ABSTRACT
It was the age of the new Modern Architecture, with skyscrapers and glass-walled houses. Lou tried to design buildings in this way, but didn't feel comfortable with it. Then in 1950 he was invited on a fellowship to the American Academy in Rome. A great number of essays and articles have been written on how much and in what way Cret influenced Kahn, and this remains one of the focal points of his artistic career and offers further opportunities for study, especially as regards what he learnt in Rome. Rome was the place where he discovered "his own voice," as his son Nathaniel testified, the city where "Louis Kahn the artist and Louis Kahn the architect became the same person." The key to understanding Rome's influence on Kahn's work is his passion for how the city was designed, something that never failed him throughout his entire career.
