July 9, 2014
Was Louis Kahn’s Four Freedoms Park inspired by the Masonic Pyramid on the $1 bill?
The Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedom's Park may have opened relatively recently in 2012, but architect Louis Kahn was brewing up the design for the memorial park nearly 40 years earlier. Kahn's death in 1974 (a somewhat tragic one which left him dead and alone in a Penn Station bathroom after a heart attack) was unfortunately accented by a dwindling reputation — Kahn's sordid multi-family affairs had come to light upon his passing and his fading architecture practice was loaded with debt. But beyond all the scandal, Kahn also left behind a number of sketchbooks packed with complete sets of unrealized projects. One of these projects was the Four Freedom's Park.
While plenty of accolades have been given to successful realization of the project so far after Kahn's death, few have tracked where the architect may have pulled his inspiration for the design. That is until now. As a number of Kahn's sketches emerge for public viewing, some are asking: Was the the design of Louis Kahn's Four Freedom's Park inspired by the Eye of Providence found on the U.S. dollar bill?
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