Image courtesy of Mitchell | Giurgola Architects 

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedom’s Park may have opened relatively recently in 2012, but architect Louis Kahn was brewing up the design for the memorial park nearly 40 years earlier. Kahn’s death in 1974 (a somewhat tragic one which left him dead and alone in a Penn Station bathroom after a heart attack) was unfortunately accented by a dwindling reputation — Kahn’s sordid multi-family affairs had come to light upon his passing and his fading architecture practice was loaded with debt. But beyond all the scandal, Kahn also left behind a number of sketchbooks packed with complete sets of unrealized projects. One of these projects was the Four Freedom’s Park.

While plenty of accolades have been given to successful realization of the project so far after Kahn’s death, few have tracked where the architect may have pulled his inspiration for the design. That is until now. As a number of Kahn’s sketches emerge for public viewing, some are asking: Was the the design of Louis Kahn’s Four Freedom’s Park inspired by the Eye of Providence found on the U.S. dollar bill?

In 1973, Kahn was commissioned by Governor Nelson Rockefeller and NYC Mayor John Lindsay to design the memorial space for FDR. Though Kahn finished the design just a year after receiving the assignment, the project was put on hold due to New York City’s approaching bankruptcy. Its delay was further extended by the architect’s death, and the initiative was eventually lost until Mitchell | Giurgola Architects took on the task of realizing Kahn’s work based on his drawings decades later, in 2010....Continue Reading

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