KPF創辦人Eugene Kohn辭世，享耆壽92歲(1930–2023)
美國建築師A. Eugene Kohn逝世消息引起建築界的關注。他於2023年3月9日因癌症去世，享年92歲。相對於他所設計的建築或摩天大樓，他更被人們記住的是他所創立的KPF建築事務所（KPF=Kohn Pedersen Fox）。1976年7月4日，當經濟處於長期衰退的谷底時，KPF應運而生。KPF在全球建築界中嶄露頭角，負責設計六座世界十二大最高建築之一。儘管以謀取委託而聞名，但他不僅僅是一個口若懸河的業務推銷員。從創立之初起，他就擁有設計和提供複雜項目的適應能力，這種願景塑造了KPF的發展方向，引導著KPF在經濟、技術和內部挑戰中穩健成長。KPF通過團隊的方式來推廣建築藝術和設計，而不是強調個人設計師的藝術和自我意識。Kohn了解到他和合夥人William Pedersen和Sheldon Fox需要吸引有才華的年輕建築師，指導他們，給予他們參與重要項目的機會，並最終將公司的領導權交給他們。
在Kohn Pedersen Fox的成功背後，是Eugene Kohn對建築事業的長遠規劃和承諾。他深信，傳承和發展公司的文化和價值觀比任何個人建築設計更加重要。他鼓勵公司內部的知識分享和合作，創造出一個相互學習和成長的環境，鼓勵年輕的建築師獲得更多的設計和項目經驗，進而成為成功的建築設計師。在Eugene Kohn的領導下，Kohn Pedersen Fox走出了一條成功的路徑，成為了建築界的翹楚。
Eugene Kohn對Kohn Pedersen Fox建築事務所的影響深遠，他不僅僅是一個傑出的建築師，更是一個具有長遠眼光和承諾的商人和領袖。他的建築設計和創新思維，對全球建築行業產生了重大的影響和貢獻。他創造了一個團隊合作的環境，促進了知識和經驗的分享，創造了設計和項目交付的成功模式。他將KPF打造成一個全球知名的建築師事務所，帶領著整個公司從成功走向成功。在KPF的發展過程中，Eugene Kohn被譽為是建築界的傳奇人物，他的貢獻將被永遠懷念。
然而，Eugene Kohn的去世並不代表KPF的終結。相反，他的遺產和精神將繼續影響和塑造公司的未來。KPF將繼續保持創新和卓越的建築設計和交付，將繼續吸引和培養新的建築師，並繼續發揚Eugene Kohn的精神和價值觀，進一步擴大公司的影響力和成就。
Eugene Kohn的去世是一個巨大的損失，但他的影響和貢獻將永遠留在人們心中。作為建築界的先驅者和領袖，他的遺產和精神將繼續指引KPF和整個建築行業前進。
Kohn於46歲時創辦KPF，在那之前，Kohn曾經管理過一家重要的建築師事務所John Carl Warnecke & Associates，並曾在費城的大型事務所Vincent Kling & Associates工作。在Warnecke和Kling的指導下，Kohn學會了如何與強大的業主合作，組建設計團隊，產出複雜而獲獎的建築作品。從Kling那裡，他瞭解了成功的建築師事務所看不見但至關重要的因素，例如在施工文件上工作的熟練細節人員和團隊建設活動，Kling會彈吉他並講故事，以增進團隊的凝聚力。
從Warnecke那裡，他學會了與商界和政府中有影響力的領導者建立關係。但是當Warnecke拒絕改變他的事務所結構以適應1970年代中期的困難經濟環境時，Kohn離開了該公司，然後誘使Sheldon Fox和William Pedersen加入他們創立自己的事務所。
Kohn在Warnecke和Kling的指導下學到的寶貴經驗，對於他創建KPF的成功至關重要。他從Warnecke學會了建立關鍵的客戶關係和談判技巧，從Kling學到了團隊合作和建立有影響力的建築公司的重要性。在創建KPF時，Kohn將這些經驗應用到實踐中，並開創了一個獨特的模式：他注重建立強大的團隊，吸引優秀的人才，並創造一個激勵和支持他們的環境。這種團隊合作的文化和Eugene Kohn的遠見和領導，是KPF成功的基礎，也是將KPF打造成全球知名建築事務所的關鍵因素。
在Eugene Kohn的過去和遺產中，我們可以看到他對建築設計和行業發展的熱情和奉獻。他的成就和遺產將永遠留在建築界的歷史中，他的價值觀和精神將繼續指引KPF和建築行業前進。
儘管在Warnecke贏得了設計獎項，並認為自己是一個出色的設計師，但Kohn意識到Pedersen是一個出色的設計者。因此，他讓Pedersen設計了該公司最重要的早期作品，並讓Fox負責管理內部運營。Kohn專注於開展業務，與業主合作，以及制定公司未來的戰略。KPF的第一個工作來自他在《紐約時報》上讀到的一則簡短公告，當時的美國廣播公司（ABC，American Broadcasting Company）是當時新興的電視網，他們剛剛收購了一個位於紐約市西66街的舊軍械庫，計劃將其轉換為生產肥皂劇的工作室。Kohn把這個不那麼吸引人的委託案轉化成了與ABC的數十年關係，並開展了一系列更大更有吸引力的案子。
KPF嶄露頭角
在幾年內，KPF開始設計眾多企業總部，包括AT&T Long Lines、摩托羅拉和Rocky Mountain Energy，還有丹佛和費城的高層辦公樓，由Reliance Development和Urban Investment & Development等開發商承建。1980年，KPF擊敗了SOM、Pei Cobb Freed和César Pelli等更大、更成熟的公司，獲得了為辛辛那提的寶潔公司設計一座龐大新總部的項目。1983年，KPF為芝加哥333 Wacker Drive的設計獲得了幾乎全球一致的讚譽，確立了公司作為美國建築業主要參與者的地位。在80年代的其餘時間裡，KPF在全國各地受到高度關注的設計委託，從特拉華州的威明頓、明尼阿波利斯到洛杉磯和波士頓，大多是投機性辦公項目，風格多為後現代。1990年，美國建築師協會將KPF評選為年度最佳事務所之一，成為贏得該榮譽的最年輕的實踐團隊之一。在建築界，KPF設計風格的代表性特色為後現代主義和商業建築，然而，隨著設計潮流的改變和文化項目的客戶轉而尋求其他設計公司的服務，這樣的身分卻成了這家公司的包袱。即便是在KPF轉向更現代主義的設計風格之後，數十年後Kohn仍會聽到客戶認為KPF仍是後現代風格的設計公司的聲音。
KPF的全球擴張計畫：如何在當時的經濟環境下成功擴大業務？
自1985年起，Kohn開始了他的全球擴張計畫。當時，他在一次城市土地學會（Urban Land Institute）的演講中聽到了一位講者的警告：“如果到了1990年還沒有開始全球化，你們其中一半的公司就會倒閉。”這個警告深深地震撼了Kohn，他開始全力尋找海外的業主和案子。儘管他的合夥人對於尋找海外客戶和擴張公司的業務感到擔憂，但Kohn堅定地向前推進。他前往倫敦與建商、銀行家和有影響力的人物建立關係，例如Peter Murray，他曾是皇家英國建築師協會雜誌的編輯，並協助組織了KPF在倫敦的工作展覽會。到了90年代初，KPF在英國倫敦、德國法蘭克福、漢堡、澳洲雪梨和加拿大蒙特婁繁忙起來，而美國經濟則在一次艱苦的經濟衰退中艱難地掙扎著。
KPF從日本進入亞洲
在1980年代末期為美國芝加哥一棟辦公大樓工作時，Kohn認識了日本大成建設的高管，他們是該建案的共同開發者。這些高管隨後邀請KPF競標名為名古屋JR的一個龐大的混合用途項目。贏得這個項目讓Kohn深信亞洲提供了巨大的機會，並帶來了一連串驚人的大型建案，包括上海的恒隆廣場(2000年)、東京的六本木之丘(2003年)、上海環球金融中心(2008年)、韓國新松島城(2001-2009年)、上海靜安嘉里中心(2013年)、首爾的樂天世界塔和音樂廳(2017年)、深圳的平安國際金融中心(2017年)以及北京的中國尊大廈(2018年)。這些項目讓KPF保持充沛的資金，而當時許多美國公司在1990年代和2000年代初期遭遇困難，也為年輕的聯合夥伴們提供了證明自己和晉升公司的機會。Eugene Kohn為KPF培育接班者
在Kohn的培育下，保羅·卡茨（Paul Katz）、李·波利薩諾（Lee Polisano）和詹姆斯·馮·克萊姆佩爾（James von Klemperer）逐漸接管了KPF，他們陪同Kohn前往世界各地進行商務考察。波利薩諾在KPF倫敦辦公室工作，於2003年成為公司總裁，開始進行一次預期中更加艱難的轉型。波利薩諾沒有回到紐約，而是留在倫敦，他的領導期間充滿著挑戰。2009年，他宣布了在倫敦成立自己的公司並保留KPF的許多項目和客戶的意圖。當時78歲的Kohn拒絕讓他的公司分裂，決定與他的門徒波利薩諾正面對決。他與有經驗的投資銀行家Barbara Shattuck Kohn前往倫敦，設法讓大部分KPF的員工和客戶留在那裡。當他的許多同輩都已經退休時，Kohn樂於迎接拯救倫敦業務並讓KPF保持向上發展的挑戰。
在公司轉型計畫上，Kohn並沒有放棄，並很快任命Paul Katz為總裁。接下來的五年，Paul Katz擔任總裁，Kohn則擔任董事會主席，公司繁榮發展。2014年，卡茲在57歲時突然去世。Kohn喜愛運動，並引以為傲地培養出一群有才華的人才，隨後便將掌舵的權力交給現任總裁James von Klemperer。
“柯恩將建築藝術和建城商業融合，主持創造了一些世界上最偉大的城市中心，”James von Klemperer在最近的一次採訪中表示，提到公司在東京、上海、倫敦和紐約等地的多個項目，“他像一位指揮家，而不是獨奏家，能夠讓每個人共同演奏。”
「他是一個樂觀主義者，總是期待下一個機會，」Pedersen說。「但他周圍也有其他種類的人，像是Shelley和我這樣的人，更具懷疑性。」Pedersen記得Kohn推動公司參加在華盛頓特區舉辦的世界銀行總部競賽，即使他知道來自全球數百位建築師都在爭取同一獎項。「我的初步反應是拒絕。他的反應是『讓我們做吧。』」KPF贏得了這份工作，這棟建築在1996年開放，廣受好評，包括華盛頓郵報的Benjamin Forgey對此的讚揚。它後來獲得了AIA的國家榮譽獎。
Kohn了解好的客戶對於創造優秀建築的重要性。多年來，他在哈佛商學院教授一門課程，「基本上是訓練未來的客戶，」Pedersen解釋。
雖然他與強大的人物如英國查爾斯三世國王、古根漢博物館主任Thomas Krens和開發商森守紀等成為朋友，但「他從未假裝自己是來自費城的一個人，」von Klemperer指出。「這是他魅力的一部分。」
More than the design of any building or skyscraper, A. Eugene Kohn, who died today, March 9, at the age of 92 following a battle with cancer, will be remembered for crafting and nurturing a firm that designed major projects around the world. That firm, Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), launched on July 4, 1976, at the nadir of a long recession, grew to become a pioneer in global architecture responsible for six of the world’s 12 tallest buildings. Though best known for his skills at landing commissions, he was much more than a silver-tongued salesman. It was his vision of a practice adept at designing and delivering complex projects that shaped KPF from the start and guided it as economic, technological, and internal challenges arose. Instead of showcasing the art—and ego—of an individual designer, KPF would promote a team approach to architecture. To do that, Kohn understood that he and his partners William Pedersen and Sheldon Fox would need to attract talented young architects, mentor them, give them the opportunity to work on significant projects, and eventually hand over leadership of the firm to them.
Before founding KPF at age 46, Kohn had run a major architecture firm—John Carl Warnecke & Associates—and worked at large Philadelphia firms such as Vincent Kling & Associates. Mentored by Warnecke and Kling, two large—but quite different—personalities, Kohn learned how to work with powerful clients and assemble design teams that could produce complex, award-winning buildings. From Kling, he acquired an understanding of the unseen-but critical components of a successful architecture firm—such as the cadre of skilled detailers who worked on construction documents and the team-building events during which Kling would play guitar and regale his troops with stories. From Warnecke, he learned to cultivate relationships with influential leaders in business and government. But when Warnecke refused to change the structure of his firm to adapt to the difficult economic climate of the mid-1970s, Kohn left and then lured Fox and Pedersen, who had also been at the firm, to join him in starting their own practice.
Although he had won design awards at Warnecke and saw himself as a good designer, Kohn realized that Pedersen was a brilliant designer. So he let Pedersen design the firm’s most important early projects and put Fox in charge of managing internal operations. Kohn focused on drumming up business, working with clients, and strategizing the firm’s future. KPF’s first job came after he read a short notice in The New York Times that the American Broadcasting Company, the then-upstart television network, had just acquired an old armory on West 66th Street and planned to convert it into studios for producing soap operas. Kohn turned that unglamorous project into a decades-long relationship with ABC that led to a series of bigger and sexier projects for the network.
Within a few years, KPF was designing headquarters for corporations such as AT&T Long Lines, Motorola, and Rocky Mountain Energy, and high-rise office buildings in Denver and Philadelphia for developers such as Reliance Development and Urban Investment & Development. In 1980, KPF beat out bigger and more established firmssuch as SOM, Pei Cobb Freed, and César Pelli to win the job of designing a huge new headquarters for Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati. In 1983, KPF’s design for 333 Wacker Drive in Chicago won almost universal acclaim when it opened and established the firm as a major player in American architecture. For the rest of the 1980s, the firm rode a wave of high-profile commissions throughout the country—from Wilmington, Delaware, and Minneapolis to Los Angeles and Boston—mostly speculative office projects and mostly Postmodern in style. In 1990, the American Institute of Architects named KPF its Firm of the Year, one of the youngest practices to win that honor.
Being identified with Postmodernism and commercial architecture, though, would hinder the firm as design trends changed and clients for museums and cultural projects looked elsewhere for design services. Decades after KPF pivoted to a more Modernist approach to design, Kohn sometimes heard that clients still thought of the firm as Postmodern.
In 1985, Kohn attended a lecture at an Urban Land Institute conference and heard a speaker warn his audience: “If you’re not global by 1990, half of you will be out of business.” Kohn took the message to heart and made a concerted effort to find clients and projects abroad. Although his partners were wary of seeking foreign clients and over-extending the firm, Kohn pushed forward. He made trips to London to cultivate relationships with developers, bankers, and influential figures such as Peter Murray, who had been the editor of the RIBA Journal and helped put together an exhibition of KPF’s work in London. By the early 1990s, the firm was busy in London, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Sydney, and Montreal, as the U.S. economy slogged through a grueling recession.
While working on an office building in Chicago in the late 1980s, Kohn got to know executives of the Japanese company Taisei, which was a co-developer of the project. Those executives later invited KPF to compete for an enormous mixed-use project for Japan Rail in Nagoya. Winning that project convinced Kohn that Asia offered huge opportunities and led to a remarkable string of mega-projects including Plaza 66 in Shanghai (2000) Roppongi Hills in Tokyo (2003), the Shanghai World Financial Center (2008), New Songdo City in South Korea (2001–2009), the Jing An Kerry Center in Shanghai (2013), the Lotte World Tower and Concert Hall in Seoul (2017), the Ping An International Finance Center in Shenzhen (2017), and the China Zun tower in Beijing (2018). Such projects kept KPF flush while many American firms struggled in the 1990s and early 2000s and created opportunities for young associates to prove themselves and move up in the firm.
Kohn groomed Paul Katz, Lee Polisano, and James von Klemperer to take over KPF, accompanying them on business trips to projects around the world. Polisano, who ran KPF’s London office, became president of the firm in 2003, initiating a transition that proved rockier than expected. Polisano stayed in London, rather than move back to New York, and his tenure at the top of the firm was difficult. In 2009, he announced his intention to set up his own firm in London and keep many of KPF’s projects and clients.
Kohn, who was 78 years old at the time, refused to allow his firm to split apart and decided to fight his protégé mano-a-mano. He moved to London with his wife Barbara Shattuck Kohn, an experienced investment banker, and managed to keep most of KPF’s employees there and its clients. While many of his contemporaries were retiring, Kohn relished the challenge of rescuing his London operations and keeping KPF on an upward trajectory.
Kohn didn’t give up on the firm’s plan for transition, soon making Katz president. For the next five years, the firm prospered with Katz as president and Kohn as chairman of the board. In 2014, Katz died suddenly at age 57. Kohn, who loved sports and prided himself on developing a deep “bench” of talented players, then handed the reins to von Klemperer, who continues as president today.
“Gene brought together the art of architecture and the commerce of building cities. He presided over the creation of some of the greatest city centers in the world,” said von Klemperer in a recent interview, referring to the firm’s multiple projects in places like Tokyo, Shanghai, London, and New York. “He was a conductor, not a soloist, and got everyone to play together.”
“He was an optimist who was always looking forward to the next opportunity,” noted Pedersen. “But he surrounded himself with other kinds of people like Shelley and me, who were more skeptical.” Pedersen remembered Kohn pushing the firm to enter the competition for the World Bank headquarters in Washington, D.C., even though he knew hundreds of other architects from around the globe were aiming for the same prize. “My initial reaction was to say ‘No.’ His was to say, ‘Let’s do it.’” KPF won the job and the building opened in 1996 to wide acclaim, including a glowing review by Benjamin Forgey in the Washington Post. It later earned a national Honor Award from the AIA.
Kohn understood the importance of good clients to the creation of good architecture. For many years he taught a class at the Harvard Business School, “basically training future clients,” explained Pedersen.
Although he became friends with powerful people such as King Charles III of England, Guggenheim director Thomas Krens, and developer Minoru Mori, “he never pretended to be anything but a guy from Philadelphia,” noted von Klemperer. “That was part of his charm.”