Salk Institute
N 32° 53.225 W 117° 14.672
11S E 477127 N 3638795
These buildings are located in La Jolla, California.
Waymark Code: WM3YBM
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 06/05/2008
Views: 34
The buildings of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies (www.salk.edu) are research laboratories and offices made of reinforced concrete.
The Creator's Words
"I did not follow the dictates of the scientists, who said that they are so dedicated to what they are doing that when lunchtime comes all they do is clear away the test tubes from the benches and eat their lunch on these benches. I asked them: was it not a strain with all these noises? And they answered: the noises of the refrigerators are terrible; the noises of centrifuges are terrible; the trickling of the water is terrible. Everything was terrible including the noises of the air-conditioning system. So I would not listen to them as to what should be done. And I realizes that there should be a clean air and stainless steel area, and a rug and oak table areal From this realization form became. I separated the studies from the laboratory and placed them over gardens. The garden became outdoor spaces where one can talk. Now one need not spend all the time in the laboratories. When one knows what to do, there is only little time one needs for doing it. It is only when one does not Know what to do that it takes so much time. And to know what to do is the secret of it all."
—Louis I. Kahn. from Heinz Ronner, with Sharad Jhaveri and Alessandro Vasella Louis I. Kahn: Complete Works 1935-74. p158.
"Louis Kahn's Salk Institute for Biological Studies on the Pacific coast near La Jolla aspires within its own spirit to an order achieved through clarity, definition, and consistency of application. It stands as a testament to Kahn's word, 'Order is. ' Two parallel laboratories, each an uninterrupted 65- foot wide and 245-feet long and encircled by a perimeter corridor, flank a central court. The support elements to these totally flexible spaces are placed in a peripheral relationship to this corridor. They are the studies and offices for scientist, fractured in profile and vertical in rhythm, which line this central court, connected by bridges to the perimeter corridor and receiving views of the ocean by virtue of exterior walls angles toward it. The idea of simple and strong; the served space of laboratories where research is performed, the serving space of offices where thought initiates....Clearly, in the institute at La Jolla, a new level of realization and accomplishment is evident for this ides....The institute manifests beauty of mind and act; of the resolution and articulation of the major elements of the building...being what it wants to and needs to be, to the precise detail and execution of beautiful concrete surfaces. Even the component of structure derives from the need to enclose specific spaces, specifically and pertinently, rather than offer a general envelope within which specific space might then be designated. The central court, as a typical Kahn-like space of shimmering blue water, a band pointing toward the ocean epitomizing what human endeavor can accomplish at one scale with geometric clarity and authoritative but modest deliberation, to give to the scaleless sweep of the ocean, here the Pacific, a poignant gesture."
—from Paul Heyer. American Architecture: Ideas and Ideologies in the Late Twentieth Century. p195.
(A majority of the above text was copied from www.greatbuildings.com)
City, State or City, Country: La Jolla, CA
Year Built: 1959-1966
Architect: Louis Kahn
Webpage from GreatBuildings.com or other approved listing: [Web Link]
Other website with more information about building: [Web Link]
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