First Unitarian Church and School, Rochester, New York, Final version: elevation
Louis I. Kahn
American, born Estonia. 1901–1974
1961
An architectural elevation in graphite on tracing paper showing Louis Kahn’s design for the First Unitarian Church and School, where he was testing the massing and proportion of interlocking geometric volumes.
You see a pale, almost ghostly row of blocklike forms—carefully hatched and crisply outlined—set low on a wide field of tracing paper so the monumental solids read as measured, monolithic presences against emptiness.
The drawing marks Kahn’s move toward elemental geometry and the play of heavy mass and light-filled space, a key moment in postwar architecture that influenced how architects think about material, form, and civic monumentality.
Medium
Graphite on tracing paper
Dimensions
17 3/4 x 29 1/8" (45.1 x 74 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the architect
Accession
410.1964
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
