My Architect Reflection

Filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn never knew his father like most children would. His father named Louis Kahn, was an architect and spent most of his life doing what he loved most. Sadly though he died in 1974 in a bathroom located inside the Penn Station, with no savings and drowned in debt. Louis Kahn’s obituary in The New York Times, mentioned Kahn’s importance to modern architecture but not even touch upon the topic that Kahn had left behind a son. Shockingly it turned out that nearly nobody was aware that Louis Kahn had had a son, or knew that he had other children with other mistresses as well. In the Documentary Nathaniel tries to find out more about his father with his colleagues who worked with him in architecture since they spent more time with Louis than his own son did. Throughout the documentary his son’s goal was to figure out why his father was so insensitive to his family and spent more time towards his career. After watching this documentary I could not believe what I was hearing. It did not make any sense to me how a father could have more than one family and treat them with such little regard. It all seemed backwards to me how he put his career before everyone else, sadly even his supposed loved ones. I don’t know whether this is a bad thing or not, because he is doing what he loves which makes him happy. Though he didn’t make others as happy as he could’ve, does that make it wrong? Is it wrong how he neglected his family for his career and his dream of traveling the world? For my personal beliefs yes, but when I think about it and how he was fulfilling his dream, no. He did not physically hurt his family, and I am sure the mothers knew what kind of person he was before they decided to share a family. There is nothing wrong with this man fulfilling his dream of creating great architecture and getting to travel the world as he wished. I don’t know why this man would choose what he did though. And I’m not sure if he intended to fulfill his dream and still have a family as well. I’m unsure if he tried to do both, but assuming he did I think that is where he went wrong. In my opinion, a person cannot accomplish everything they want to do in a lifetime; they must choose what is most important to them. If I were in Louis’s position, I would’ve chosen to put my family first. I think there’s nothing special about accomplishing a dream alone, I'd rather accomplish something with a family of my own who i love, it would mean everything to me and I think it’s selfish and careless to do otherwise. Your family will always be there for you through thick and thin and they will love you no matter what, and I don’t see why somebody wouldn’t want to be with people you share that connection with. Plus if you love your family, you’d put them before any dream you had of your own because you love them. if you didn’t put them first, then you never loved them that much in the first place.