Left on the drawing board

View full image

Louis I. Kahn Collection, University of Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission

View full image

The art of the possible

As it stands now, the façade of the Yale University Art Gallery on Chapel Street (top) is a study in contrasts: on the right are the arched windows and carved stone details of Egerton Swartwout’s 1928 building, and on the left is the minimalist brick wall of Louis Kahn’s famous 1953 addition.

According to Swartwout’s plan (bottom), however, his building would have occupied that entire side of the block. It also included a monumental entrance right in the middle. The interior would have featured more vaulted spaces, like those in the current classical art gallery. And the building would have been a good deal deeper, extending back toward Jonathan Edwards College and occupying much of what is now the Art Gallery’s sculpture garden.

But Yale had only enough money to build the first stage of Swartwout’s design. And by 1941, when the university was ready to enlarge the Art Gallery, modernism had taken hold. Museum of Modern Art architect Philip Goodwin prepared a preliminary design. He went into semi-retirement before Yale moved forward with the project in 1950, so the university turned to Kahn to design the addition. The result was a modern masterpiece.