Helmut Jahn Quotes

• We are creating a unique experience. It’s starts with how you see the building from a distance.

  Helmut Jahn

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• You’d never think of taking a cab if you had to walk a mile down Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. But in a bad city you take a cab just to go around the corner.

  Helmut Jahn

• You don’t know what the Chinese expect in the way of beauty. The presentation is just a farce. You come into a room filled with 50 people and they don’t talk to you. There’s very little interaction.

  Helmut Jahn

• When I think of some of my earlier work, it really seems a fortunate coincidence that I succeeded.

  Helmut Jahn

• When I came to America in the ’60s, it was the place to be. I wonder if I’d come here today.

  Helmut Jahn

• We want our buildings to work like a machine that will create a pleasurable environment.

  Helmut Jahn

• We prefer synthetic rather than natural materials. Natural products are almost too valuable. Wood is much harder to produce than metal. And metal is recyclable, while wood isn’t.

  Helmut Jahn

• Transparency is not the same as looking straight through a building: it’s not just a physical idea, it’s also an intellectual one.

  Helmut Jahn

• The architecture profession has lost a lot of its integrity, especially in the USA. The general architect here has no scruples, no ambitions.

  Helmut Jahn

• The American attitude towards efficiency and execution should always underlie architecture.

  Helmut Jahn

• Sometimes I have to accept a job I don’t really want. Hardly anybody comes up to you with a commission; it’s all competitions these days.

  Helmut Jahn

• Most architects say: I want to use this type of glass, even if it’s too reflective or doesn’t let enough light in. However, the use of a certain type of glass might change the comfort level.

  Helmut Jahn

• It’s my goal to make a building as immaterial as possible. Architecture is a very material thing. It takes a lot of resources, so why not eliminate what you don’t need as long as you’re able to achieve the same result?

  Helmut Jahn

• In Europe, they’re more demanding, the ones that rent the build ings.

  Helmut Jahn

• In Europe, architects consider themselves artists. They think they’re special when they win a competition.

  Helmut Jahn

• I’ve never looked at a suburban building as being a minor building and an urban building as being a major building.

  Helmut Jahn

• I wanted to improve the suburban office building; to create a great urban space in a suburban environment with all that implies about interaction, collaboration and creativity.

  Helmut Jahn

• I think the younger generation, the people poised to dominate the workforce, are more socially conscious. They are more demanding in terms of environment and how that environment contributes to their life.

  Helmut Jahn

• I strive for an architecture from which nothing can be taken away.

  Helmut Jahn

• Higher ceilings allow the use indirect lighting, which is much healthier and reduces glare.

  Helmut Jahn

Helmut Jahn (30)

Birth:	4th January, 1940
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Architect

About

Helmut Jahn was born in Nuremberg, Germany. He is a German-born American architect. In 1966, he emigrated to Chicago to further study architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology, leaving school without earning his degree. In 1967, he joined C. F. Murphy Associates as a protégé of Gene Summers and was appointed Executive Vice President and Director of Planning and Design of the firm in 1973. His selected edifices include: Sony Center, Liberty Place, Kemper Arena, Suvarnabhumi Airport, Auraria Library, Michigan City Public Library, 11 Diagonal Street, James R. Thompson Center, Messeturm, Weser Tower, Joe and Rika Mansueto Library, and Cosmopolitan Twarda 2/4.

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