Episode 10: Two Starchitects Walk into a Synagogue...
Hosted by Ari Lipkis
Release date: February 24, 2022
In the middle of the 20th century, two prominent Jewish communities in Philadelphia undertook major building projects in order to grow their congregations. Producer Ari Lipkis discusses how the leadership of both groups decided to recruit the top talent in modern architecture for these projects: the congregation of Beth Sholom hired Frank Lloyd Wright in 1953 to construct a massive synagogue in the suburbs, and some years later Mikveh Israel sought out Louis I. Kahn to design an innovative new building that was to be located in the historical heart of Philadelphia, a nod to the congregation’s ties to the American Revolution. While Wright’s building was eventually completed, Kahn’s ambitious project never got off the ground. These two examples highlight the potential successes—and pitfalls—of engaging individuals whom we could today describe as some of the first “starchitects” in the United States.
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About this episode of Monument Biography
About the host:
Ari Lipkis (he/him) is a third year Ph.D. student focusing on sixteenth-century Northern Italian architecture. Ari received his M.A. in 2016 from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London. His thesis focused on Perino del Vaga’s work at Villa del Principe in Genoa. From 2012 to 2015 he was the co-director of TEMP, an art space in New York City dedicated to promoting young and emerging artists. In 2018, Ari curated the exhibition “Unbearable Infinite” at AALA. The show paired the work of New Zealand video artist Gregory Bennett with prints from Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Carceri series.
About the guests:
Susan G. Solomon is an independent scholar specializing in architectural history. She earned her Ph.D. in 1997 from the University of Pennsylvania with a dissertation focusing on Louis Kahn’s work for Jewish communities in the 1950s and 60s. It has spawned three books: Louis I. Kahn's Trenton Jewish Community Center (2000); American Playgrounds: Revitalizing Community Space (2005); and Louis I. Kahn's Jewish Architecture: Mikveh Israel and the Midcentury American Synagogue (2009).
David Brownlee is a historian of modern architecture and Professor Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania. He has numerous publications on local Philadelphia architecture. In 1991, he co-curated the exhibition "Louis I. Kahn: In the Realm of Architecture" for the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Want to Learn More about the topics covered in this episode?
David B. Brownlee, and David Gilson DeLong. Louis I. Kahn: In the Realm of Architecture. New York, NY: Rizzoli, 1992.
Nathaniel Burt, The Perennial Philadelphians: The Anatomy of an American Aristocracy. Boston: Little, Brown, 1963.
Oscar Israelowitz, Oscar Israelowitz's Jewish Heritage Trail of Philadelphia. Brooklyn, NY: Israelowitz Pub., 2011.
Eugene J. Johnson and Ranana Dine, "Mikveh Israel and Louis Kahn: New Information," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography vol. 140, no. 2 (2016), 211-229.
Robert McCarter, Louis I. Kahn. Repr. in paperback ed. London: Phaidon, 2010.
Linda Nesvisky, Jewish Philadelphia: A Guide to Its Sights & Stories. Charleston, SC: History Press, 2010.
Julian H. Preisler, Historic Synagogues of Philadelphia & the Delaware Valley. Charleston, SC: History Press, 2009.
Joseph Siry, Beth Sholom Synagogue. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.
Susan G. Solomon, Louis I. Kahn's Jewish Architecture: Mikveh Israel and the Midcentury American Synagogue. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2009.
Jordan Stanger-Ross, “Neither Fight Nor Flight: Urban Synagogues in Postwar Philadelphia,” Journal of Urban History 32, no. 6, (September 2006), 791–812.
Music Credits for this episode of Monument Biography:
TK