Denis Glen Kuhn, one of the founding partners of Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects (Washington, D.C.), died earlier this month during the tour of a project site in the Dominican Republic.
As EE&K Architects grew from a staff of five to nearly 40, Kuhn brought in projects ranging from grand historic federal buildings to small neighborhood schools. “His goal was always to keep his projects relevant and vital, maintaining the old while accommodating the new,” the firm said in a statement. “Nothing excited him more than the idea of possibility – each building had past stories to tell and future stories to create. Each building has a spirit and vitality that can only be preserved through the vision and hard work of architects like Denis Kuhn.”
Under Kuhn’s guidance, the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, designed in 1907 by Cass Gilbert, was preserved and now houses the National Museum of the American Indian and the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts. Likewise, the derelict Police Building, a 1905 Beaux Arts structure by Hoppin and Koen, became an apartment building with space for cultural and non-profit offices. In Kansas City, Mo., in what he called “the project of a lifetime,” Kuhn created Science City at Union Station, the redevelopment of an historic station. “From the Woolworth Building to the Dakota apartments to Bethesda Fountain and the Loeb Boathouse in Central Park, Denis ensured the survival of landmark architecture for decades to come,” his firm recalled.
He adapted older university buildings for the Pratt Institute (his alma mater) and Swarthmore College, so they could meet the evolving needs of technology-driven classrooms.
“Thanks in large part to Denis, the work of EE&K Architects remains focused on this interplay of old and new,” said the firm. “He showed us how to keep cities alive, and how to make good neighbors of historic and modern. Denis was a pioneer in the field of adaptive reuse and preservation. Through his hard work, historic buildings that had been neglected or misused received new life, restored to their original purpose and glory, or transformed and given a new role in a modern city.”