Gerhard Michael Kallmann (February 13, 1915 – June 19, 2012) was a

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-born

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architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and academic. Together with

Michael McKinnell Noel Michael McKinnell (December 25, 1935 – March 27, 2020) was a British-born American architect and co-founder of the Kallmann McKinnell & Wood architectural design firm. In 1962, McKinnell, who was a Columbia University graduate student a ...

, Kallman is best known as the lead designer of

Boston City Hall Boston City Hall is the seat of city government of Boston, Massachusetts. It includes the offices of the mayor of Boston and the Boston City Council. The current hall was built in 1968 to assume the functions of the Old City Hall. It is a cont ...

, which was constructed in 1968 by their architectural design firm,

Kallmann McKinnell & Wood Kallmann McKinnell & Wood is an architectural design firm based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1962 as Kallmann McKinnell & Knowles by Gerhard Kallmann (1915-2012), Michael McKinnell (1935–2020), and Edward Knowles. Histo ...

Life and career

Kallman was born to Theodore and Olga Jarecki Kallmann in

Berlin, Germany Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constituent ...

, on February 13, 1915. His family was Jewish and intellectual.">
/ref> They moved to the United Kingdom in 1937 and Kallman enrolled at the

Architectural Association School of Architecture The Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, commonly referred to as the AA, is the oldest Independent school (United Kingdom), independent school of architecture in the UK and one of the most prestigious and competitive in t ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. He immigrated to the United States with his family in 1948. He began teaching at the Chicago Institute of Design less than one year after arriving in the U.S. Kallman became an assistant professor of architecture at Columbia University in 1954. In the early 1960s,

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

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proposed a new city hall as part of plan to revitalize a declining section of the city's downtown. A competition was held to design a new city hall. Kallman, then a professor at Columbia University, and Michael McKinnell, a Columbia

graduate student Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate ( bachelor's) degree. The organization and stru ...

submitted a design for the proposed Boston City Hall in 1962. Kallman and McKinnell defeated many established, better known architects to win the contest for the new city hall. Kallman and McKinnell founded their new firm in 1962 shortly after winning the competition, Kallmann, McKinnell & Knowles (now called Kallmann, McKinnell & Wood), and moved to Boston to work on their city hall design. Influences for city hall, a large concrete structure, included the Le Corbusier’s monastery at La Tourette, France. Boston City Hall, which they designed in a

New Brutalism Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the ba ...

style popular in 1960s, was completed in 1968. Though controversial and even derided among some Bostonians, who have called it a "giant concrete

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

" and a "dungeon," Boston City Hall had an important impact on the city. While called a "hall of shame" by the

urban planning Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...

nonprofit,

Project for Public Spaces Project for Public Spaces (PPS) is a nonprofit organization based in New York dedicated to creating and sustaining public places that build communities, in an effort often termed placemaking Placemaking is a multi-faceted approach to the pla ...

, a 1976 survey of architects named it one of the top ten buildings in the United States. Kallman remained best known for Boston City Hall. However, he also designed the headquarters of the

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and the Embassy of the United States in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

. Kallman also designed entire campuses for the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

and buildings for

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

and

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , pro ...

. Gerhard Kallmann died in Boston on June 19, 2012, at the age of 97.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kallmann, Gerhard 1915 births 2012 deaths 20th-century American architects Columbia University faculty German emigrants to the United States