Helmut Jahn (1940–2021) was a German-American architect based in Chicago, known for The Center Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, the Messeturm in Frankfurt, the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago and Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok. Born near Nuremberg, he studied in Munich and at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He joined C. F. Murphy Associates in 1967 and took sole control in 1981 as Murphy/Jahn. Inspired by Mies van der Rohe but opposed to the doctrinaire modernism of his followers, he joined the Chicago Seven in 1978; the Thompson Center (1985) earned him the nickname "Flash Gordon". He was killed in 2021 when two cars hit him as he cycled near his home.
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11 Diagonal Street in Johannesburg (1983), a 22-floor office tower known as the diamond building, is shaped to reflect different views of the city from each angle. The Messeturm in Frankfurt (1991) is a 63-storey, 257-metre postmodern tower that rises into a cylinder and ends in a pyramid; it was Europe's tallest building until 1997. The Sony Center in Berlin (2000) has a public forum under an umbrella-like roof of steel, glass and fabric.
