Visiting Salk

Tom Albright: The Salk Institute was founded in 1960 by polio vaccine pioneer Jonas Salk. Jonas worked directly with the brilliant architect, Louis Kahn, to design laboratory spaces that were open, spacious, and adaptable to the ever-changing needs of science. The materials needed to be simple. Materials that were durable, strong, weather-resistant, and easily maintained. Materials, such as concrete, steel, glass, antique. The buildings Kahn design were opened in 1965 and today house 50 laboratories. These buildings serve a dual role as cultural icon. They’re modernist masterpieces is revered by the architectural community, and they’re also home to one of the world’s premier institutions for biomedical research, with transformational discoveries coming in fields such as neuroscience, plant biology, cancer, infectious diseases, and diabetes. Kahn’s masterpiece consists of two symmetric buildings that surround the travertine courtyard. When you come into that space through the east gate and look to the west, you can only look to the west, to the presidium formed by the boundaries of Kahn’s building in the travertine courtyard, whereupon the sun moves across the sky, the most important act of nature in our world. And these buildings are devoted to the study of nature. It truly is a cathedral for the study of these phenomenal.

Tom Albright: In designing the Salk Institute, Jonas looked to the brilliant architect, Louis Kahn to help design a space that would be an inspiration to the scientists that work with them. In addition to their beauty, Kahn’s buildings are extremely functional for the science that they serve. Each laboratory floor on these buildings is about 65 feet wide by 245 feet long. That is about 16,000 square feet of undifferentiated space with no structural walls in the interior. These spaces are largely populated by laboratory benches, which are extremely flexible in terms of the science that they provide for. In addition, every other floor in Kahn’s buildings is a full height interstitial space. These interstitial spaces provide for heating and air conditioning, plumbing, gas supply, vacuum. They also provide for the electrical needs and the internet connections that serve modern science today. Kahn’s design exploits the rich Southern California sunlight. The laboratory spaces themselves are flooded by daylight. All four perimeter walls of the laboratory spaces are open, double pane glass, creating an environment that’s airy and rich with light. Local zoning codes restricted the height of Kahn’s building, such that the first two floors had to be placed underground. To accommodate for this Kahn designed a series of light wells that extend around the perimeter of each building. These light wells are 40 feet deep, 25 feet on the side, and allow daylight to extend down and illuminate the deeper regions of the building. This cathedral for science supports research and neurosciences, plant biology, infectious diseases, cancer, diabetes, and aging, and continues as a modernist masterpiece to facilitate research in new discoveries in those areas.

Don McKahan: Hello, I’m Don McKahan, an architectural docent here at the Salk Institute. One of the amazing design features of the Salk Institute is the flexibility and efficiency of these buildings. There are over 50 different laboratories here that require support from mechanical and electrical systems, and it all comes together here in the interstitial pipe space. Come on in. Right now, we are located in the interstitial pipe space. We have laboratories above us and below us. By creating these spaces, Louis Kahn was able to contain all of the electrical conduits, the piping systems, the ventilation duct work to the interstitial space, which keeps the laboratories completely open and unobstructed. This interstitial space is beneficial as it allows the scientists to reconfigure their laboratories as scientific and technological changes come along. Contractors can come up into this space, remodel these mechanical, electrical systems without disrupting the laboratory spaces above us or below us. So the floors of the Salk Institute are supported by these massive Vierendeel concrete trusses. The trusses are open web, as you can see, and that allows all of the duct work, piping, and electrical to pass right through the middle of the structure. These massive concrete trusses are 9 feet tall, 65 feet long, and it provides column-free space for the labs above us and below us. This means that the labs are unobstructed and free of load bearing walls, which makes the Salk Institute one of the most flexible scientific research buildings in the world.

Lily Robinson: My name is Lily Robinson. I’m an architect, and a tour guide here at the SalK Institute. The courtyard is flanked by 36 individual studies housed in study towers. These provide a quiet place for scientific contemplation for the PIs, the principal investigators, or senior level scientists. The towers at the east end of the building contain heating, ventilation and other support services. At the west end, there are six floors of offices, overlooking the ocean. Together, there are 29 separate structures joined together to form the Salk Institute. Kahn referred to the labs as the stainless steel areas where you do your experiment, while the studies are a more humanized space that Kahn referred to as the oak table and rug area. Access to these studies are in an open-air stairwell with travertine treads, and a special detail on the stainless steel handrail. The towers are arranged so that each study has a view of the Plaza and the ocean. This is accomplished by an angled concrete wall, which allows a clear view of the Pacific Ocean. Custom teak windows slide open to capture the prevailing breezes, and allow for natural ventilation. Sunlight is controlled through teak louvred shutters, custom- designed by Louis Kahn. Each study has a private restroom with slate, wood and mirror. The interior of each study is customized with white oak panels, bookshelves and casework. When a PI is assigned a study, they choose the perfect desk, seating, lighting, artwork, and area rug. This is truly what Kahn meant by an oak table and rug area.

Don McKahan: This poured in place concrete is a major architectural feature in the design of the Salk Institute. This unique concrete provides both the structure of the building and the finished surface of the building. It was selected by Louis Kahn as a strong timeless building material. It’s called pozzolanic concrete because it was first used by the ancient Romans. Pozzolan is a mineral that comes from volcanic ash, and they added it to cement mixes to give the concrete not just this warm tone appearance, but also an element of water resistance. The concrete looks a little modeled, but it really feels like poured stone. It was constructed using plywood form panels. The form panels were coated with six layers of resin finish, and then sanded down to provide this smooth surface that we see today. To hide the joints between the plywood panels, Louis Kahn created these beveled edges, which accentuates each of the concrete panels. Kahn wanted to accentuate the holes left by the form ties on the front and backside of the plywood forming panels. These are lead plugs that were placed into the form tie holes, these round holes to produce an orderly and finished look to the building. Once the concrete was set in place, Kahn allowed no further processing of the finish, no grinding, no filling and above all, no painting. After 50 years of exposure to the elements, there is some maintenance in the upkeep of the concrete, but Louis Kahn’s design provided a solid and timeless appearance for the Salk Institute.

Lilly Robinson: The courtyard serves as a central circulation, allowing for social interaction. The buildings are mirror image, acting as collaboration devices. Kahn has said, “A great building must go through measurable means when being designed, but in the end, must be unmeasurable.” Scientists and visitors have remarked on the existential quality of the space, reporting sudden insights or a connection with the endless possibilities of life. Kahn originally referred to this space as the garden. His drawings and architectural models showed trees. Inspired by views of his work, Kahn called on Mexican architect, Luis Barragán. When they met here, Barragán famously said, “Not a single leaf, not a single blade of grass should be planted here. This is not a garden. This is a plaza. If you put just stone, what you gain is a facade to the sky.” Kahn and Salk chose Italian Roman travertine. Unfilled, unsealed, and even un-grouted, in keeping with the nature of the raw materials used on this project. In fact, all the materials, the cast in place concrete, the teak, the Corten steel, the glass, are all raw, aging naturally. However, this is a romantic idea. These materials do require care and upkeep. The central water feature uses recaptured rainwater held in an underground cistern, on a recirculating pump. Dr. Salk dubbed it, the river of life. As he said, “It represents the trickle of knowledge produced by this facility, spilling out into the body of knowledge, symbolized by the ocean. Thus, we feel a connection to a higher purpose.” Since we are facing west, the sun sets along the axis of the water feature, twice a year on the Equinox. One can walk under the study towers, through a modern arcade with spectacular light and shadow. The arcade also features sleek panels, which act as chalkboards, where staff can share their ideas, leaving a message or drawing a diagram. Imagine coming to work here every day.

Lilly Robinson: When Dr. Salk got the land in 1959 here in La Jolla, it was populated with a grove of eucalyptus trees, which would obscure the buildings from the street. Kahn designed the parking lot, so that scientists would wander through nature and discover these buildings on a daily basis as one would discover a monastery surrounded by nature. He was influenced by St. Francis of Assisi monastery in Italy. When the necessary addition was added in 1995, it opened up this vista. However, Kahn proteges, Jack McAllister and Dave Reinhardt created a buffer space between the new addition and the existing. This is a green roof over the 300 seat auditorium. It retains some of the existing eucalyptus trees, decomposed granite as the flooring, and a concrete path, which is not axial, but still allows for a feeling of wandering through nature. Clearly, this is the main entrance, symmetrical, and you step on long stone steps. When you reach the top of those steps, you see the iconic view. At this point, your eye line is slightly above the horizon line, which is subtle yet empowering.