Carles Vallhonrat, architect, teacher, and founder of the original Louis I. Kahn Archive, died in his home in Haverford, PA, on February 21st. He was 89.
Vallhonrat, who taught at the Princeton University School of Architecture for forty years, is remembered for his careful insights and dedication to the integrity of design. Before joining the Princeton faculty, he was Chairman and taught at the Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. He was William Henry Bishop Professor of Architecture at Yale University in 1985 and Paul H. Kea Distinguished Professor of Architecture at the University of Maryland in 1974-5. Over the years, he was a juror, lecturer, or panelist at Col.legi d’Arquitectes de Catalunya, Columbia University, Cooper Union, Harvard University, MIT, Myongji University, Tel Aviv University, University of Texas, and University of Toronto. He wrote on tectonics and on Josef Hoffmann, and was principal narrator in the film Spent Light: Louis Kahn & the Salk Institute.
From 1960 to 1971, Mr. Vallhonrat worked in the office of Louis I. Kahn as principal assistant to Mr. Kahn in the design of the Salk Institute, the Bangladesh Capital Complex, the Palazzo dei Congressi in Venice, and the first design of the British Art Center at Yale. As Senior Designer and Consultant to Ewing Cole Erdman & Eubank, he designed the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
Born in Barcelona, Mr. Vallhonrat was a graduate of the Universidad National del Litoral in Rosario, Argentina, and of the Master’s program in Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania.
A funeral service will be held Monday, March 6th at 2:00pm at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. In lieu of flowers, gifts in memory of Professor Carles Vallhonrat can be made to the Princeton University Professor Vallhonrat Fund (Princeton University, Alumni and Donor Records, Helen Hardy, P.O. Box 5357, Princeton, NJ 08543-5357).
