Louis Isadore Kahn was an Estonian-born American architect based in Philadelphia. After working in various capacities for several firms in Philadelphia, he founded his own atelier in 1935. While continuing his private practice, he served as a design critic and professor of architecture at Yale School of Architecture from 1947 to 1957. From 1957 until his death, he was a professor of architecture at the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania.

The Yale School of Architecture (YSoA) is one of the constituent professional schools of Yale University. The School awards the degrees of Master of Architecture I, Master of Architecture II, Master of Environmental Design (M.E.D), and Ph.D in architectural history and criticism. The School also offers joint degrees with the Yale School of Management and Yale School of the Environment, as well as a course of study for undergraduates in Yale College leading to a Bachelor of Arts. Since its founding as a department in 1916, the School has produced some of the world's leading architects, including Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, Maya Lin and Eero Saarinen, among others. The current dean of the School is Deborah Berke.