Salk Institute for Biological Studies

Louis Kahn, mid-1960s. The most photographed view in La Jolla, California: a bare travertine plaza split by a thin channel of water that runs straight toward the Pacific, framed by the angled study towers of the two laboratory wings. Kahn had planned a garden here until the Mexican architect Luis Barragán urged him to leave the court empty, a facade to the sky. The concrete was mixed with volcanic ash for a warm tone and left unpainted beside weathered teak panels. It is proof that raw concrete can be serene rather than grim.