About

Michael Lewis, Faison-Pierson-Stoddard Professor of Art History, Williams College Louis I. Kahn is architecture’s greatest late bloomer. The classical architecture that he studied as a young man was made irrelevant by the Depression and World War II, forcing him to reinvent himself as a modernist. But in late life he rediscovered his architectural roots, which led him to forge the imaginative synthesis of classicism and modernism that is the central achievement of his career. Michael J. Lewis will show how Kahn’s travel sketches were crucial to this development, and how they kept alive the memory of the great buildings of the past at a time when modernism had forgotten history. Evening lectures by distinguished guest speakers, held throughout the year, address a range of topics relating to the appreciation and interpretation of art. They are free and open to the public. Seating is limited. Pavilion Auditorium; simulcast in Kahn Auditorium

The Academy Award-nominated documentary My Architect follows a son’s five-year journey to reconcile the life and work of his father, renowned architect Louis I. Kahn. Filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn will introduce the film and participate in a question and answer session following the first screening on March 26. Kahn Auditorium