Who designed the Salk Institute in La Jolla?

Louis Kahn designed the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California. The campus was commissioned by physician and researcher Jonas Salk, who wanted a setting capable of attracting leading scientists and encouraging major discoveries.

Construction took place from 1959 to 1965. Kahn’s realized design consists mainly of two parallel laboratory blocks separated by a travertine-paved courtyard and a narrow water channel aligned toward the Pacific Ocean. The original plan included meeting spaces and living quarters, but funding limits prevented those parts from being built.

The institute is especially noted for its carefully detailed concrete, teak-framed windows, open laboratories, and separate service floors for mechanical systems. Kahn also consulted Mexican architect Luis Barragán about the central court; Barragán advised keeping it nearly empty, with water as the principal feature.

A common mix-up is crediting the project to another celebrated modernist, such as Frank Lloyd Wright. Structural engineer August Komendant and supervising architect Jack MacAllister made important contributions, but Kahn was the campus’s principal architect. The Salk Institute received the American Institute of Architects’ Twenty-five Year Award in 1992.