ARCHITECT ATLAS
Loading atlas
Salk Institute

Salk Institute

Louis Kahn

Photo: Codera23 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Location
La Jolla, San Diego, California, United States
Client / Owner
Salk Institute
Year
Completed 1965
Access
Private

The Salk Institute in La Jolla was designed by Louis I. Kahn for the institute named for Jonas Salk, with initial funding from the March of Dimes. The infobox dates the institute's founding to December 28, 1960 and the text to 1963. Construction began in 1962, and the infobox gives completion as 1965.

The buildings use poured concrete with a volcanic-ash pozzolanic mix, teak window frames and a travertine plaza. Two symmetrical laboratory wings face a water feature flowing toward the Pacific, with no internal support columns and a service floor above each lab. Prestressed concrete Vierendeel trusses about 62 feet (19 m) long carry the floors.

August Komendant was the structural engineer, and Luis Barragán collaborated on the courtyard. The 27-acre (11 ha) site was granted after a June 1960 referendum, and the planned living quarters and conference building were never built.

Comments

  • Loading comments…
Be kind. Anyone can flag a comment for review.

Sign in

or

Your profile

3 to 24 letters, numbers, underscores or periods. It’s shown with your comments.

Contact us

Questions, corrections or ideas? Your message goes straight to the Architect Atlas owner.

Save to list

    Edit information

    We look the building up on Wikipedia for you. Architect Atlas lists buildings that have their own Wikipedia article: our test for notoriety and our source of truth.

        Typology
        Style (one to three)
        Photo (shown in a 4:3 frame)

        Drag and zoom to frame the building well. New photos are checked before they appear.

        Every change is checked before it goes live: facts against Wikipedia, photos by eye.