Robert D. Kohn (May 12, 1870 – June 16, 1953) was an American architect most active in New York City.

Life and career

Kohn was born in Manhattan, attended

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, and spent four years at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, from 1891 through 1895. After brief stints for other architects, he established an independent practice in 1896. In 1905 he married sculptor Estelle Rumbold of St. Louis, Missouri. His first building of note was the Vienna Sezession-detailed Old New York Evening Post Building (1906–07), 20 Vesey Street, one of the limited number of

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

structures in New York. Stacks of convex copper-framed windows press forward between unrelieved limestone piers. Of the four sculpted figures in the uppermost floors, two are by Kohn's wife, and the other two are by

Gutzon Borglum John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum (March 25, 1867 – March 6, 1941) was an American sculpture, sculptor best known for his work on Mount Rushmore. He is also associated with various other public works of art across the U.S., including Stone Moun ...

. He designed the hall for the Society for Ethical Culture (Central Park West and 64th Street, 1911) and had formerly collaborated with

Carrère and Hastings Carrère and Hastings, the firm of John Merven Carrère ( ; November 9, 1858 – March 1, 1911) and Thomas Hastings (architect), Thomas Hastings (March 11, 1860 – October 22, 1929), was an American list of architecture firms, architecture firm ...

on the adjoining Ethical Culture school building (1902). "Like

Christian Science Christian Science is a set of beliefs and practices which are associated with members of the Church of Christ, Scientist. Adherents are commonly known as Christian Scientists or students of Christian Science, and the church is sometimes in ...

, the Ethical Culture movement was searching for its own form - it had no historic precedents from which to draw. Kohn's exterior, all Bedford limestone, took its cornice and base course lines from the adjacent school, but nothing else. Instead of the school's broad window facing Central Park, the meeting house has wide, limestone expanses, like a mausoleum, and simply, blocky detailing." (Stern et al.) He worked in association with his brother, Victor H. Kohn, who died in New York, 4 May 1910, aged thirty-eight. In 1918 he was a founding member of the Technical Alliance, organized for the purpose of undertaking an energy survey of North America, for the reconsideration of the workings of the entire social system; their work was continued by Technocracy Inc. From 1917 through the early 1950s Kohn collaborated, formally and informally, with fellow architect Charles Butler. In the 1920s they became well known for their temples and other structures for the

Reform Jewish Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism, is a major Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of Judaism, the superiority of its ethical aspects to its ceremonial ones, and belief in a continuous rev ...

congregations of New York, notably the discreetly modernist Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York on

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue runs south from 143rd Street (Manhattan), West 143rd Street in Harlem to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The se ...

(1927–29) and for the New York Society for Ethical Culture, of which he had been a member since early youth. The Congregation Emanuel-El blends a conservative modernism with

Neo-Romanesque Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...

precedents, stripped of its literal historicisms. The west end of Emanu-El, facing Central Park, is a single vastly-scaled entrance porch, infilled with stained glass under a round-headed arch. Buttressed wall permit an interior free of support, with a roof 103 feet above the floor. In 1953 he was elected into the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Frederick Styles Agate, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, an ...

as an Associate Academician. Another regular partner was

Clarence Stein Clarence Samuel Stein (June 19, 1882 – February 7, 1975) was an American urban planner, architect, and writer, a major proponent of the garden city movement in the United States known for the Radburn concept. Biography Stein was born in Roche ...

. Like Stein, in the 1930s and beyond Kohn would become recognized for his expertise in low-cost housing. Kohn also became President of the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach progr ...

in 1930–32. Emanu-elNYjeh

World's Fair 1939

Kohn worked as the Chairman of the Committee on Theme for the 1939 World's Fair, a particularly influential body which governed almost the entirety of the expositions presented at the fair. In particular, Kohn's influence is attributed to implementing the "Fair of the Future" theme into the progressive and Beaux-Arts architecture of the exhibitors.

Works

* Old New York Evening Post Building, 20 Vesey Street,

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, 1906-07 * Spero Building, 19-27 West 21st Street, Manhattan, New York City, 1907-08 * Tower Press Building, dominated by a octagonal tower,

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

, 1907 * A. I. Namm & Son Department Store, Brooklyn, with Charles Butler, 1924 *

Macy's Herald Square Macy's Herald Square (originally named the R. H. Macy and Company Store) is a department store building on West 34th Street (Manhattan), 34th Street at Herald Square in New York City, New York (state), New York, United States. It was designed b ...

expansion, Manhattan, 1924 *

Ethical Culture Fieldston School The Ethical Culture Fieldston School (ECFS), also known more simply as Fieldston or Ethical Culture, is a private pre-K through twelfth grade coeducational school in New York City with two campuses, in Manhattan and in the Bronx. The school is ...

, Bronx, with

, 1926 * Temple Emanu-El of New York on Fifth Avenue (1927–29) *352 Riverside Drive

References

Notes Bibliography *
AIA presidents
Victor H. Kohn, obituary from ''American Art Annual'', vol. VIII (1911)
technocracyinc.org website
*

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kohn, Robert D. Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation alumni 20th-century American architects Jewish architects 1870 births 1953 deaths American alumni of the École des Beaux-Arts Art Nouveau architects Fellows of the American Institute of Architects Presidents of the American Institute of Architects