Helmut Jahn

Helmut Jahn (born January 4, 1940) is a Chicago-based German-American architect, known for designs such as the Sony Center on the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, Germany; the Messeturm in Frankfurt, Germany; the One Liberty Place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (formerly the tallest building in Philadelphia); and the Suvarnabhumi Airport, an international airport in Bangkok, Thailand. Recent projects include a residential tower in New York City, 50 West St in 2016 and the ThyssenKrupp Test Tower in Rottweil, Germany in 2017.

Contents
1 Life and career
1.1 Murphy/Jahn
2 Architectural style and influences
3 Completed projects
4 Select Awards
5 Yachting
6 External links
6.1 References
Life and career

An illuminated, suspended, oval roof covers the 102 m span of the central Forum of the Sony Center, Berlin.
Jahn was born Zirndorf near Nuremberg, Germany, in 1940, and grew up watching the reconstruction of the city, which had been largely destroyed by Allied bombing campaigns.[1] After attending the Technical University of Munich from 1960 to 1965, he worked with Peter C. von Seidlein for a year. In 1966, he emigrated to Chicago to further study architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology, but left school without earning his degree.

Murphy/Jahn
Jahn joined Charles Francis Murphy’s architecture firm, C. F. Murphy Associates, in 1967 and was appointed Executive Vice President and Director of Planning and Design of the firm in 1973. He took sole control in 1981, renaming the firm Murphy/Jahn (even though Murphy had retired). Murphy died in 1985.

Architectural style and influences
Generally inspired by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, yet opposed to the doctrinal application of modernism by his followers, in 1978, Jahn became the eighth member of the Chicago Seven. Jahn established his pre-eminent reputation in 1985 with the State of Illinois Center in Chicago which prompted him to be dubbed “Flash Gordon.”.[2] In addition to the main seat in Chicago, the company has offices in Berlin and Shanghai.

On October 26, 2012, Helmut Jahn renamed Murphy/Jahn to simply JAHN.

Completed projects

Auraria Library

James R. Thompson Center

O’Hare Airport – interior view of the connecting tunnel between Concourses B & C of Terminal 1, with Michael Hayden’s neon installation Sky’s the Limit (1987).

Bank of America Tower (1990)

One America Plaza

1999 K Street, NW in Washington, D.C.
Following is a partial list of completed projects [2] [3] [4]:

1974 Kemper Arena, Kansas City, Missouri
1976 Kansas City Convention Center, also known as H. Roe Bartle Exhibition Hall, Kansas City, Missouri [3]
1976 Auraria Learning Resources Center, Auraria Higher Education Center, Denver, Colorado
1976 John Marshall Courts Building, Richmond, Virginia [4]
1977 Michigan City Public Library, Michigan City, Indiana ([5])
1977 Saint Mary’s College Athletic Facility, Notre Dame, Indiana (pictures)
1978 W.W. Grainger Headquarters, Skokie, Illinois [5]
1978 Rust-Oleum Corporation International Headquarters, Vernon Hills, Illinois [6]
1978 La Lumiere Gymnasium, La Porte, Indiana [7]
1979 Imperial Bank Tower Costa Mesa, California [8]
1980 Horizon Bank (515 5th Street Bank) Michigan City, Indiana
1980 Xerox Centre, (55 West Monroe St) Chicago [9]
1981 United States Post Office, Oak Brook, Illinois [10]
1981 De La Garza Career Center, East Chicago, Indiana [11]
1981 Commonwealth Edison Company District Headquarters, Bolingbrook, Illinois [12]
1982 Argonne Program Support Facility, Argonne National Laboratory, Illinois [13]
1982 Eagle River Vacation House (The Jahn House) Eagle River, Wisconsin [14]
1982 Area 2 Police Headquarters, Chicago[15]
1982 Chicago Board of Trade Addition Chicago [16]
1982 One South Wacker Chicago [17]
1983 Agricultural Engineering Sciences Building Addition University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois [18]
1983 Learning Resources Center, College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, Illinois [19]
1983 Grandma Pereira’s Clappin Kitchen School for the Gifted Warsaw, Alabama
1983 First Source Centre, South Bend, Indiana [6]
1983 11 Diagonal Street, Johannesburg, South Africa [7]
1984 Plaza East Office Towers, Milwaukee [20]
1984 Shand Morgan Corporate Headquarters, Evanston, Illinois [21]
1984 701 Building (Craig-Hallom Building), Minneapolis
1984 O’Hare ‘L’ Station, O’Hare International Airport, Chicago
1985 James R. Thompson Center, Chicago
1985 362 West Street, Durban, South Africa
1986 Parktown Stands 102, 103, 85, 879, Johannesburg, South Africa
1986 MetroWest Office Building (2 Energy Center), Naperville, Illinois[8]
1986 Oakbrook Terrace Tower, Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois[9]
1987 Park Avenue Tower, New York City [10]
1987 425 Lexington Avenue, New York City [11]
1987 United Airlines Terminal 1 at O’Hare International Airport, Chicago
1987 America Apartments – 300 East 85th Street, New York, NY [12]
1987 One Liberty Place, Philadelphia
1987 Cityspire, New York City [13]
1987 Citigroup Center, Chicago [22]
1988 Wilshire/Westwood, Los Angeles
1989 Trade Hall 1 (Halle 1), Frankfurt, Germany
1989 Metropolitan Transportation Authority Headquarters, 130 Livingston Street, Downtown Brooklyn
1990 Bank of America Tower, Jacksonville, Florida [14]
1990 Two Liberty Place, Philadelphia [15]
1991 One America Plaza, San Diego [16]
1991 Messeturm, Frankfurt, Germany [17]
1992 120 North LaSalle, Chicago, Illinois [18]
1993 Hitachi Tower, Singapore [19]
1993 Caltex House, Singapore
1994 Hotel Kempinski, Munich, Germany
1994 Kurfürstendamm 70, Berlin, Germany
1996 Fortis Bank Tower (Blaak 555), Rotterdam, Netherlands[23]
1996 Principal Financial Group Corporate Four Building, Des Moines, Iowa [20]
1997 RCID Administration Building, Buena Vista, Florida
1998 Generale Bank Nederland, Rotterdam, Netherlands
1999 European Union Charlemagne building, Brussels, Belgium
1999 Munich Airport Center, Germany
2000 Sony Center Berlin, Germany
2000 Cologne Bonn Airport, Cologne, Germany
2000 HA·LO Headquarters (presently the headquarters of Shure), Niles, Illinois
2000 Imperial Bank Tower Renovation, Costa Mesa, California[24]
2001 Neues Kranzler Eck, Berlin, Germany[25]
2002 Kaufhof Galeria, Chemnitz, Germany
2002 Shanghai International Expo Centre, Shanghai, China
2002 Bayer AG Konzernzentrale[26]
2003 Deutsche Post Tower, Bonn, Germany
2003 IIT Student Housing, Chicago
2003 Highlight Munich Business Towers, Munich, Germany
2004 Mannheimer Corporate Headquarters, Mannheim, Germany [27]
2004 Merck Serono Headquarters (Horizon Serono), Geneva, Switzerland
2005 Focus Media Center (Deutsche-Med-Platz), Rostock, Germany [28]
2006 Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok, Thailand
2006 Seminaris Campus Hotel, Berlin, Germany
2007 Margot and Harold Schiff Residences, Chicago
2007 600 North Fairbanks, Chicago, USA
2008 Hegau Tower, Singen, Germany
2009 South Campus Chiller Plant, University of Chicago Chicago [21]
2009 1999 K Street, Washington, D.C. [22]
2010 Hafen Tower (Sign Tower), Speditionstrasse 1-3 Düsseldorf, Germany [23][29]
2010 Veer Towers, Paradise, Nevada USA
2010 Weser Tower, Bremen, Germany [24]
2010 Bonn Airport Parking, Cologne, Germany
2011 Joe and Rika Mansueto Library, Chicago, USA [25]
2012 Leatop Plaza, Guangzhou, China
2012 Skyline Tower, Munich, Germany
2012 Japan Post, Tokyo, Japan
2013 Cosmopolitan Twarda 2/4, Warsaw, Poland
2014 Z Towers, Riga, Latvia
2016 Doha Exhibition and Convention Center, Qatar
2016 Shanghai Convention Center, Shanghai, China
2016 50 West Street, New York City, USA
2017 ThyssenKrup Test Tower, Rottweil, Germany
2017 1900 Reston Station, Reston, VA
Select Awards
1991 – “Ten Most Influential Living American Architects” from the American Institute of Architects.
1993 – “Outstanding Achievement/Architect Award” from the American Academy of Art, Chicago.
1994 – “Bundesverdienstkreuz Erster Klasse” of the Federal Republic of Germany.
2002 – Institute Honour Award of the American Institute of Architects for the Sony Center.
2005 – Murphy/Jahn, Inc. recipient of the AIA Architecture Firm Award.
2005 Pratt Institute Legends Award
2005 TetraEner European Commission Concerto Award
2006 AIA Chicago Firm of the Year Award
2008 The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Award for Architecture Excellence In Community Design
2018 ENR Safety Award of Merit: 1900 Metro Reston Plaza

Messeturm (Fair Tower), Frankfurt

The Post Tower (Postal Tower), Bonn

Exhibition “Process/Progress” Nuremberg, Germany 2012-2013

Yachting
Jahn has an interest in yachting, and in the late 1990s owned at least three yachts named Flash Gordon (one of his nicknames).[30] In 1995, Jahn’s Flash Gordon 2 won the annual Chicago to Mackinac Race, the oldest freshwater yacht race in the world.[31] In 1998, Jahn invited his fellow Vietnam War veteran, George Henry, to race with him in the Waterbury Channel Open. In 1997, Flash Gordon 3 won the Admiral’s Cup.[32][33] In 2017 Flash Gordon 6 team captured its third straight North American Championship.

External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Helmut Jahn.
Helmut Jahn at archINFORM
JAHN official website.
Architect Helmut Jahn renames firm, promotes successor
Highlight towers
Murphy/Jahn portfolio on Phorio
Murphy/Jahn portfolio on Emporis
projectchicago.org entry: 120 North LaSalle building
projectchicago.org entry: State Street Village
The New Modernism of Helmut Jahn
References
Neumann, Dietrich. “Helmut Jahn.” In Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present, vol. 5, edited by R. Daniel Wadhwani. German Historical Institute. Last modified
Blaser, Werner. Helmut Jahn Architecture Engineering. Basel, Berlin, Boston: Birkhauser Publishers for Architecture. 2002. Print
Blaser, Werner. Helmut Jahn Architecture Engineering. Basel, Berlin, Boston: Birkhauser Publishers for Architecture. 2002. Print
[1], Leverkusen, Germany
“Archived copy”. Archived from the original on 2013-12-15. Retrieved 2013-12-15.
http://mapolis.com/en/building/Focus_Media_Center#!profile Archived 2013-12-15 at the Wayback Machine
http://www.archdaily.com/231569/flashback-hafen-murphyjahn/
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-helmut-jahn-profile-20140813-story.html
https://www.chicagoyachtclub.org/files/Mackinac%20Cup.pdf
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-helmut-jahn-profile-20140813-story.html
“Archived copy”. Archived from the original on 2016-01-23. Retrieved 2015-10-21.