Louis I. Kahn was born in Estonia to Latvian parents, who immigrated to Philadelphia when he was five. At an early age, Kahn demonstrated an aptitude for drawing, and his eventual decision to pursue architecture at the University of Pennsylvania came at the cost of turning down a scholarship in fine art. At Penn, Kahn studied under the distinguished French architect Paul Philippe Cret, whose Beaux-Arts background was formative for Kahn. Although Kahn’s eventual path would be towards a transcendent modernist vision, this early training, as well as his métier as artist, remained with him for life.

Architectural masterworks include the Salk Institute, La Jolla, CA, the Kimbell Art Museum, Ft. Worth, TX, and the National Parliament of Bangladesh, among others. Louis I. Kahn is represented in the collections of numerous international museums including Art Institute of Chicago, Deutsches Architektur Museum, Frankfurt, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Middlebury College, Williams College Museum of Art, Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania. He has also been the subject of several museum exhibitions including, most recently,  Louis I. Kahn: The Power of Architecture, which began at the Netherlands Architecture Institute (Sep 7, 2012 - Jan 6, 2013) and will travel to the Vitra Design Museum (Mar 9, 2013 - Aug 25, 2013) and the National Museum in Oslo (Oct 2013 - Jan 2014.)