A documentary about Louis Kahn’s work and unorthodox family life was nominated for an Oscar in 2003. This year “My Architect: A Son’s Journey” is part of the second annual Nowells Architecture Movie Series at the Galaxy Cinema in Cary, NC.
Louis Kahn’s teaching career began at Yale University in 1947. He was elected an American Institute of Architects fellow in 1953. In the 1960s, he became Professor of Architecture and Planning at MIT and, later, Professor of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1974, Kahn died of a heart attack in a men’s restroom in New York’s Pennsylvania Station. He went unidentified for three days because he had crossed out the home address on his passport.
Despite his successful career, Kahn was deeply in debt when he died. In 2003, Kahn’s son, Nathaniel Kahn, released this documentary about his father which gives glimpses of Kahn’s architecture while including interviews with the people who knew him, including renowned contemporaries B. V. Doshi, Frank Gehry, Ed Bacon, Philip Johnson, I. M. Pei, and Robert A. M. Stern.
George Smart of Triangle Modernist Houses will be giving away 20 pairs of tickets to “My Architect: A Son’s Journey” at the Egg sculpture behind Brooks Hall at the College of Design at NC State University at 1 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 6. (The tickets are for the 6:30 p.m. showing on Thursday, Dec.16.)
Link to Movie Trailer
Link to Full Series Schedule