered in soft graphite, their stacked rectilinear volumes hovering against the translucent sheet.
The drawing shows Kahn’s practice of using delicate, hand-drawn studies to investigate monumental geometry and daylight, helping steer mid‑20th‑century modernism toward a more tectonic, light‑centered architecture.
Medium
Graphite on tracing paper
Dimensions
16 1/8 x 27 1/2" (41 x 69.9 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the architect
Accession
407.1964
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
