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Architectural Archives, University of Pennsylvania
Louis I. Kahn Collection
Website

102 Meyerson Hall
220 South 34th Street
Philadelphia, PA
United States

phone: 215-898-8323

 This collection comprises the entire professional archive of Louis I. Kahn, with the addition of personal materials. After Kahn's death, his estate faced substantial financial obligations and the decision was made to liquidate the assets of the firm. The entire archive was purchased in 1976 by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and was placed on permanent loan to the University of Pennsylvania the following year. The trustees of the University assumed responsibility for making the collection available for scholarly research, exhibition and publication. After the projects still under construction at Kahn's death were brought to completion, documentation for those projects was donated to the Architectural Archives by Kahn's former associates. Personal materials were donated to the Architectural Archives by family and friends. Additional materials continue to be received.

Drawings in Kahn's hand are cataloged at the item level in seven published volumes: The Louis I. Kahn Archive: Personal Drawings: the Completely Illustrated Catalogue of the Drawings in the Louis I. Kahn Collection. New York : Garland, 1988. Finding aids for other major groups of materials are being produced as processing progresses.

To view the finding aids available, see:
Series II, Project and Office Records.
Series IV, Photoprints Transparencies and Negatives and Series V, Slides.
The finding aids are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format, and require the free Acrobat viewer available from Adobe (www.adobe.com).

Individual holding records for this collection are available on the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings website.