Ely Jacques Kahn

120 Wall Street, designed by Buchman & Kahn, view from the East River

Ely Jacques Kahn (born June 1, 1884 in New York City , † September 5, 1972 ) was an American architect who designed numerous skyscrapers in New York City and other buildings and architectural visions in the 20th century . Among other things, it is assigned to the Art Deco style and is also referred to as one of the fathers of the New York skyline .

Life

Kahn was the only son of a wealthy Austrian and French-American Jewish family. The Austrian branch of the family comes from Hohenems , Vorarlberg . His father, Jakob Kahn (later called Jacques Kahn), was born in Hohenems on June 19, 1855, to Elias Kahn (1806 - December 5, 1858) and Regina Bernheimer (March 11, 1825 to July 20, 1877) . He married Eugenie Maximilian (1858–1953) in New York in 1879. From this marriage comes the daughter Rena (23 October 1880 - August 1966, married Rosenthal) who, together with her husband, Rudolf, ran a well-known design and interior design business in New York for many years and imported Viennese handicrafts, and the daughter Adele (1882 - after 1966, married Kramer Stricker).

Ely Jacques Kahn was married three times. In December 1912 he got engaged to Elsie Plaut (1890–1952) and they married around 1913. From this marriage came the children Joan Plaut (April 13, 1914 to October 12, 1994), the later writer Ely Jacques, Jr. (4 December 1916 to May 28, 1994) and Olivia (1920 - December 19, 2015). In his second marriage he was married from 1938 to Beatrice Josephi († 1962) and in his third marriage (after 1962) to Liselotte Hirshman.

Ely Jacques Kahn was the great-grandfather of Ely Jacques Kahn IV, who was Director of Information Technology Security (Cybersecurity Policy) at the White House .

Education

Kahn attended Columbia College from October 1899 to June 1903. From 1903 to 1907 he studied at Columbia University , School of Architecture, around 1908 in Paris at the Sorbonne and at the École des Beaux Arts . He was later a professor at Cornell University himself .

job

“Squibb Building”, 1930

There was an architectural partnership with Albert Buchman from 1917 to 1930 (Kahn & Buchman). During this time, Kahn changed his style from Beaux-Arts to Cubism , Modernism and Art Deco . The “Squibb Building” from this period (1930) was also described by Kahn as one of his best works. In 1930 Kahn took over the architecture office (now: "Ely Jacques Kahn Architects") and from this time onwards some of New York's well-known commercial skyscrapers were built, e.g. B. the 42-story Continental Building (1931). Ernst Plischke also worked in the studios of Ely Jacques Kahn and Albert Buchman .

In 1937, Ayn Rand worked as an intern at Kahn for half a year as part of her preparations for the novel "The Fountainhead" ( Eng .: " The Eternal Source ").

Municipal Asphalt Plant (former asphalt plant)

In 1940 Kahn founded an architects' partnership (Kahn & Jacobs) with Robert Allan Jacobs (son of the architect Harry Allan Jacobs). During this time, for example, the Universal Pictures Building, 1947, was planned and built, as was the Municipal Asphalt Plant. Later there was also a collaboration with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson on the Seagram Building .

After the Second World War , Kahn was also a co-founder of modern synagogue construction . As early as 1946 he was in charge of the renovation of the central synagogue in New York. In 1948, Kahn and the sculptor Jo Davidson published plans for a Holocaust memorial in the United States (unrealized).

In 1956, Kahn & Jacobs built a 27-story extension for the New York Stock Exchange .

The Kahn & Jacobs architecture partnership continued after Kahn's death until 1973. The extensive architectural drawings and plans, etc. are kept in the Department of Drawings and Archives at the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University .

literature

• Ely Jacques Kahn, Françoise Bollack: Ely Jacques Kahn - New York architect , New York 1995,; Acanthus Print, ISBN 0-926494-04-X .
• Jewel Stern, John A. Stuart: Ely Jacques Kahn, architect beaux-arts to modernism in New York , New York 2006, Norton, ISBN 0-393-73114-6 , ISBN 978-0-393-73114-9 .

Web links

Commons : Ely Jacques Kahn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Ely Jacques Kahn papers , 1906–1986.
• Kahn & Jacobs architectural drawings and papers , circa 1893–1965.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See e.g. E.g . : Jewel and Stuart Stern, Ely Jacques Kahn, Architect: Beaux-arts to Modernism in New York, Norton, 2006, ISBN 0-393-73114-6 . Ferriss, Hugh. The Metropolis of Tomorrow, Princeton Architectural Press, 1986, p. 166 ISBN 0-910413-11-8 . Bedoire, Frederic. The Jewish Contribution to Modern Architecture: 1830-1930, KTAV Publishing House, 2004, pp. 436-438, ISBN 0-88125-808-3
2. ^ Jakob (Jacob Jacques) Kahn , genealogy database of the Jewish Museum Hohenems.
3. ↑ Ely Jacques Kahn , genealogy database of the Jewish Museum Hohenems.
4. ↑ Beatrice Josephi , genealogy database of the Jewish Museum Hohenems.
5. ↑ Liselotte Hirshman , genealogy database of the Jewish Museum Hohenems.
6. ↑ Ely Jacques Kahn , genealogy database of the Jewish Museum Hohenems.
7. ↑ Carter B. Horsley, "745 Fifth Avenue" , The City Review website.
8. ^ "The Continental Building" , Emporis
9. ↑ See: Heynick, Frank. "The Guy Francon Who Wasn't" , The Atlasphere website, May 6, 2010.
10. ↑ See: Ely Jacques Kahn, “Creating a Modern Synagogue Style: No More Copying,” Commentary, June 1947.
11. ↑ Shulman, Ken. "Restoring the Soul" ( Memento of the original dated July 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Metropolis (October 2000). 
12. ↑ Young, James. The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning, Yale University Press, 1994, p. 290, ISBN 0-300-05991-4
13. ^ "New York Stock Exchange Annex" , Emporis .