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4 unusual facts about Ely Jacques Kahn


Ely Jacques Kahn

In this period his work alternated Beaux-Arts with cubism, modernism, and art deco, of which examples are 2 Park Avenue (1927), using architectural terracotta in jazzy facets and primary colors, the Film Center Building in Hell's Kitchen (1928–29) and the Squibb Building (1930), which Kahn considered among his best work.

As for ornamentation, Kahn, who earlier had been inspired by the abstract geometric forms of Moorish and Persian architecture, was, from the mid-twenties onward, highly innovative in adapting the new Art Deco style with polychrome cubist or zigzag motifs reflecting the Jazz Age.

As part of her research for her novel The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand spent a half year in 1937 as an unsalaried assistant to Kahn in his offices in his 2 Park Avenue building, where he mentored her on the profession of architecture.

Richard H. Hoffmann

In 1942, Hoffmann's residence at 870 Park Avenue, NY was rebuilt in a "art moderne style" by prominent architect Ely Jacques Kahn.


William Alexander Levy

At New York University's new School of Architecture, he studied under Raymond Bossange and Ely Jacques Kahn.


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