High-tech architecture
Helmut Jahn (January 4, 1940 – May 8, 2021) was a German-American architect, known for projects such as the Sony Center on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, Germany; the Messeturm in Frankfurt, Germany; the Thompson Center in Chicago; One Liberty Place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Suvarnabhumi Airport, in Bangkok, Thailand, among others.
Photo: © Rainer Viertlbock
His recent projects included 50 West Street, a residential tower in New York City in 2016 and the ThyssenKrupp Test Tower in Rottweil, Germany in 2017.
Photo: © Rainer Viertlbock
He studied architecture at the Technical University of Munich from 1960 to 1965. Jahn joined Charles Francis Murphy’s architecture firm, C. F. Murphy Associates, in 1967. He took sole control in 1981, renaming the firm Murphy/Jahn. 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.
Photo: © Rainer Viertlbock
Jahn’s style has been described as a kind of romantic hi-tech, his buildings often celebrating their structure and inner workings, but always with an additional dramatic flourish. As he put it: “We do not construct decoration, we decorate construction.”
Photo: AgnosticPreachersKid
He always worked closely with engineers from the very beginning of the design process, particularly with his compatriot Werner Sobek, and described their approach as “archi-neering”.
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