Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Louis Kahn's concrete and teak research campus above the Pacific, seen on docent-led architecture tours.
The Salk Institute was founded in 1960 by Jonas Salk, the developer of the first effective polio vaccine, on a bluff of land given by the city of San Diego at Torrey Pines. Salk asked Louis Kahn to design a place where, in his phrase, a scientist could invite Picasso. Kahn's buildings, completed in 1965, consist of two mirrored laboratory blocks of board-formed concrete flanking a travertine plaza, with teak-panelled studies stepped out towards the ocean on either side.
The plaza was left deliberately bare after Kahn consulted the Mexican architect Luis Barragan, who suggested a single channel of water instead of planting. That narrow rill runs west along the axis of the courtyard and falls into a basin, framing a view of the Pacific horizon. Each laboratory floor is served by a full-height interstitial storey carrying pipework, so the working spaces below are free of columns and can be reconfigured. The campus is widely regarded as one of the defining works of twentieth-century architecture and is visited on guided tours.
Highlights
- The travertine plaza with its single water channel aimed at the Pacific
- Mirrored laboratory blocks in board-formed concrete by Louis Kahn
- Teak-panelled scholars' studies angled towards the ocean view
- Service floors between laboratories, allowing column-free research space
![Afrique occidentale française : Cathédrale à St Louis / [photogr. Eugène] Gallois ; [photogr. reprod. par Radiguet et Massiot pour la conférence donnée par] Gallois](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Afrique_occidentale_fran%C3%A7aise_-_Cath%C3%A9drale_%C3%A0_St_Louis_-_%28photogr._Eug%C3%A8ne%29_Gallois_%3B_%28photogr._reprod._par_Radiguet_et_Massiot_pour_la_conf%C3%A9rence_donn%C3%A9e_par%29_Gallois_-_btv1b532798828.jpg/500px-thumbnail.jpg)
![[Golestan, Le Salon et Fete de l'equinode, Teheran, Iran (le Pavillion du Trone)]](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/-Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg/500px--Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg)
![Théâtre de la guerre dans l'Inde sur la coste de Coromandel / par M.B.C.T. [Monsieur Bourcet Capitaine ?] ; gravé par Croisey](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg/500px-Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg)
