Revisiting Louis Kahn’s Masterful Salk Institute

Silver linings may feel few and far between these days, as the coronavirus outbreak continues to disrupt life as we knew it. But design lovers can still find more than just a sliver of hope at the Salk Institute, architect Louis Kahn’s 1965 masterwork for Jonas Salk—the pioneering doctor who developed the vaccine for polio in 1953. After helping to end an epidemic that had claimed more than 3,000 lives, Salk dedicated himself to furthering medical innovations, tapping Kahn to design a research facility atop an oceanfront bluff in La Jolla, California. The result—a poetic study in concrete, travertine, and teak—remains not only a triumph of modern architecture but an enduring monument to scientific discovery, with a narrow channel of water that cuts across the central courtyard toward the Pacific, evoking a steady stream of ideas. Design, at its best, lifts our spirits and broadens our minds. When the current crisis is over, let’s build some beautiful buildings.