Salk Institute for Biological Studies

The Salk Institute in La Jolla was commissioned by Jonas Salk and designed by architect Louis Kahn; construction was completed in 1965. Its two parallel laboratory buildings frame a linear travertine courtyard with a thin central water channel aligned toward the Pacific Ocean. The complex is celebrated for its use of exposed concrete, teak, and precisely ordered geometries and continues to operate as a biomedical research institute. The site is frequently cited in architectural literature as a seminal work of 20th-century modern architecture.