This is one of those places that is bigger conceptually than I had ever imagined (having only looked at photos and having read about it for years). First of all, it’s important to note that Jonas Salk is the person that developed the vaccine for polio in 1954. It’s believed Polio had killed over 500,000+ people worldwide (over a 50 year period) and left tens of millions with debilitating paralysis or physical deformities.
The institute is situated on the edge of the Pacific Ocean and in a grand gesture both frames the wide optimistic sky above and opens it’s arms to the teaming-with-life sea below. Kahn somehow captured the weight of Salk’s accomplishment and gracefully honored it with these mirrored stacks that house tiny wooden monk-like cells for devoted academics, encouraging them to reach high. A channel of water runs along the center uniting a public space for researchers to congregate and share ideas (there are even slate boards at the base of each stack for chalked ideas to freely be displayed, discussed and debated) with clear pools (of metaphorical knowledge) that tier at the West end and return the water back to the start of the fountain.
It’s a sacred place that remarkably blends the spiritual and scientific. It felt more like a cathedral than any cathedral I’ve visited. If you ever get the chance…go experience it.
