Dome

Circular stairwell, detail at the top landing; The Yale University Art Gallery was Louis I. Kahn's first significant commission and is widely considered his first masterpiece. Designed while Kahn was a visiting critic at the Yale School of Architecture, the building--the first of three art museums that he would design--represented a dramatic point of departure for American museum architecture as a whole. Constructed of brick, concrete, glass, and steel, and presenting a windowless wall along its most public façade, the building was a radical break from the neo-Gothic buildings that characterize much of the campus, including the adjacent Swartwout building. Kahn's design has been celebrated not only for its beauty, geometry, and light, but also for its structural and engineering innovations. Among these is the housing of electrical and ventilating systems in hollow concrete tetrahedrons that make up the ceiling, appearing to float overhead. The building was restored in 2007. Source: Yale University Art Gallery; http://artgallery.yale.edu/ (accessed 1/3/2008)