Born in Estonia, Louis Kahn (1901–1974) emigrated with his family to Philadelphia when he was four years old. Kahn received Beaux-Arts training at the University of Pennsylvania, under the French-educated Paul Philippe Cret, and then adopted his own idiosyncratic modernism, which would engender the heterogeneous “Philadelphia school.” It wasn’t until 1950–51 when, as an American Academy fellow, he traveled in Italy, Greece, and Egypt that he developed his own singular philosophy of architecture. In 1951 he attained his first major commission to design Yale University’s Art Gallery, and upon its completion gained instant national recognition before going on to do international commissions a decade later. He developed a signature style that was monumental, monolithic and transparent in its functionality. Kahn was awarded the AIA Gold Medal in 1971 and the RIBA Gold Medal in 1972.

Sue Ann Kahn, daughter of Louis I. Kahn, has advocated for the preservation and restoration of her father’s architecture for over three decades. She has also been an active consultant and significant lender to the major exhibitions on his work. In 1996, she co-curated “Louis I. Kahn Drawings: Travel Sketches and Synagogue Project” for The Jewish Museum in New York; and in 2017, she collaborated on an exhibition of Kahn’s pastel works at his Kimbell Art Museum. She is the author of a number of recent articles about her father’s drawings: “The Color of Light, the Treasury of Shadows” in "Louis Kahn: The Importance of a Drawing", edited by Michael Merrill (2021); and “My Father the Artist” in "Reader’s Guide to The Notebooks and Drawings of Louis I. Kahn" (2022). Sue Ann Kahn is a noted flute soloist, teacher, and chamber musician.

Michael J. Lewis is an American art historian and architectural critic. He is the Fais- on-Pierson-Stoddard Professor of Art History at Williams College and the architectural critic for The Wall Street Journal. His most recent books include: “Philadelphia Builds: Essays on Architecture” (Paul Dry Books, 2021), “City of Refuge. Separatists and Utopian Town Planning” (Princeton University Press, Princeton 2016), and “American Art and Architecture” (Thames & Hudson, 2006).