Jahn was born in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1940, and grew up watching the reconstruction of the city, which had been largely destroyed by Allied bombing campaigns. After attending the Technical University of Munich from 1960 to 1965, he worked with Peter C. von Seidlein for a year. In 1966, he emigrated to Chicago to further study architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology, leaving school without earning his degree.
In 1967, he joined C. F. Murphy Associates as a protégé of Gene Summers and was appointed Executive Vice President and Director of Planning and Design of the firm in 1973. Taking sole control from 1981, the firm was renamed Murphy/Jahn, although the aged Murphy had retired (dying a few years later, in 1985).
Generally inspired by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, yet opposed to the doctrinal application of modernism by his followers, in 1978, Jahn became the eighth member of the Chicago Seven. Despite a rocky start when the roof of his first major project Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri collapsed in 1979, Jahn established his pre-eminent reputation in 1985 with the State of Illinois Center in Chicago which prompted him to be dubbed "Flash Gordon.".
Jahn has grown the business into a global architectural practice that consistently ranks among top 20 United States architectural firms in terms of gross annual billings. In addition to the main seat in Chicago, the company has offices in Berlin and Shanghai.
On October 26, 2012, Helmut Jahn renamed Murphy/Jahn to simply JAHN and announced that he will share design leadership at the firm with architect Francisco Gonzalez Pulido, a partner and president of JAHN.
Completed projects
Following is a partial list of completed projects [2] [3] [4]:
2005 - Murphy/Jahn, Inc. recipient of the AIA Architecture Firm Award.
Yachting
Jahn has an interest in yachting, and in the late 1990s owned at least three yachts named Flash Gordon (one of his nicknames). In 1995, Jahn's Flash Gordon 2 won the annual Chicago to Mackinac Race, the oldest freshwater yacht race in the world. In 1997, Flash Gordon 3 won the Admiral's Cup.
