page_title: August Komendant
section_title: Collaboration with Louis Kahn
hierarchical_section_title: August Komendant / Collaboration with Louis Kahn
caption_attribution_description: Richards Medical Research Laboratories in Philadelphia, PA
context_page_description: August Eduard Komendant was an Estonian and American structural engineer and a pioneer in the field of prestressed concrete, which can be used to build stronger and more graceful structures than normal concrete. He was born in Estonia and educated in engineering in Germany. After World War II he immigrated to the United States, where he wrote several books on structural engineering and served as a professor of architecture at the University of Pennsylvania.
  Komendant worked with architect Louis Kahn in a productive but contentious collaboration that lasted from 1956 until Kahn's death in 1974. His innovative work as Kahn's structural engineer helped Kahn create several architecturally significant buildings, including two that won the prestigious Twenty-five Year Award given by the American Institute of Architects. He also served as structural engineer for architect Moshe Safdie on the Habitat 67 project in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
context_section_description: In 1956 Komendant met architect Louis Kahn, who was soon to become one of the most honored architects of his time, and began a contentious but highly productive collaboration that lasted until Kahn's death 18 years later.
  Kahn was five years older than Komendant and, like him, had been born in Estonia.
  Kahn had decided in the early 1950s that he would no longer use the relatively lightweight steel structures that were typical of modern architecture. 
  He had come to the conclusion that only structures made of reinforced concrete would allow him to achieve his goal of creating structures that would simultaneously provide support, shape spaces and furnish integral sculptural embellishment.
  This approach required the collaboration of a structural engineer who understood Kahn's architectural philosophy, one who could grasp the effect Kahn wanted to produce with a proposed design and suggest a suitable alternative if it was not practical from an engineering standpoint.  Komendant, who was already known for his expertise with pre-stressed concrete, proved to be a creative thinker and a productive collaborator.
  Kahn described him as "'one of the rare engineers qualified to guide the architect to develop meaningful form".
  According to Robert McCarter, one of Kahn's biographers, "Komendant would serve as Kahn's primary consultant on the majority of his commissions for the rest of his career".
  The first project they worked on together, the Richards Medical Research Laboratories, was a breakthrough project for Kahn, his first to receive widespread recognition.
  Two other buildings they worked on together, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the Kimbell Art Museum, received the prestigious Twenty-five Year Award, which is given by the American Institute of Architects to only one building per year.
  Although each of them knew they achieved particularly outstanding results when they worked together, they did not always find it easy to do so.  Komendant could work with exceptional speed while Kahn was notoriously slow, to Komendant's great frustration.
  Komendant felt free to critique Kahn's designs not only as an engineer but also in architectural terms.  That could make Kahn feel that his role as architect was being questioned, whereupon Kahn would pointedly remind Komendant that he was an engineer, not an architect. 
  Komendant in turn delighted in needling Kahn about his lack of engineering knowledge.
  More ominously for their relationship, Komendant "was not above expanding on his share of the credit for shared projects", 
  and Kahn found it difficult to share credit with anyone, two factors that led Komendant to boycott the opening ceremonies for the Kimbell Art Museum, one of Kahn's greatest works and one to which Komendant had contributed significantly.
  In the early 1960s they collaborated on the National Assembly Building in Dhaka, Bangladesh during its initial design phases, but Komendant walked off the job after a sharp disagreement with Kahn, and they were personally distant for about three years afterwards. 
  During this period, however, they continued to collaborate on the Salk Institute and as members of the architectural faculty at the University of Pennsylvania.
  Despite their sometimes stormy relationship, they took great pride in the results of their work together. Thomas Leslie, a professor of architecture and author of Louis I. Kahn: Building Art, Building Science, said, "From his writings, it is painfully obvious that Komendant deeply loved the work he did with Kahn, and that these buildings were, without question, his most widely recognized and honored projects."  
  Kahn acknowledged his debt to Komendant in a handwritten note reproduced in the introduction to Komendant's book 18 years with Architect Louis I. Kahn: "To August whose genius has made my buildings his buildings and are the very ones that have wonder about them."
  Thomas Leslie described their relationship in these words:  "Komendant was neither a form-giver nor a designer, limitations that he reluctantly admitted.  Kahn, on the other hand, despite his
caption: Richards Medical Research Laboratories. The concrete structural elements that Komendant engineered appear in beige color here.
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