Jahn << yahn, >> Helmut (1940-2021), was an American architect. Jahn’s early works reflect the International Style of modern architecture. This style emphasizes steel, glass, and concrete; avoids ornamentation; and stresses straight lines and overlapping planes. Jahn adapted these principles in his Kemper Arena (1974) and Bartle Convention Center (1976), both in Kansas City, Missouri.
About 1980, Jahn made a transition to a style known as Postmodern architecture. Postmodern buildings often combine modern and historical styles. The multicolored facade (exterior) of Jahn’s One South Wacker Drive office building (1982) in Chicago includes black window panels designed in the form of gigantic pillars that refer to ancient Greek columns. Jahn continued in this style in the James R. Thompson Center, originally called the State of Illinois Center (1985), in Chicago. The center is a glass and steel office building formed around a great rotunda 160 feet (49 meters) in diameter.
Similar in style are Jahn’s Sony Center (2000), a seven-building complex in Berlin, Germany; and the Shure Headquarters, originally the HALO Headquarters (2001), in Niles, Illinois. Jahn designed the twin 37-story residential Veer Towers (2010), part of the CityCenter complex in Las Vegas. He also designed the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library (2011) at the University of Chicago. The glass-domed structure lies mostly underground.
Jahn was born on Jan. 4, 1940, in Nuremberg, Germany. He moved to the United States in 1966. Jahn was killed in a bicycling accident near Campton Hills, a suburb west of Chicago, on May 8, 2021.
