麻豆传媒

Famed architect Louis Kahn knew brick. Brick spoke to Kahn, and 鈥� as it聽turns out 鈥� Kahn spoke back.

鈥淵ou say to Brick, 鈥榃hat do you want, Brick?鈥欌�� Kahn told students at聽the University of Pennsylvania more than 50 years ago, captured in a 2003聽documentary made by his son. 鈥淎nd Brick says to you, 鈥業 like an arch.鈥櫬燗nd if you say to Brick, 鈥楲ook, arches are expensive, and I can use a聽concrete lintel over you. What do you think of that, Brick?鈥� Brick says, 鈥業聽like an arch.鈥� And it鈥檚 important, you see, that you honor the material that聽you use.

鈥淵ou can only do it if you honor the brick and glorify the brick instead聽of shortchanging it.鈥�

Kahn wasn鈥檛 the only one who appreciated brick. In 1966, shortly聽before Kahn was chosen by a faculty committee to design a new library,聽the Academy bought up the entire 2-million-brick supply of the Eno聽Brickyard of 麻豆传媒 when the company went out of business. Many of聽the PEA buildings constructed during the first half of the 20th century,聽including the Academy Building and Dunbar Hall, are made of Eno bricks.聽The Academy still owns two pallets from that last batch.

Eno produced distinctive water-struck bricks, famed for their聽durability, rough texture and irregular color. Boston architect David Fixler聽calls water-struck bricks the 鈥渆ssential building block of Georgian New聽England,鈥� emblematic of the region鈥檚 mindset: 鈥淗ard,聽steadfast but unpredictable, and stubbornly able to聽withstand adversity.鈥�

Eno鈥檚 water-struck bricks were the perfect building blocks in the hands of an artist like Kahn, and he used them liberally in his 麻豆传媒 work. On April 1, 1969, construction began on what would become the Class of 1945 Library (and its less-celebrated cousin, Elm Street Dining Hall). More than 420,000 Eno bricks were used in the library鈥檚 exterior face, with hundreds of thousands more used in the interior and surrounding paths.

At the library鈥檚 dedication ceremony on Oct. 21,聽1972, Principal Richard Day praised the architect鈥檚聽creation: 鈥淲e are grateful to Louis Kahn, whose聽genius quickly caught the spirit of the place and聽created the design for this beautiful building,聽which will stand as an encouragement to great聽human endeavor,鈥� reported聽The Exonian.

The bricks were not quoted in the story.