The Penn Years

J. Michael Cobb received a Master of Architecture Degree in 1970 and a PhD in City and Regional in 1976, both from from the University of Pennsylvania.

During 1969-1970, he was a member of Lou Kahn's Master's class, held in Lou's second floor studio in the old Furness building on the Penn campus.

After serving two years in the US Army Corps of Engineers, Michael returned to Penn 1972 as a Lecturer while completing his doctorate. During this period (1972-76) he also taught in Penn's Urban Design and City and Regional Planning Programs involving  studio teaching with Ed Bacon, Ian McHarg, David Wallace and other influential urban designer, planners and educators. In the mid 1990's, Michael again returned to Penn as adjunct faculty teaching a course in international urban development

The photograph at left, taken at Penn in the Spring of 1969, shows Michael with Lou discussing a design project. 

Louis I. Kahn is considered by most architectural historians and the international profession as one of the most renowned practitioners of his own approach to modernism and design naturalism within 20th century architecture. And to those of us fortunate to work with Lou, he was also a great teacher. In class he often said "I teach to teach myself...what you get is what rubs off..." Many authorities consider him on a par with Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe in the extent of his influence on subsequent generations of architects throughout the world.

An internet search of Louis I. Kahn will result in many links to books, articles and an extensive collection of material related to Lou's work and life. One of my favorite books is by R. S. Wurman, entitled, What Will Be Has Always Been. The Words of Louis I. Kahn, Access Press Ltd. and Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. New York, 1986.

Wurman's work contains nearly all of Kahn's published writings, transcriptions of his speeches and interviews, excerpts from his notebooks, and interviews with many people who knew him.

Also, a quick slideshow highlighting some of Lou's major buildings can be found at the following link.

JMC Princeton, 2008