Benjamin Polk
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Benjamin Polk (1916-2001) was a notable American designer and architect, best known for his work in India and Nepal. Polk was raised in Des Moines, Iowa, and is a great-nephew of American president James Polk. He practiced architecture in San Francisco from 1948-1952, where he met his future wife and companion, Emily Polk (nee Isaacs). The couple moved to India in 1952, where they would remain until 1968. Polk designed both in the public and private sector, and in 1957 co-founded Asia's largest architecture firm, Chatterjee and Polk. Notable among his work include the Times of India main building, Buddhist Tripitaka Library in Rangoon, the Royal Palace for His Majesty the King of Nepal, Kathmandu, and the beautiful Jallianwala Bagh Memorial in Amritsar. Polk returned to the United States in 1968, where he took up teaching architecture at the California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo, California. He was the author of several books, primarily concerning architecture, and most notably "Buddhist Monastic Architecture in Sri Lanka" and "The India Notebook," which he wrote with his wife. He passed away due to natural causes in 2001.
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