Le Anh Kim was born in Quangtri, Vietnam, in 1922, and attended the Dalat School of Architecture, where he studied under two French professors, Arthur E. Louise Kruze and Louis Anatole Georges Pineau. During the late 1940s, the school split between Paris and Saigon, with Le Ahn Kim following professors Kruze and Pineau to Saigon. Whilst in Saigon, Le Ahn Kim was also employed as an intern at the practice of Leroy and Mondet, on Gia Long Street, and later with the firm of Kruze and Hoa, on Duy Tân Street. He graduated in 1954 from the Saigon School of Architecture (now the Ho Chi Minh City University of Architecture), the only student in his year, and opened the first ever formally recognised private architectural firm in Nha Trang. After spending time as a military engineer, he then travelled to the UK, and with funding from the Colombo Plan, enrolled on the six-month, postgraduate course at the Architectural Association’s Department of Tropical Architecture. Following completion of this course, Le Anh Kim moved to Paris, studying at the Ecole Des Beaux Arts, where he gaining a Diplômé Par Le Gouvernement (D.P.L.G.) in 1958. With the completion of his studies, he returned to Vietnam and by the early 1960s was living and working in Hanoi, his practice based at 40 Hồng Thập Tự Street. His practice rapidly grew in stature and he collaborated with his fellow architects, Lam Du Tot and Nuguyen Quang Nhac, on a large Technical School in Quinhon City, Binh Dinh Province, as well as private villas in a Modernist style, including one for a Vietnamese government minister. Other important works comprise a technical school in Danang (1960s), the Giadinh Medical Training Center, Ho Chi Minh City, and several hospitals, churches, monasteries, cinemas, factories, laboratories and hotels in various provinces. Ahn Le Kim was also one of a small number of Vietnamese architects who built up a relationship with the Americans and was engaged in commissions for special infrastructure projects. Following the cession of hostilities, Le Anh Kim emigrated to the US.

We are very grateful to Professor Nguyen Ngoc Son, of the University of Architecture, Ho Chi Minh City, for the above information, and his work with the Heritage of the Saigon School of Architecture (HSSA) research programme and upcoming publication.

Sources

• Architectural Association Student Register 1945-1972, AA Archives
• Architectural Association Council Minutes Books, 24th February, 1958, p237. AA Archives
• Architectural Association Membership Register, 1961
• Indochina Refugees – adjustment of Status: Hearings before Before the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and International Law of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Ninety-fifth Congress, First Session, on H.R. 2051 ... May 25 and June 2, 1977. US Government Printing Office, 1977, p155.
• Heritage of the Saigon School of Architecture (HSSA) research programme.