Helmut Jahn died on Saturday in a tragic bicycle accident in the western suburbs of Chicago at the age of 81. 

Architecture critic, Paul Goldberger, tweeted, “Shocked and saddened by the sudden death of Helmut Jahn, who was a pivotal figure in the evolution of Chicago modernism in the second half of the 20th century. His United terminal at O’Hare remains among the great airport buildings.”

German-born and Chicago-based, Jahn was an internationally renowned architect known for his use of strong colors, glass and stone, and unique forms. Jahn studied at the Illinois Institute of Technology under Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Some of his most recognized buildings include the Sony Center on the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin; the One Liberty Place in Philadelphia; the James R. Thompson Building in Chicago; and Terminal 1 at Chicago's O'Hare airport with its wonderfully psychedelic underground passageway.

City Spire | Via Jahn

Helmut Jahn’s New York City buildings include: 425 Lexington Avenue (1987), City Spire (1987), International Plaza (1987), Park Avenue Tower (1987), America Apartments (1987), Metropolitan Transportation Authority Building (1989), and most recent, 50 West Street (2016). 

Interviewed by the New York Times in 2015, Jahn said of 50 West, “The idea is always that a building like this in a particular light merges with the sky. The building is on a very small site, and has a very small footprint. There was a requirement from a planning point of view, which we fully supported and were actually happy about, that we had to provide a plaza on the ground floor. And that’s actually why the building toward the base, it pulls in its belly and it slopes so that the urban space is adequate and a required size.”

In terms of the context, Jahn commented, “In this tight context of Manhattan, I was very interested in making a reference to the traditional New York buildings. But they also make a statement about a different time. In the neighborhood of the World Trade Center, the height of the tower is close to 800 feet, which makes it essentially a part of it. And we felt that this is now not the old New York — this is the new New York. And that’s why this building is of a totally different language.

When asked if he would buy a home in 50 West, Jahn replied, “No, I already have a place, on 59th and Park Avenue.”

50 West Street | Via Jahn

Jahn explained that 50 West began in 2006 but just after the foundation was poured, Francis Greenburger of Time Equities changed the entire plan to make the building more luxury-focused. “We made the floor-to-floor height bigger; we had bigger apartments; and we had to adjust the building with a new code.”

The NYT interview ended by asking Jahn what is in the pipeline. He said, “I can’t talk about it, but I just had a presentation. It’s not a very big building, but I think a very important building. It’s a residential building combined with some other.”

Does anyone know what that was going to be?

RIP Helmut Jahn.