Луи Канның "Эшерик үйі": Филадельфия архитектурасының ескерткіші

The Margaret Esherick House in Philadelphia is one of the most studied of the nine built houses designed by American architect Louis Kahn. Commissioned by Chestnut Hill bookstore owner Margaret Esherick, the house was completed in 1961. In 2023, the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior. The house is noted especially for its spatial organization and for the ventilation and natural lighting provided by its unusual window and shutter configuration. A sunken bathtub doubled as a seat. A kitchen of wood and copper was created for the house by Wharton Esherick, a nationally known craftsman and artist.

Kahn often divided his buildings into what he called served spaces (primary areas) and servant spaces (corridors, bathrooms, etc.) The Esherick house is organized into four alternating served and servant spaces, which in this case are parallel two story strips that run the full width of the house between front to back. The most prominent served space is the two story living room that occupies all of the house to the right of the front door. Most of its front wall is occupied by a built in bookcase (Margaret Esherick was a bookseller)

To the left of the front door is a served space occupied by the foyer and dining room on the ground floor and the bedroom on the upper floor. Like the living room, the bedroom runs the full width of the house from front to rear. At the far left of the house is the remaining servant space, occupied on the ground floor by the Wharton Esherick designed kitchen, a utility room converted into an adjunctive kitchen space and a half bath, and on the upper floor by a bathroom, laundry area and closets. All the plumbing of the house is in this strip. The two story windows in front have a T shape that also appears in other Kahn designs, notably the Tribune Review Publishing Company Building; these windows provide a degree of privacy on the ground floor and openness on the upper floor. They cannot be opened, but they are accompanied by shutters for ventilation. In the living room, for example, the bookshelf at the front is divided in half by two narrow wooden shutters, one atop the other. Because there is no glass behind the shutters, they are kept closed in winter, creating a high wall that provides a sense of protection against the weather.

A renovation of the Esherick House in 2016 was recognized by three awards: Preservation Achievement Awards from the Chestnut Hill Conservancy & Historical Society and the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, and a Citation of Merit from Docomomo, an international organization that works to protect modern architecture. During the renovation, the kitchen was updated by installing modern appliances in the adjacent utility room, and the insulating ability of the building's windows was increased while retaining the look of the wooden shutter system. The renovation was carried out by k YODER design in collaboration with people who were knowledgeable of the work of Louis Kahn and Wharton Esherick. Louise Cohen, NCIDQ, ASID coordinated the interior decoration in conjunction with the residence's owners.