Episode 112: Anne Tyng Part Two
After becoming a licensed architect Anne continued to work as a Principal in Louis Kahn’s firm. Anne Tyng was deeply fascinated by geometry, especially Platonic solids, which she incorporated into her architectural work and influenced Louis Kahn's designs. She believed Platonic solids held answers to fundamental questions, including the meaning of life. Her exploration of these shapes materialized in projects like the Philadelphia City Tower model, which was exhibited but never built. Anne contributed significantly to other projects like the Trenton Bath House, where her ideas on light and geometric forms played a major role, yet Kahn received most of the credit.
One project no one could take credit away from her was the design of her own home, the Tyng House. There she was able to showcase her signature style inspired by geometry. Despite her pivotal role in many of Kahn's projects, she rarely received public acknowledgment. In 1953, she was awarded a Fulbright but turned it down due to her pregnancy with Kahn’s child. She still studied under renowned engineer Pier Luigi Nervi in Rome and later returned to work with Kahn until they parted ways in 1964.
After leaving Kahn’s firm, Tyng continued her career, receiving a Graham Foundation grant in 1965. She explored architecture and geometry through writing, teaching at UPenn, and obtaining a PhD. In 1989, she published an essay on women’s roles in architecture, critiquing their often overshadowed contributions. Later, a documentary by Kahn’s son featured her discussing her work, bringing her long-overdue recognition. Despite her contributions, many of her achievements remained overlooked, though she lived to see some recognition of her work before passing in 2012.
Great article with even greater images:
https://www.architectmagazine.com/design/anne-tyng-and-her-remarkable-house_o
Caryatid: Ingrid Schaffner
Ingrid Schaffner is a curator, writer, educator, and art critic. She was born in Pittsburgh, and grew up in Los Gatos, California. Her higher education resume includes Mount Holyoke College, the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program, Helena Rubinstein Curatorial Fellow, and a master’s degree in art history from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts. She's seriously a powerhouse, and she shines bright when she is putting the spotlight on overlooked artists and architects. For 15 years, from 2000 to 2015 she was in charge of the exhibition program at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). She was also the editor of Anne's book: Inhabiting Geometry. She continues to highlight Anne whenever she can. In March of 2020 she was part of a panel event at a conference in Princeton University called Anne Tyng: Ordered Randomness.
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This transcript was prepared during the development of the episode.
Final recorded episode may deviate slightly from the content presented below as changes, edits, or improvements may be made during the recording and editing process.
Norgerie: Hi! Welcome to She Builds Podcast, where we share stories about women in the design and construction field, one lady at a time.
Jessica: This season’s theme is: “Pairs, Duos” . We are talking about ladies who were a part of a professional pair in some fashion.
Lizi: As always, we are not experts, we are just sharing stories about the information that we find, as friends having a fun conversation. If you find an error, send us an email and we will all continue learning.
Norgerie: Today we're continuing the story of Anne Tyng, first licensed woman architect in Pennsylvania and longtime collaborator with Louis Khan. I’m Norgerie Rivas, still thinking about all the gold medals and world records from the olympics, in Houston Texas
Jessica: Hi, I’m Jessica Rogers wondering how the swimmers the swam in the Seine during the olympics are doing in Miami, FL
Lizi: Hi, I’m Lizi Raar, missing seeing Snoop Dogg snooping around Paris in San Francisco.
Norgerie: We got a lot to cover today so put on your seat belts. We're going fast and furious with a recap of last week's episode.
Lizi: Ready!
Jessica: let’s do this!
Norgerie: Anne is born in 1920 in China, her parents are missionaries. She grew up in Asia but traveled often to the US. In 1944 she graduated from Harvard with a degree in architecture making her among the first group of women that could put that on their resume. A year later she started working at the firm Storonov and Kahn collaborated heavily on Kahn’s projects. When the firm dissolved a few years later Anne moved on to Kahn’s firm. In 1947 she became the first woman licensed architect in Pennsylvania, and I couldn’t find an exact date of when this happened but I know she also made partner at Kahn’s firm! So now we're caught up with last week's episode.
Lizi: Ok, great. I needed a little refresher, but now I’m all caught up!
Jessica: that might be the quickest recap ever- but if you want the details and all the tea check out last weeks episode
Norgerie: By this time she was extremely fascinated by the metaphysics of geometry and she found a way to include this on every project she worked on and to influence Louis’ own design thinking. She was obsessed with platonic solids.
Lizi: What are those?
Norgerie: Geometric solids whose faces are all identical, regular polygons meeting at the same three-dimensional angles. The most well known one is a tetrahedron aka pyramid, actually I take that back the most common one is probably a cube.
Lizi: ahhh I see.
Jessica: ooooooo
Norgerie: Anne was all about exploring how we could inhabit platonic solids. Her daughter said “She believed that the five Platonic solids were the most basic archetypes upon which all organic structures, micro- and macrocosmic, were formed.”
Lizi: Wow. That feels very meta or like the meaning of life, but I love that Anne was so into these platonic solids.
Jessica:right?! Beyond just shapes. Also spoiler alert … there is a daughter but let’s continue… Platonic solids?
Norgerie: Yeah, from what I read it felt like Anne believed every answer, including the meaning of life, could be found in platonic solids. A great example of how Anne’s platonic solids found their way to architecture was the Philadelphia City Tower project. Anne first thought of it while in her free time as we all do in our free time, she was basically doing parametric design by hand. Then she made a model with triangles and showed Louis who of course thought that was really cool. Together they built a model that ended up being a zigzag very tall high-rise of acute angles.
Lizi: hahahaha of course he thought it was cool! But I also like that she was doing parametric design by hand or in her mind. That’s amazing.
Jessica: I bet you those sketches were cool! I think it’s cool that her and Kahn can nerd out together with this
Norgerie: Isnt it! The design was never built but they submitted the model for the Visionary Architecture Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. It’s a pity this project was not realized, it's a pretty sweet model, all about the geometry and how the pieces come together, innovation in space framing, you see through the structure of the space, and how that in itself creates the space. You gotta see it for yourself. https://www.optima.inc/women-in-architecture-anne-tyng/
Lizi: Woah. That’s a cool model. It reminds me of K’Nex if you remember those toys when we were kids. And honestly the Tyng Toy kind of sounded k’nex-y too. This would have been a really cool building if it had gotten built.
Jessica: the Tyng toy was cool but this model is awesome!
Norgerie: If you’re in New York and wanna swing by the MoMA you might be able to see renderings of the model, it lives in their collections but not sure if it's on exhibit right now. And at least as late as 2018 the work was only attributed to Kahn cause Kahn “forgot” to include Anne’s name in the submission. Here’s to hoping that mistake has been corrected.
Jessica: queue eye roll
Lizi: Oh no! It’s only attributed to Louis! That’s gotta be corrected ASAP.
Norgerie: Maybe it already is, I couldn’t find a definitive answer on that. Another very important project is the Trenton Bath House, which people often attribute entirely to Louis Kahn, when in fact you see pieces of her in the cubes and the forms of the space. In fact, in typical starchitect of the first half of the century fashion Kahn never corrected anyone when all the credit was given to him.
Lizi: Ugh. Hate that for Anne! Another instance of a big name architect getting all the credit and us learning only about him and his contributions.
Jessica:booooooo
Norgerie: Yeah that feels like a never-ending theme today. All them projects that we've all kinda revered Kahn for and come to find out a lot about what is impressive about the project was thanks to Anne. For example, one of the most important architectural features of Trenton Bath House is how light enters the space through the roof and that was all Anne. Louis was working on a roofless scheme and Anne came in and said, that’s a neat idea. I like that, it's interesting cause I actually had this other one in mind of four symmetrically arranged squares with hipped roofs inspired by the bathhouses I grew up seeing in China, check this out. And Louis was probably like, oh yeah that’s what I was saying… No it wasn’t Louis, not it wasn’t.
Lizi: HAHA. I’m sure that’s how that went down. But I am glad that Anne fought for her idea and that it made it into the project!
Jessica: hahaha what was Kahn on?!?! Roofless scheme? Maybe interesting in theory but no finesse. Anne, we love you girl! I really like this, I hope we can see pictures
Norgerie: This may be considered hearsay but, Karrie Jacobs a writer for the Architect Magazine, also founding partner of Dwell, wrote that William Whitaker, who is the curator and collections manager of the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania School of Design told her that the Bath House was basically Anne’s plan.
Lizi: SCANDALOUS! Ok, but I love that this is being written about and that people are realizing all the work that Anne put in.
Jessica:heck yeah! Women help women spread the word love to see it - and shout out to William for a knowledging it
Norgerie: Anne got to design her own home, named the Tyng House, let’s see you take credit for that too Louis. No! It’s all 100% hers, all 1,320sf. She was able to really let her style shine through. It’s a single-family home with a timber-framed ceiling inspired by her platonic solids in the form of a pyramid, slotted windows, and metal screened openwork staircases. From the outside it seems unassuming but it’s really not. People have described drawings of the roof as looking like advanced diagrammatic origami.
Lizi: OOO that roof plan sounds really cool! And way to go Anne designing your own home!
Jessica: living the dream girlfriend- living the dream
Norgerie: Previous owners of the house, after Anne passed away described it as living in music. Here’s how Karrie Jacobs describes the house “a work of sculpture, obsessively crafted, with views and living spaces framed by acute angles. Like the Bath House, it was all about naked rafters and sunlight.”
Lizi: That sounds lovely, and I’m so glad that future residents saw the beauty in her design.
Jessica:agreed it sounds like a symphony of awesomeness
Norgerie: Louis and Anne eventually got close, if you know what I mean. But there was drama, he was married. In 1953, Anne was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship but turned it down because she found out she was pregnant and she knew that would lead to a huge scandal she still ended up in Rome though.
Lizi: WOAH! That is a big scandal, but wait, she got the Fulbright, but turned it down and then went to Rome anyway?
Jessica:oh y’all didn’t know? Louis Kahn was a playa - he had girlfriends and wives in different area codes. I forgot that Anne was in the mix though. Listeners should watch the film “ My Architect” - its directed and produced by Kahn’s son and it talks about this a little now I want to watch it again to see if it mentions Anne. How does she end up in Rome though?
Norgerie: Yeah that confused me too but several sources state this. I searched for why she did this but came up short. The answer probably lives out there in a book I would have to buy, TBD.
Jessica: Or maybe it’s in the film … Well I don’t remember much from the film but from what I can remember… all of these women stayed because they thought Kahn would be a dependable man and chose them vs the other woman (I could be wrong - it I remember feeling sorry for the ladies / kinda annoyed)
Norgerie: Anne and Louis’ daughter, Alexandra Tyng, who grew up to be an artist, was born in 1954 in Italy and lived the first year of her life there. During that year, with a newborn baby, Anne found time to study with the super famous structural engineer and architect, Pier Luigi Nervi, and write to her baby daddy every single week.
Lizi: Anne was keeping busy. Also I love that she’s making connections even in Rome as a new mom.
Norgerie: Anne and Louis ended things in 1964, and she officially left the firm. I’m not gonna lie, I've been waiting all episode for this to happen. In my research I kept getting so angry at Kahn. I mean of course I was not there, I don’t know their life but I just kept thinking girl enough of this guy that is not giving you credit, keeping you on the sidelines both professionally and personally. I kept wondering if she could go on her own and finally be able to shine.
Jessica: Agreed! Okay so everyone has to watch the film - Kahn doesn’t have a happy ending - which is sad but I kinda thought it was a result of his actions and this includes what was done to Anne. I’m happy/ hoping that Anne is off to do amazing things.
Norgerie: After she left Kahn she pretty much had a solo career that should have been pretty amazing had she not been a woman. But, she was, a woman, in the 60s in this profession so she didn’t get the star power and attention she truly deserved.
Jessica: ooh noo
Lizi: UGH, I am really sad for her that she didn’t get to go on and do the amazing things she should have been able to do because she was a woman. But wait, so When did she come back from Italy? And was she still working with Louis that whole time? But just staying away to avoid the scandal? Seems like continuing to work together could have been risky?
Norgerie: She lived in Italy about a year and yeah that whole time she was still a partner at Kahn's firm and when she got back to the US she want back to the firm and they worked together for about a decade. They had a falling out and Kahn figured out a way to give her less and less projects to work on until she got fed up and left.
Jessica: what a butt hole
Norgerie: She still kept it moving. Old Pal Bucky Fuller recommended her for a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. In his recommendation letter called her "Kahn's geometrical strategist". She made history again in 1965 when she became the first woman to get this grant.
Lizi: Yay Anne!
Jessica: OMG way to go Bucky! And good for Anne!
Norgerie: Throughout the rest of her life She did a little bit of this, a little bit of that, she kept exploring her theories on architecture and geometry, designing homes, writing, teaching… she taught at UPenn from 1968-1995, and she also got a PhD from there in 1975.
Lizi: Diving head first into academia. Love it.
Jessica: okay Dr. Tyng!
Norgerie: Anne published a very important essay in 1989, called "From Muse to Heroine, Toward a Visible Creative Identity" she talked about how women were developing in the profession of architecture. Here's a quote:"The steps from muse to heroine are accomplished by very few. Most women trained as architects marry architects. No longer the women behind the man, the woman architect in partnership with her husband may nevertheless be barely visible beside (or slightly behind) the hero"
Lizi: Wow. That is not totally inaccurate right. We’ve talked about this on the show before. We have definitely seen women who were exceptions to that rule, but I do think that history shows us that there were many women whose star was overshadowed by their husband or professional partner.
Jessica: interesting … I need to read this essay
Norgerie: Yeah, she's speaking from experience. Anne was always known as Kahn's muse. That was pretty much it. That started to change in 2003 when Louis’ son, Nathaniel Kahn made an award winning documentary about his father. In that documentary Nathaniel featured Anne discussing her insights and contributions to the work she did with Louis.
Jessica: THIS IS THE DOCUMENTARY THAT I’E BEEN REFERENCING THIS WHOLE TIME
Lizi: Wow. I’m really glad to hear that his son was willing to show Anne’s contributions.
Norgerie: Me too. Nathaniel filmed Anne going back to her project Trenton Bath House and finding it totally neglected. Thanks to the attention this garnered, the building was renovated in 2009.
Lizi: That’s so great!
Norgerie: I wanna note that if you go to the website of that project it's like a shrine to Kahn and I clicked a few different pages in there, I didn't see Anne mentioned anywhere. I didn't go into every single page but I'm just saying I hope her contributions are in there somewhere.
Lizi: Oh no! She’s the one who helped get it restored and then it doesn’t even mention her?? Not cool.
Jessica: Oh my goodness. First we are adding this to our archventure list (assuming we can visit). I’m telling you if I don’t see a plaque, a bust, or even a signature of hers in the corner of something. We are going to talk to somebody, a letterwill be written, a petition will be created. They have the opportunity to correct this, why???
Norgerie: In 2011 Anne published the book Inhabiting Geometry where she documented her ideas about geometry and platonic solids as explored through her past work and the Institute of Contemporary Art, ICA in Philadelphia hosted a retrospective of her work. After being overlooked for so long I'm glad she was alive to see her work being celebrated.
Lizi: Yes, I am too.
Jessica: Agreed!
Norgerie: On December 27, 2012 she passed away in California where she was living. She was 91 years old.
Lizi: Wow, she lived a long life and I am so glad that her work was starting to be recognized while she was still alive.
Jessica: Agreed.
Norgerie: Ok I gotta say here comes a rant. Maybe we need a sound effect, Rant Alert
Jessica: or at the very least, editor… queue the quacks for potential curse words and maybe listeners lower the volume.
Norgerie:Now that I've learned so much about Anne, I have to say that I take offense to the fact that she was known as Louis Khan's muse... Because to call her a “muse”, in my opinion, is to diminish her contribution to the profession of architecture and the work that she did. She wasn't just inspiring Louis. She was designing, drawing CDs, building models, she was doing the work. Groundbreaking work, giving ideas that were solely attributed to Louis Kahn.
And I'm not saying Louis wasn't a creative genius, I am still and probably forever will be a fan of his work but genius isn't finite. To give Anne her due credit for the work they did together does not take credit away from him, he is no less talented and amazing because he collaborated with a talented and amazing colleague.
It doesn't take anything away from him, to put her name on the work that they did together. But boy it takes away so much from her when she's overlooked and erased. And we're not only doing a disservice to her but to ourselves as well, when we don't allow ourselves to learn from her, to be inspired by her. I really hope this trend of the solo genius is slowly but surely coming to an end in our profession because we could be so much more together.
Lizi: Yeah I think you’re totally right. Especially the term ‘muse’ versus collaborator. Muse to me implies that they are the inspiration, but not participating in the actual work, which was obviously not the case for Anne. So I think that term is in a way insulting to her and her work throughout the years.
Jessica: Agreed. To me it’s like if she was hey khan triangles are cool and then khan ran with it and created his designs which we know is not the case. I had admired Kahn’s work and knowing a little about how personal life (the affairs, the kids, his death). I really tried to seperate the man vs the work. Still plan to do so. But now to focus on Anne, I’m so glad we gave her two- episodes because her story needed to be told and in this way. The anger that I feel. Obvi annoyed and irritated at Kahn - for sooo many reasons, I’m mad at the industry, and for the schools - we mentioned it before but this goes on the same page as Corbusier and Mies! I’m so mad that we didn’t get the full story when we have had to anaylze so many details from these iconic projects that come to find out the men didnt’ f*$%ing do! The parts we remember women were behind it, followed through with construction - when the dudes died or were off galavanting, some wouldn’t even have had the project commissioned to begin with if it wasn’t for our ladies.
If I don’t see a plaque at the Trent Bath house ??? In fact I don’t want to go. I would only go if someone tells me that they credit Anne. our show is just a drop in the bucket,
Norgerie: Alright, now we have reached the second part of our episode, the Caryatid. A caryatid is a stone carving of a woman, used as a column or a pillar to support the structure of a Greek or Greek-style building. In each episode we choose a “caryatid” -- a woman who is working today, furthering the profession through their work, and who ties into the historical woman of our episode.
Norgerie: Drum roll please… Ingrid Schaffner
Lizi and Jessica: (applause) Yeay!
Norgerie: Ingrid Schaffner is a curator, writer, educator, and art critic. She was born in Pittsburgh, and grew up in Los Gatos, California
Lizi: Los Gatos!!! Ok, shout out to Los Gatos, where my mom and grandad were born and raised.
Jessica: Los Gatos!
Norgerie: Her higher education resume includes Mount Holyoke College, the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program, Helena Rubinstein Curatorial Fellow, and a master’s degree in art history from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts.
Lizi: Wow. Excellent CV.
Jessica: agreed very impressive
Norgerie: She's seriously a powerhouse, and she shines bright when she is putting the spotlight on overlooked artists and architects. For 15 years, from 2000 to 2015 she was in charge of the exhibition program at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA).
Jessica: This makes me feel so much better (from my rant from before - I love this!
Lizi: Amazing! So she was there when Anne’s work was on display there!
Norgerie: Exactly, and she was also the editor of Anne's book: Inhabiting Geometry. She continues to highlight Anne whenever she can. In March of 2020 she was part of a panel event at a conference in Princeton University called Anne Tyng: Ordered Randomness. Fun fact: past caryatid Anda French was a panelist as well.
Jessica:SHUT UP
Lizi: I love that she’s continuing to do the good work of promoting Anne and other artists and architects who aren’t getting their due.
Jessica: this is what I’m talking about! A true caryatid in deed .
Norgerie: Before we say goodbye we want to say thank you to CMYK for the music, John W our technical advisor. And most of all thank you for listening!
Lizi: Remember to check out our show notes for links to all of our resources on this episode as well as pictures of projects we’ve talked about.
Norgerie: We hope you enjoyed learning about today’s lady and caryatid along with our banter, and that you are inspired to find out more about them and other amazing professional ladies. Again, thank you.
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References
Daniel. Holy Smokes, It’s the Tyng Toy! - Daddy Types. 13 Oct. 2009, daddytypes.com/2009/10/13/holy_smokes_its_the_tyng_toy.php.
Jacobs, Karrie. “Anne Tyng and Her Remarkable House.” Architect Magazine, Feb. 2018, www.architectmagazine.com/design/anne-tyng-and-her-remarkable-house_o. Accessed 7 Oct. 2024.
Kornblatt, Izzy. “In Philadelphia, Demolition of a Louis Kahn-Designed Hospital Raises Thorny Preservation Questions.” Architectural Record, 21 Feb. 2021, www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/15524-in-philadelphia-demolition-of-a-louis-kahn-designed-hospital-raises-thorny-preservation-questions. Accessed 7 Oct. 2024.
Saffron, Inga. “Anne Tyng Obituary: Architect Who Collaborated With Louis Kahn Was 91 - Los Angeles Times.” Los Angeles Times, 21 Aug. 2014, www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-anne-tyng-20120110-story.html.
Tyng, Anne Griswold | Weitzman. www.design.upenn.edu/architectural-archives/collections/tyng-anne-griswold.
WDA Student Group. “Anne Tyng: Ordered Randomness - Womxn in Design and Architecture.” Womxn in Design and Architecture, 24 Nov. 2021, wda.princeton.edu/conference/2020/anne-tyng-ordered-randomness.
Wikipedia contributors. “Anne Tyng.” Wikipedia, 4 Apr. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Tyng.
Wikipedia contributors. (2024, August 29). Ingrid Schaffner. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingrid_Schaffner
“Women in Architecture: Anne Tyng - Optima.” Optima, 8 Apr. 2024, www.optima.inc/women-in-architecture-anne-tyng.
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