At the time when Gustave Eiffel was building his tower which had become the emblem of Paris, the architect was splashed by a scandal which crossed the Atlantic. Eiffel had been hired in 1887 to design the locks of the Panama Canal, but in 1889 the Universal Company of the Interoceanic Canal of Panama was put into liquidation following the mismanagement of its director Ferdinand de Lesseps. Eiffel and members of the Company’s management were accused of embezzlement of financial funds reserved for the work to enrich themselves, particularly from profits. He was sentenced to two years in prison for breach of trust in 1893, but was acquitted on appeal.
9. The families of Louis Kahn
The Salk Institute, designed by Louis Kahn, in La Jolla, California.
Photo: Education Images/Citizens of the Planet/UIG via Getty Images
Architect Louis Kahn designed many iconic projects during his career, including the Yale University Art Gallery, the Salk Institute, and the Kimbell Art Museum. In 2003, his son Nataniel Kahn released a documentary film, My Architectexploring his personal life, including this astonishing fact: the three families of Louis Kahn. Louis Kahn married his wife, Ester, in 1930, with whom he had a daughter, Sue Ann. He also had another daughter, Alexandra, with the architect Anne Tyng, and a son, Nathaniel, the director of the documentary, with the landscape designer Harriet Pattison. The different families knew of each other’s existence, and lived only a few kilometers apart. However, Louis Kahn’s children only met for the first time at the architect’s funeral.
8. Murders in Taliesin
Frank Lloyd Wright’s reconstructed Taliesin Mansion in Spring Green, Wisconsin.
Photo: Danita Delimont / Alamy Stock Photo
