Helmut Jahn, a well-respected architect best known for designing Chicago’s Thompson Center and the FBI headquarters in Washington, was tragically killed in an accident Saturday. Officials say the 81-year-old was riding a bike in the Chicago suburb of Campton Hills and failed to halt at a stop sign when two cars going in opposite directions struck him. The German-born architect was pronounced dead at the scene, while one of the drivers was brought to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. “It’s really hard to believe,”’ fellow Chicago architect and frequent collaborator Jim Goettsch told the Chicago Sun-Times. “Just can’t quite fathom that he’s not there.” Ward Miller, executive director of Preservation Chicago, called Jahn a “world force.” His death, Miller told the Sun-Times, was a “shock to the architectural world.”
