Helmut Jahn, named one of the ten most influential living American architects by the American Institute of Architects, will deliver a lecture titled “Archi-neering” on Thursday, Jan. 17, at 7:30 p.m. in the Nott Memorial.
The talk is part of the opening reception for a Mandeville Gallery exhibition of drawings, photos, models and video of Jahn's works. The exhibition, also titled “Archi-neering,” runs through March 10.
Jahn, president and CEO of the firm Murphy/Jahn, will speak on his innovative approach to materials, light, engineering and technology in a concept he calls “archi-neering,” in which the architect and engineer work in close partnership. Jahn's book of the same title highlights the theory, development and design of projects made possible through such a collaboration.
Jahn's major works include the Kemper Arena in Kansas City; Xerox Center, Ha-Lo Center, and United Airlines Terminal at O'Hare Airport in Chicago; Park Avenue Tower in New York City; the Messeturm in Frankfurt, Germany; Munich Airport Center; and Sony Center in Berlin.
Born in Nuremburg in 1940, Jahn was trained at the Technische Hochschule in Munich. After emigrating to the U.S. in 1965, he spent a year at the Illinois Institute of Technology studying under Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. He joined C.F. Murphy Associates in 1967, which would become Murphy/Jahn in 1981. He has taught architectural design at Harvard and Yale.
“Creativity has to do more with the elimination of the inessential, than inventing something new,” Jahn once wrote. “Perfection is achieved not when nothing is to be added, but when nothing can be taken away.”