Project Overview

The Notebooks and Drawings of Louis I. Kahn was one of the first books to focus attention on Kahn. From its original release in 1962 until his death twelve years later, Kahn said it was the book about his work that he was most drawn to. It was published by Richard Saul Wurman and Eugene Feldman under the Falcon Press imprint. The print run was 1,800 copies.

A second edition (of 3,000 copies) was released in 1973 by MIT Press. It included a four-page handwritten introduction in the form of a letter to Wurman and Feldman by Kahn (seen here). The Facsimile will be an exact copy of the 1962 edition and will be accompanied by an all-new Reader’s Guide that also includes the 1973 letter.

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The Facsimile:

  • Hardcover, 15” tall x 11.25” wide

  • Printed black-and-white offset on cream paper and tracing paper-like yellow stock

  • Linen front and back covers and spine, with gold stamping on front cover and spine

  • 96 pages

  • Two sections:

    • Section one is a group of sketches produced during Kahn’s European travels

    • Section two is Kahn’s sketches and finished renderings of his buildings and visions

  • Illustrated with actual-size drawings

  • Notes in Kahn’s hand; also typeset pages of text from his notebooks

  • 76 drawings; one screened photograph

  • 4 three-page gatefolds

  • One-page biography

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The Reader’s Guide:

  • 15” tall x 11.25” wide (same size as the Facsimile)

  • Approximately 120 pages

  • Front and back covers and spine printed matte black 

  • Front cover and spine with silver stamping

  • Essays by Richard Saul Wurman; Louis Kahn’s three children—Nathaniel Kahn, Sue Ann Kahn, and Alexandra Tyng; Jonathan Salk (son of Jonas Salk); William Whitaker (Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania, Louis I. Kahn Collection); Larry Korman (owner of the Kahn Korman House); Peter Reed (Former Senior Deputy for Curatorial Affairs, Museum of Modern Art, NY); critic Paul Goldberger; architect and scholar Mark Gunderson; information architect Dan Klyn; and Jochen Eisenbrand (Chief Curator, Vitra Design Museum), among others

  • Commentaries and remembrances from Kahn acquaintances, associates, and admirers, including winners of the Louis I. Kahn Award

  • Color and black-and-white images, many previously unpublished

The price for the Facsimile and the Reader’s Guide in our shop is $95. The suggested retail price in bookstores will be $110. (Prices subject to change without notice if required by new circumstances.)

The Facsimile and the Reader’s Guide are published with the approval and cooperation of Richard Saul Wurman, The Estate of Eugene Feldman, Nathaniel Kahn, and the Louis I. Kahn Collection at the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania—and with the generous support of Steven Korman and Larry Korman.