Makeover for a Kahn masterpiece

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, December, 2006 | by Inga Saffron

In the textbooks, Louis I. Kahn's Yale University Art Gallery was considered a masterpiece that redirected the course of modern architecture. In real life, the 53-year-old building was a wreck of rusted steel, heaving concrete, and windows turned milky with condensation. It was so unloved and problematic that administrators thought nothing of squaring off the signature cylindrical stairwells with Sheetrock or roofing over the outdoor sculpture garden.

Kahn's small museum might have continued on the same downward spiral as many high-maintenance modernist buildings but for the surprise success of the 2003 documentary My Architect. Although the award-winning film by Kahn's son, Nathaniel, was more a family saga than an architectural one, it rekindled interest in the great...