Wednesday, January 14, 2009

USA: My article about architect Albert Kahn in The Forward

USA: My article about architect Albert Kahn in The Forward

In honor of the Detroit Auto Show now on in Detroit, I've written a piece about architect Albert Kahn for The Forward. There are pictures in the print edition.


The Rabbi’s Son Who Built Detroit
The Other Kahn: Architect

by Samuel D. Gruber

Albert Kahn is America’s forgotten architect — even though in his lifetime, he (and his firm) produced more buildings than any other architect, and his design and production method changed the face of the country. Eighty years before the bailout of the auto industry, just before the Great Depression, Kahn built the most opulent of Detroit’s new corporate skyscrapers — the Art Deco-style Fisher Building. Facing the GM headquarters, Kahn’s grandest expression of civic architecture defined the unique American union of commercial and civic identity.


to read the full story click here