Helmut Jahn Overview

Helmut Jahn (born January 4, 1940) is a German-American architect, designer of dozens of major buildings throughout the world. Some of the better known among his creations are the US$800 million Sony Center on the Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, the Messeturm in... [more]

Helmut Jahn (born January 4, 1940) is a German-American architect, designer of dozens of major buildings throughout the world. Some of the better known among his creations are the US$800 million Sony Center on the Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, the Messeturm in Frankfurt and the One Liberty Place, formerly the tallest building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Jahn was born in Nuremberg, Germany in 1940. 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, leaving school without earning his degree. In 1967 he joined C. F. Murphy Associates as a protégé of Gene Summers and was appointed Executive Vice President and Director of Planning and Design of the firm in 1973. In 1981 the firm was renamed Murphy/Jahn, although Murphy died a few years later in 1985, leaving Jahn in control. Despite a rocky start when the roof of his first major project Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri collapsed in 1979, Jahn established his pre-eminent reputation in 1985 with the State of Illinois Center in Chicago which prompted him to be dubbed "Flash Gordon." Though maintaining his office in Chicago under the Murphy/Jahn moniker, Jahn has grown the business into a global architectural practice that consistently ranks among the top 20 architectural firms in terms of gross annual billings. [show less]