Architecture from the Ouija Board: Louis Kahn’s Roosevelt Memorials and the Posthumous Monuments of Modernism

1. This paper represents research in progress. To date, archival research has been undertaken across a number of libraries and archives, including the key repositories of the Architecture Archives at the University of Pennsylvania and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. However, it has not yet been possible to consult the records of the Four Freedoms Park Conservancy and there has only been selected digital access to the records of the Commission of Fine Arts. Access to materials from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library has been via copies of relevant files held in the Louis I. Kahn Collection at the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania. Consequently, some aspects of the historical narrative are not year clear or cannot be definitively confirmed, and efforts have been made to identify any questions or grey areas in the paper and notes.

2. For documents associated with the Historical Data Project, see Folder: Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial Foundation, 1945–1948, Papers of Anna Roosevelt Halsted, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York.

3. The FDR Presidential Library and Museum and the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt, as it is now known, was the first of its kind in the United States of America. In 1934, FDR had been responsible for legislation that established the National Archives, and in 1938, he announced plans to create a library to house and provide access to his private papers as well as documents associated with his Presidency. The project was funded privately through subscription, and the library and museum were dedicated in 1941. For a brief account of the history of the FDR Library see, https://fdrlibrary.org/library-history, accessed June 9, 2018. The FDR Presidential Library and Museum has been the model for all subsequent Presidential Libraries. The Franklin D. Roosevelt Warm Springs Memorial Commission, founded by the state of Georgia, oversaw the conversion of the “Little White House” into a National Shrine. This site was of particular significance as it was also the place where President Roosevelt died on 12 April 1945. For further information, see Folder: Franklin D. Roosevelt Warm Springs Memorial Commission 1947–74, Papers of Anna Roosevelt Halsted, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.

4. A 1978 report published by the Memorial Commission notes the congressional resolution to establish the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Commission was introduced in 1946, but not approved until August 1955. See: Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Commission, The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial: Report to the President and Congress by the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Commission (Washington: The Commission, 1978), 3.

5. The competition was open to architects licenced and resident in the USA. Associations were encouraged between allied professions, including sculptors and landscape architects. See: Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Commission, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Competition, 1960 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1960), 4.

6. The competition and its entries have been documented in Thomas Hawk Creighton, The Architecture of Monuments: The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Competition (New York, Reinhold Publishing Corporation, 1962).

7. For an overview of some of these issues see, Hélène Lipstadt, “Transforming the Tradition: American Architecture Competitions 1960 to the Present,” In The Experimental Tradition: Essays on Competitions in Architecture, ed. Hélène Lipstadt (New York, N.Y.: Princeton Architectural Press, 1989), 95–114; Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Commission, The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial; and Creighton, The Architecture of Monuments.

8. Ada Louise Huxtable, “For a Living Image of F.D.R.,” New York Times Magazine, January 22, 1961, 12–13.

9. Huxtable, “For a Living Image of F.D.R.,” 12.

10. Lipstadt, “Transforming the Tradition,” 97–98. The approval of the Commission of Fine Arts was a condition of the competition.

11. Creighton’s book Architecture of Monuments also includes an overview of the competition and its issues. However, published in 1962, it was too early to capture the subsequent stages of the project. The book still remains the most significant historical examination of this competition. One of the merits of this publication is the categorisation of formally similar schemes into the categories of shafts, structures, landscape solutions and sculptural forms. The descriptions of Kahn’s submission offered by subsequent historians, however, reveal details of the scheme, possibly gleaned from private documents and interviews that imply the design is more nuanced than is discernable in the competition drawings either published by Creighton or available in the Kahn archive. See, for example, David B. Brownlee and David G. De Long, Louis I. Kahn: In the Realm of Architecture (London: Thames and Hudson, 1997), 240–41; Michael J. Lewis, “Kahn and the Belated Monument,” in Coming to Light: The Louis I. Kahn Monument to Franklin D. Roosevelt for New York City, eds. Steven Hillyear and Gina Pollara, (New York: The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture/The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, 2005), 22–25.

12. Brownlee and De Long, Louis I. Kahn, 240–41.

13. Lewis, “Kahn and the Belated Monument,” 23. A number of other schemes, categorised by Creighton as “Landscape Solutions”, included similarly intangible elements such as fountains and water as key design elements, although not quite in the same arrangement as Kahn. See, for example, schemes led by Davis, Brody and Wisniewski Architects; Robert A. Little and George F. Dalton & Associates; Ernest L. Abreu Daly; and Percival Goodman – all illustrated in Creighton, The Architecture of Monuments, 91–92.

14. Creighton, The Architecture of Monuments, 72–105.

15. Eugene J. Keogh to Louis Kahn, 1 March 1966, Louis I. Kahn Collection, 030.II.A.57.80, Architecture Archives, University of Pennsylvania.

16. The correspondence offers no indication that this many architects may have been contacted. This impression that only a selected few architects were contacted also seems to be supported by Isabelle Hyman’s description outlining how Marcel Breuer received the commission. Hyman wrote: “Instead of launching another time-consuming, factious, and expensive competition, in 1966, after reviewing the work of a number of prominent architects, it made its own selection.” Isabelle Hyman, “Marcel Breuer and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 54, no. 4 (December 1995): 446. However, the Commission’s 1978 report states that fifty-five architects were contacted “to ascertain their interest.” Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Commission, The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, 5. It is not made clear in any of the documents consulted to date which criteria were used to make a selection from this large field.

17. See Louis I. Kahn to Eugene J. Keogh, 3 March 1966 and 15 April 1966, Louis I. Kahn Collection, 030.II.A.57.80, Architecture Archives, University of Pennsylvania.

18. See, for example, Theodore Liebman, cited in Paul Goldberger, “Design by Kahn Picked for Roosevelt Memorial Here,” New York Times, April 25, 1974, 45; Brownlee and De Long, Louis I. Kahn, 29, 241; Robert McCarter, Louis I Kahn (New York: Phaidon Press, 2005), 434; A. M. Shanken, “The Uncharted Kahn: The Visuality of Planning and Promotion in the 1930s and 1940s,” Art Bulletin 88, no. 2 (2006): 310–327; and Wendy Lesser, You Say to Brick: The Life of Louis Kahn (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017), 116, 292.

19. Anna Roosevelt Halsted to Francis Biddle, 29 January 1962, Archives, Commission of Fine Arts, Washington, DC, cited in Hyman, “Marcel Breuer and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial,” 446.

20. For a comprehensive historical account of Breuer’s scheme and his involvement with the project, see Hyman, “Marcel Breuer and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial.”

21. Interestingly, Lawrence Halprin also worked as landscape architect on the Salk Institute. For an account of this “difficult” collaboration, see Louis I Kahn and Richard Saul Wurman, What Will Be Has Always Been: The Words of Louis I. Kahn (New York: Access Press Ltd. and Rizzoli, 1986), 279; and George McLaughlin to Charles Birnbaum, February 5, 2010, The Landscape Architecture of Lawrence Halprin, accessed July 5, 2018, https://tclf.org/sites/default/files/microsites/halprinlegacy/recollections_mclaughlin.html.

22. An example of this is the controversy surrounding the depiction of FDR in a wheelchair. For accounts of the controversy surrounding Halprin’s design, see Laurie Olin, “The FDR Memorial Wheelchair Controversy and a ‘Taking Part’ Workshop Experience,” Landscape Journal 31, no. 1–2 (2012): 183–97; John G. Parsons, “The Public Struggle to Erect the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial,” Landscape Journal 31, no. 1–2 (2012): 145–59. For further details about this project, see Lawrence Halprin, The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1997).

23. “FDR Memorial,” editorial, Atlanta Journal, April 9, 1965, Folder: Archives Apex, Washington, DC, 1953–65, Papers of Anna Roosevelt Halsted, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.

24. See Isadore Lubin to John [Boettiger], February 14 1946, Folder: Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial Foundation, 1945–1948, Papers of Anna Roosevelt Halsted, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library. It is not made clear in the correspondence uncovered to date whether the PAC intended for this to be a “competing” memorial to be constructed in New York, or whether the meeting was simply taking place there. It has not yet been possible for the author of this paper to access all the correspondence and materials associated with this historical thread, and thus it cannot be stated definitively how this situation developed.

25. “Foundation Plans Statue of F.D. Roosevelt Here,” New York Times, April 3, 1970, 39.

26. At this time, Welfare Island was subject to significant redevelopment, overseen by the Urban Development Corporation, and master-planned by Philip Johnson and John Burgee. The development would include contributions from the likes of Josep Lluís Sert, Mitchell-Guirgola, and Dan Kiley, among others. See Ada Louise Huxtable, “How Doth Welfare Island Fare?” New York Times, November 15, 1970, 27; Anthony Bailey, “Manhattan’s Other Island,” New York Times, December 1, 1974, 33–56; Deborah Nevins, ed., The Roosevelt Island Housing Competition (New York: Wittenborn Art Books, 1975); and Ivan D. Steen, “New Town in the City: Edward J. Logue and His Vision for Roosevelt Island, New York,” Journal of Planning History 9, no. 3 (2010): 183–97.

27. “The Responsive Roosevelt,” New York Times, April 12, 1970, 12.

28. “Forgotten Man,” New York Times, January 30, 1972, 12.

29. “Roosevelt Memorial Set for Welfare I.,” New York Times, April 12, 1972, 31.

30. Walton trained as a journalist, worked on John F. Kennedy’s 1960 Presidential campaign in New York, and served as Chairman of the US Commission of Fine Arts between 1963 and 1971. He was also, reportedly, a painter, with works in the Philips Museum, among others collections. Commission of Fine Arts, “William Walton,” accessed June 1, 2018, https://www.cfa.gov/about-cfa/who-we-are/william-walton; Thomas J. Leuck, “William Walton Is Dead at 84; Headed Federal Fine Arts Panel,” New York Times, December 20, 1994, 10. Walton’s importance in developing the concept for the memorial has also been acknowledged by Paul Goldberger; see Goldberger, “Design by Kahn Picked for Roosevelt Memorial Here,” 45.

31. William Walton to the Urban Development Corporation and the Four Freedoms Foundation, undated: 4, Papers of William Walton, Personal Papers, Series 4. Roosevelt Island Project Files, 1970–74, Box 7, Folder 1, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. All materials consulted from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum were provided courtesy of William Whitaker, University of Pennsylvania Architecture Archives. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was part of Roosevelt’s New Deal, and was a programme of public works ranging from infrastructure through to public art projects. A copy of this report was sent to Anna Roosevelt Halsted in November 1972. Folder: Roosevelt, Franklin D.: Memorials, Roosevelt Island 1973, Papers of Anna Roosevelt Halsted, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.

32. William Walton, Notes towards Creation of a Memorial to Franklin D. Roosevelt, undated: 2 [12]. Papers of William Walton, Personal Papers, Series 4, Roosevelt Island Project Files, 1970–74, Box 7, Folder 1, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

33. John Polshek, cited in William Walton to the Urban Development Corporation and the Four Freedoms Foundation, 6.

34. William Walton, untitled notes, undated, unpaginated [1]. Papers of William Walton, Personal Papers, Series 4, Roosevelt Island Project Files, 1970–74, Box 7, Folder 1, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

35. Walton’s files, held at the Kennedy Library, include copies of a number of articles on Kahn’s Exeter Library project, published in the New York Times in October 1972. Walton’s proposal included the description of a possible scheme composed of lights, which indicates that he may have been open to more unconventional approaches to commemorations, such as Kahn’s Memorial to the Six Million Jewish Martyrs, which was to be made predominantly of glass, or Kahn’s entry to the 1960 FDR Memorial competition. See William Walton to the Urban Development Corporation and the Four Freedoms Foundation, Appendix I: 8.

36. Anna Roosevelt Halsted to Edward J. Logue, President, New York State Urban Development Corporation. Folder: Roosevelt, Franklin D.: Memorials, Roosevelt Island 1973, Papers of Anna Roosevelt Halsted, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.

37. William Walton to Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr, undated. Papers of William Walton, Personal Papers, Series 4, Roosevelt Island Project Files, 1970–74, Box 7, Folder 1, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

38. Eleanor Roosevelt features prominently in Lawrence Halprin’s monument in Washington, DC.

39. See, for example, Louis Kahn, “Monumentality” [1944], in Alessandra Latour, ed., Louis I. Kahn: Writings, Lectures, Interviews (New York: Rizzoli, 1991), 18–27.

40. Ada Louise Huxtable, “Roosevelt Memorial Design Hits Snags,” New York Times, May 1, 1973, 48.

41. Louis Kahn, “1973: Brooklyn, New York,” lecture delivered at Pratt University, Fall 1973, in Latour, Louis I. Kahn: Writings, Lectures, Interviews, 321.

42. Louis Kahn, “1973: Brooklyn, New York,” 321.

43. See Louis Kahn, “The Room, The Street, and Human Agreement,” 1971 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal Address, in Latour, Louis I. Kahn: Writings, Lectures, Interviews, 263–269. Interestingly, while the scale, character and configuration would be very different, as noted earlier, the design Lawrence Halprin would reveal for the national memorial in Washington would also comprise a series of garden rooms connected by passageways.

44. Robert McCarter, Louis I. Kahn (New York and London: Phaidon Press, 2005), 435.

45. William Walton to Louis Kahn, December 3 1973. Papers of William Walton, Personal Papers, Series 4, Roosevelt Island Project Files, 1970–74, Box 7, Folder 1, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. For an analytical account of the development of Kahn’s plan for the FDR Memorial, see McCarter, Louis I. Kahn, 434–39.

46. William Walton to the Urban Development Corporation and the Four Freedoms Foundation, 1. Throughout the correspondence and documentation from this stage, the memorial is referred to as being Walton’s concept. See, for example, Minutes of Meeting of the Welfare Island Development Corporation, Friday 15 December 1972. Papers of William Walton, Personal Papers, Series 4, Roosevelt Island Project Files, 1970–74, Box 7, Folder 1, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Similarly, the promenade on the perimeter of the site seems to have come from the client. See William Walton to Louis Kahn, December 3 1973.

47. William Walton to the Urban Development Corporation and the Four Freedoms Foundation, Appendix II: 9.

48. William Walton to the Urban Development Corporation and the Four Freedoms Foundation, 8–9.

49. William Walton to the Urban Development Corporation and the Four Freedoms Foundation, 6.

50. William Walton to the Urban Development Corporation and the Four Freedoms Foundation, 5.

51. In addition to recently completing the JFK memorial, Johnson had also an historic interest in the typology of the memorial. See Philip Johnson, “War Memorials: What Aesthetic Price Glory?” Art News, 44 (September 1945): 8–10, 24–25.

52. William Walton, untitled notes, [4].

53. Samuel Hughes, “Constructing a New Kahn,” The Pennsylvania Gazette, March 1, 2013, 36–49, see in particular 43–44.

54. This was not mentioned in the obituary that reported the circumstances of his death, however it has been reported across a number of popular sources that do not reference where this information originated. For Kahn’s obituary, see Paul Goldberger, “Louis I. Kahn Dies; Architect Was 73,” New York Times, March 20, 1974, 1, 64. For reports about these drawings being found on his person at the time of his death, see Allison Meier, “The Power of Perspective and Light in Louis Kahn’s FDR Four Freedoms Park,” Hyperallergic, accessed July 9, 2018, https://hyperallergic.com/59395/the-power-of-perspective-and-light-in-louis-kahns-fdr-four-freedoms-park/; and Julie V. Iovine, “An Elegy for a Memorial, and for the Man Who Designed It,” New York Times, January 9, 2005, accessed July 9, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/09/arts/design/an-elegy-for-a-memorial-and-for-the-man-who-designed-it.html.

55. An attempt was made to access the archives of FDR Four Freedoms Park to ascertain if there was any documentation regarding what discussions were held; however the enquiry has received no response.

56. Liebman, cited in Goldberger, “Design by Kahn Picked for Roosevelt Memorial Here,” 45.

57. Goldberger, “Design by Kahn Picked for Roosevelt Memorial Here,” 1, 45.

58. See Paul Goldberger, “Debts Imperil Future of Kahn’s Archives,” New York Times, May 8, 1974, 38.

59. Goldberger, “Design by Kahn Picked for Roosevelt Memorial Here,” 45.

60. Goldberger, “Design by Kahn Picked for Roosevelt Memorial Here,” 45.

61. This stage is described in William J. vanden Heuvel, “Memorial Park Honouring Franklin D. Roosevelt,” [1998], in Hillyear and Pollara, Coming to Light: The Louis I. Kahn Monument to Franklin D. Roosevelt for New York City, 10.

62. vanden Heuvel, “Memorial Park Honouring Franklin D. Roosevelt,” 10.

63. “The F.D.R. Memorial, Redux,” New York Times, August 23, 1992, 111. Further details about the progress made at this time is described in Hughes, “Constructing a New Kahn,” 46–47.

64. vanden Heuvel, “Memorial Park Honouring Franklin D. Roosevelt,” 10.

65. vanden Heuvel, “Memorial Park Honouring Franklin D. Roosevelt,” 8.

66. vanden Heuvel, “Memorial Park Honouring Franklin D. Roosevelt,” 10.

67. Hughes, “Constructing a New Kahn,” 48.

68. Iovine, “An Elegy for a Memorial, and for the Man Who Designed It.”

69. vanden Heuvel, “Memorial Park Honouring Franklin D. Roosevelt,” 10.

70. “The F.D.R. Memorial, Redux,” 111.

71. For a discussion of the transformation of the monument to comply with current codes and practices, see Hughes, “Constructing a New Kahn,” 47.

72. Michael Kimmelman, “Decades Later, a Vision Survives,” New York Times, September 12, 2012, accessed July 1, 2018, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/arts/design/louis-kahns-franklin-d-roosevelt-four-freedoms-park-to-open.html?mcubz=3.

73. Stuart Kelly, “Writing beyond the Grave,” Times Literary Supplement Online, June 15, 2017. Accessed July 1, 2018, https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/writing-beyond-grave-posthumous-publication/.

74. Paul Goldberger, “The Genius of Louis Kahn’s Connected, Contemplative Roosevelt Memorial – and How Builders Avoided the Usual Perils of Posthumous Architecture,” Vanity Fair, October 19, 2012, accessed July 1, 2018, https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/architecture/2012/10/roosevelt-memorial-new-york-paul-goldberger.

75. See Giuliano Gresleri and Silvio Cassara, “What can We Learn from the Rebuilt Pavillon de L’Esprit Nouveau?” A + U: Architecture and Urbanism (September 1980): 3–26; Ada Louis Huxtable, “A Phoenix in Barcelona,” New York Times, December 1, 1985, 33. For a similar example, see Sven Sterken, “Reconstructing the Philips Pavilion: Elements for a Critical Assessment,” Proceedings of the 10th DOCOMOMO International Conference (Rotterdam: Docomomo, 2008), 93–98.

76. Goldberger, “The Genius of Louis Kahn’s Connected, Contemplative Roosevelt Memorial.”

77. Hughes, “Constructing a New Kahn,” 38.

78. In Washington, DC, for example, this period is mandated by the Commemorative Works Act, passed in 1986, and which is subject to a number of subsequent amendments. This legislation also includes an expiry date for legislative authority for commemorative works, in circumstances when a construction permit has not been issued within a set period of time. See US Congress, House. “A bill to govern the establishment of commemorative works within the National Capital Region of the National Park System, and for other purposes,” HR 4378, 99^th Congress, https://www.congress.gov/bill/99th-congress/house-bill/4378?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22Commemorative+Works+Act%22%5D%7D&r=64; U.S Congress, House. Commemorative Works Clarification and Revision Act of 2003, HR 1442, 108th Congress, 1st Session, https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/STATUTE-117/pdf/STATUTE-117-Pg1348.pdf; and Quentin Stevens, “Masterplanning Public Memorials: An Historical Comparison of Washington, Ottawa and Canberra,” Planning Perspectives 30, no. 1 (2015): 39–66.

79. William Walton to the Urban Development Corporation and the Four Freedoms Foundation, 10.

80. Goldberger, “The Genius of Louis Kahn’s Connected, Contemplative Roosevelt Memorial.”