Helmut Jahn

For the German footballer, see Helmut Jahn (footballer).

Helmut Jahn (born January 4, 1940) is a German-American architect, well known for designs such as the US$800 million Sony Center on the Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, the Messeturm in Frankfurt and the One Liberty Place, formerly the tallest building in Philadelphia, and Suvarnabhumi Airport, an international airport in Bangkok, Thailand.

Life and career

An illuminated, suspended, oval roof covers the 102 m span of the central Forum of the Sony Center, Berlin.

Jahn was born in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1940, and grew up watching the reconstruction of the city, which had been largely destroyed by Allied bombing campaigns.[1] After attending the Technical University of Munich from 1960 to 1965, he worked with Peter C. von Seidlein for a year. In 1966, he emigrated to Chicago to further study architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology, leaving school without earning his degree.

In 1967, he joined C. F. Murphy Associates as a protégé of Gene Summers and was appointed Executive Vice President and Director of Planning and Design of the firm in 1973. Taking sole control from 1981, the firm was renamed Murphy/Jahn, although the aged Murphy had retired (dying a few years later, in 1985).

Generally inspired by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, yet opposed to the doctrinal application of modernism by his followers, in 1978, Jahn became the eighth member of the Chicago Seven. Despite a rocky start when the roof of his first major project Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri collapsed in 1979, Jahn established his pre-eminent reputation in 1985 with the State of Illinois Center in Chicago which prompted him to be dubbed "Flash Gordon.".[2]

Jahn has grown the business into a global architectural practice that consistently ranks among top 20 United States architectural firms in terms of gross annual billings. In addition to the main seat in Chicago, the company has offices in Berlin and Shanghai.

On October 26, 2012, Helmut Jahn renamed Murphy/Jahn to simply JAHN and announced that he will share design leadership at the firm with architect Francisco Gonzalez Pulido, a partner and president of JAHN.

Completed projects

Auraria Library
James R. Thompson Center
O'Hare Airport - interior view of the connecting tunnel between Concourses B & C of Terminal 1, with Michael Hayden's neon installation Sky's the Limit (1987).
Bank of America Tower (1990)
One America Plaza
1999 K Street, NW in Washington, D.C.

Following is a partial list of completed projects :

Awards

Yachting

Jahn has an interest in yachting, and in the late 1990s owned at least three yachts named Flash Gordon (one of his nicknames).[30] In 1995, Jahn's Flash Gordon 2 won the annual Chicago to Mackinac Race, the oldest freshwater yacht race in the world.[31] In 1997, Flash Gordon 3 won the Admiral's Cup.[32][33]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Helmut Jahn.

References

  1. ↑ Neumann, Dietrich. "Helmut Jahn." In Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present, vol. 5, edited by R. Daniel Wadhwani. German Historical Institute. Last modified February 09, 2016.
  2. ↑ http://www.architectureweek.com/2002/0717/design_1-1.html
  3. ↑ Miller, Nory. Helmut Jahn. New York: NY Rizzoli International Publications Inc. 1986. Print
  4. ↑ Miller, Nory. Helmut Jahn. New York: NY Rizzoli International Publications Inc. 1986. Print
  5. ↑ Miller, Nory. Helmut Jahn. New York: NY Rizzoli International Publications Inc. 1986. Print
  6. ↑ Miller, Nory. Helmut Jahn. New York: NY Rizzoli International Publications Inc. 1986. Print
  7. ↑ Miller, Nory. Helmut Jahn. New York: NY Rizzoli International Publications Inc. 1986. Print
  8. ↑ http://www.emporis.com/building/parktower-costamesa-ca-usa
  9. ↑ Miller, Nory. Helmut Jahn. New York: NY Rizzoli International Publications Inc. 1986. Print
  10. ↑ Miller, Nory. Helmut Jahn. New York: NY Rizzoli International Publications Inc. 1986. Print
  11. ↑ Miller, Nory. Helmut Jahn. New York: NY Rizzoli International Publications Inc. 1986. Print
  12. ↑ Miller, Nory. Helmut Jahn. New York: NY Rizzoli International Publications Inc. 1986. Print
  13. ↑ Miller, Nory. Helmut Jahn. New York: NY Rizzoli International Publications Inc. 1986. Print
  14. ↑ Miller, Nory. Helmut Jahn. New York: NY Rizzoli International Publications Inc. 1986. Print
  15. ↑ Miller, Nory. Helmut Jahn. New York: NY Rizzoli International Publications Inc. 1986. Print
  16. ↑ Miller, Nory. Helmut Jahn. New York: NY Rizzoli International Publications Inc. 1986. Print
  17. ↑ Miller, Nory. Helmut Jahn. New York: NY Rizzoli International Publications Inc. 1986. Print
  18. ↑ Miller, Nory. Helmut Jahn. New York: NY Rizzoli International Publications Inc. 1986. Print
  19. ↑ Miller, Nory. Helmut Jahn. New York: NY Rizzoli International Publications Inc. 1986. Print
  20. ↑ Miller, Nory. Helmut Jahn. New York: NY Rizzoli International Publications Inc. 1986. Print
  21. ↑ Miller, Nory. Helmut Jahn. New York: NY Rizzoli International Publications Inc. 1986. Print
  22. ↑ http://www.chicagoarchitecture.info/Building/1041/Citigroup-Center.php
  23. ↑ http://www.architectuurinrotterdam.nl/building.php?buildingid=173&lang=en&PHPSESSID=228f4fae13d7250ef550110c6208b879
  24. ↑ Blaser, Werner. Helmut Jahn Architecture Engineering. Basel, Berlin, Boston: Birkhauser Publishers for Architecture. 2002. Print
  25. ↑ Blaser, Werner. Helmut Jahn Architecture Engineering. Basel, Berlin, Boston: Birkhauser Publishers for Architecture. 2002. Print
  26. ↑ , Leverkusen, Germany
  27. ↑ http://www.ece.com/en/geschaeftsfelder/office/objekt/omve/
  28. ↑ http://mapolis.com/en/building/Focus_Media_Center#!profile
  29. ↑ http://www.archdaily.com/231569/flashback-hafen-murphyjahn/
  30. ↑ http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-helmut-jahn-profile-20140813-story.html
  31. ↑ https://www.chicagoyachtclub.org/files/Mackinac%20Cup.pdf
  32. ↑ http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-helmut-jahn-profile-20140813-story.html
  33. ↑ http://admiralscup.rorc.org/history.html
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