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Helmut Jahn killed in bicycle accident, age 81

This is so sad. I read a beautiful article on the Thompson Center, a building I love, just this moirning, and an hour later saw on Twitter that Jahn was killed after being hit by a car on his bike. 

Cheers to his many gorgeous buildings and his impeccable fashion sense and his love of the urban.



 
May 9, 21 12:40 pm

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May 9, 21 12:42 pm  · 
3  · 
robhaw

A sad day for architecture. His Post Tower in Bonn is one of my favourite buildings and also one of the earliest and most masterful examples of high performance integral design. He will be missed. 



May 9, 21 1:31 pm  · 
4  · 
tduds

Wow, what a tragedy. 

May 9, 21 1:44 pm  · 
2  · 
midlander

wow, this hits close to home for me, i spent so much time as a student in chicago admiring his work. truly brilliant and sometimes out of sync with bigger trends in architecture which made his work all the more interesting.


but though i later ended up in chicago it was actually a visit to the sony center in berlin as a high school german student that piqued my interest in his work, before i'd ever heard of him. he wasn't a good speaker or fun to talk to, but he had such remarkable fully-formed architectural ideas just waiting for expression.

May 9, 21 2:07 pm  · 
2  · 
monosierra

A true wunderkid who achieved national fame at such a young age, and whose style has evolved into the new century even though his heyday in the 80s was an unsurpassed peak.

May 9, 21 7:28 pm  · 
2  · 
TED

Thanks, Donna for posting it. If you have to go and make an impact, getting killed on your bike is it.  

Rest in power, Helmut! May the cycle gods be with you. You left the world a better place than when you entered.

May 10, 21 1:55 am  · 
1  · 

Inga Saffron on Jahn’s immense impact on the Philadelphia skyline: https://www.inquirer.com/columnists/helmut-jahn-obituary-philadelphia-one-liberty-place-20210509.html

May 10, 21 7:50 am  · 
3  · 

I had forgotten that in the 80s the Montblanc fountain pen was de riguer for stylish architects.

May 10, 21 7:52 am  · 
3  · 

the Montblanc works of One Liberty Place here. https://phillyyimby.com/2021/01/designing-one-liberty-place-the-tower-that-transformed-the-skyline.html

May 10, 21 10:09 pm  · 
1  · 

An old profile by Blair Kamin of Jahn. He brings up the idea of architects "merely dressing" buildings in the PoMo era, and how deftly Jahn moved beyond that. Shunned here, Helmut Jahn is out to prove he's more than flashy - Chicago Tribune

May 10, 21 1:56 pm  · 
2  · 
atelier nobody

I hope I'm still riding a bicycle at 81. May his memory be a blessing to all who knew him.

May 10, 21 4:46 pm  · 
5  · 
TED

Good piece in Guardian by Oliver Wainwright Helmut Jahn obituary https://www.theguardian.com/ar... 

May 11, 21 2:48 pm  · 
1  · 
randomised

So sad, I just visited his Sony building in Berlin quite recently, still impressive after all those years, even though not my cup of tea. I do have issues with the fact that when cyclists get killed by drivers in cars, I really have trouble calling it an accident...It is the result of deliberate negligent (urban) planning in my opinion to ignore the safety of cyclists in favour of the automobile (industry). 

May 12, 21 3:02 am  · 
2  · 
Janosh

Yep. Additionally, although it's likely that the 81 year old Jahn contributed to the crash, it is telling that the driver who hit him says he never saw him even though he was approaching Jahn at an intersection with excellent visibility and at a claimed 35 mph. Jahn certainly wasn't travelling at high speed - how fast was the car really going and was the driver even looking at the road?

Motorists are rarely held accountable for cyclist deaths.

May 12, 21 12:02 pm  · 
3  · 

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