Kahn & Parducci: Facts & Speculation

This event is free with museum admission.

Carlson’s lecture will closely examine many of the known facts about Kahn and Parducci’s personal and business relationships, especially the early years, but it will also give ample time to considering:

• How Kahn came to know of Parducci and the New York sculpture scene from which he emerged
• How other Detroit architects learned of Parducci before he arrived in town in 1924
• How Wirt Rowland (employed by Kahn from 1917 to 1922 and good friend of Parducci) played a role in that development
• Which specific commission brought Parducci to town
• Which unattributed local architectural sculpture installations could very well be apprenticeship era Parducci works (there are many, most commissioned by Kahn!)

Author, photographer and architectural historian Dale A. Carlson was born and raised along the northeastern shores of Lake Michigan where, as an adolescent, he developed a fascination with the city of Detroit. Throughout the 1990s Mr. Carlson studied art, journalism and graphic design at four Michigan colleges including Michigan State University. In 2004 he made southeast Oakland County his permanent home, and in 2019 he earned an associate degree in photographic technology from Oakland Community College. He serves on the City of Berkley’s Historical Committee and is the author of Corrado Parducci: A Field Guide to Detroit’s Architectural Sculptor. His latest project, Kahn’s Detroit: A Field Guide to Albert Kahn Designs of the Metro Area, showcases 300 extant Kahn designs in southeast Michigan. He credits his late wife, Carolin Venegas Jones, whom he married in 2014, for inspiring his ventures into publishing and photography.