Temple Beth El (Detroit, Michigan)

Born in Rhaune, Germany, Albert Kahn moved with his family in 1880 to Detroit, where he was apprenticed to a sculptor and developed his drawing skills. Despite being color-blind, Albert was accepted as an apprentice designer to architect George Mason, who later elevated him to chief designer. In 1895, with his younger brother Julius, he established the architecture firm Kahn & Associates. Kahn’s innovations within automotive factories included roof lighting (Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Co., 1906), reinforced concrete (Packard Motor Car Company Plant, 1908), and the Henry Ford model assembly line (1913). He designed nineteen monumental buildings on the University of Michigan campus as well as more than four hundred residences, skyscrapers, institutions, and factories in Detroit. Kahn designed Temple Beth El in Detroit early in his career, when he was a member of the congregation, the oldest in Michigan. The classical revival synagogue building, no longer in regular use as a synagogue, is on the National Register of Historic Places.