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An odyssey in B-flat: rediscovering the life and times of master architect Robert A. Kennard

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Content AN ODYSSEY IN B-FLAT:
REDISCOVERING THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MASTER ARCHITECT ROBERT A. KENNARD

by

Jerome A. Robinson

A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF HERITAGE CONSERVATION

December 2018

Copyright 2018 Jerome A. Robinson
AN ODYSSEY IN B-FLAT:
REDISCOVERING THE LIFE AND
TIMES OF MASTER ARCHITECT
ROBERT A. KENNARD
BY JEROME A. ROBINSON
Kennard at his first office [1957] in
Los Angeles.
Photos:
Permission of The Kennard Estate
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments ii

List of Figures iii

Abstract ix

Introduction xi
CHAPTER 1 – THE KENNARD FAMILY ORIGINS
1817 – 1899: Lambertville, New Jersey 1
1900 – 1919: Pullman Porter | The Great Migration 5
1920 – 1937: Los Angeles to Monrovia 9
1938 – 1940: Pasadena Junior College | First Job 23
CHAPTER 2 – THE COLLEGE YEARS THROUGH THE FIRST FIRM
1946 – 1949: The University of Southern California | School of Architecture 30
1949 – 1951: Robert A. Alexander | Marriage to Helen King 36
1952 – 1960: Robert Alexander and Richard Neutra | First Firm 39
1961 – 1962: Temple Akiba 46
1963 – 1973: Kennard and Silvers Partnership 51
CHAPTER 3 – FROM KENNARD, DELAHOUSIE, AND GAULT TO THE
KENNARD DESIGN GROUP
1974 – 1978: The Formation of Kennard, Delahousie, and Gault 55
1978 – The Formation of Kennard Design Group 61
1975 – 1982: Kennard | Alexander | Sata | The City of Carson 64
1974 – 1985: Kennard’s Notable Public Projects 68
1995 – Robert Alexander Kennard 72
CHAPTER 4 – TWO HOUSES ON WONDERLAND PARK AVENUE
Early Commissioned Houses 75
Restrictive Covenants 76
Wonderland Park Avenue 76
Mr. and Mrs. Berry Kelly 77
The Mid-Century Modern Aesthetic 80
The Zeiger Family 86
Designing the Zeiger House 90
Contractor Fred Vandermeer 91
Structural Engineer Robert Marks 92
Landscape Architect Garrett Eckbo 93
The Laurel Canyon Fire 98
The Zeiger House 99
The Zeiger House Exterior 101
Zeiger Interior Description 106
David Zeiger’s Memories Of The House 110
CHAPTER 5 – THE WATTS REDEVELOPMENT PROJECT
The Watts Riots 115
History of The Watts District and The Disenfranchised 118
The Plan to Rebuild Watts 122
Infrastructure 124
Circulation Systems 126
Existing Building Stock 126
Residential Buildings 129
Commercial Buildings 131
Bank of American Commission 133
Watts Redevelopment Project Never Implemented 136
CONCLUSION
Perceptions 139
Conservation 140
Cultivating an Understanding 141
What Does It Mean 142

Bibliography 144

Appendix A: Kennard Architectural Projects 1956-1994 149

Appendix B: Kennard’s AIA College of Fellows Nomination Application 173

ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
On June 27, 2016, while researching my thesis, I was diagnosed with stage three
Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. The diagnosis prolonged my ability to finish my thesis at the
time prescribed by the university. However, I am grateful that after chemotherapy and
recovery, I was able to complete this graduation requirement. A task that could have
only been possible by the grace of God and my mother, who tirelessly dedicated herself
to my well-being and comfort.
Also, I would like to thank Trudi Sandmeier, my Committee Chairperson, for her
friendship, support, and counsel throughout my ordeal, as well as the friends and family
members that reached out to me during my illness. Thank you to everyone associated
with The Gesundheit Family/Architectural Guild Graduate Traveling Fellowship who
allowed me to postpone my trip to Italy, which was an unprecedented decision in the
history of the fellowship. [I went in the summer of 2017.] To The Los Angeles
Conservancy, The Monrovia Historical Museum Foundation, The Lambertville Historical
Society, and The Office of Historic Resources for the City of Los Angeles, thank you for
your help with my research and archival photographs. I extend my gratitude to the
following people for their patience during my ordeal: Gail Kennard, Philip Ethington, and
Lon Kurashige. To my primary interviewees: Roland Wiley, Frank Sata, Jeffrey Gault,
and David Zeiger, thanks for your candid and thoughtful recollections of Robert Kennard
and the people and places associated with him. It took courage to be vulnerable enough
to speak from the heart. I would especially like to thank The National Trust For Historic
Preservation for making my last semester at USC memorable by selecting me to attend
their national convention on a scholarship. Finally, I would like to thank my oncologist,
Dr. Alexander Shar, and The Walt Disney Company from which I received my health
insurance. It is unimaginable that anyone is diagnosed with cancer and does not have
health insurance.

iii

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE PAGE
Figure 1.1. Bridge Street, Lambertville, New Jersey, 1880s ........................................... 2
Figure 1.2. Bridge Street, Lambertville, New Jersey, 2016 ............................................. 3
Figure 1.3. Kennard Family: Rachel, Anna, Perry, Mabel, and James, late 1890s ......... 5
Figure 1.4. James L. Kennard Employment Card 1911-1918 ......................................... 7
Figure 1.5. Twentieth Street Elementary School Class, 1921 ....................................... 10
Figure 1.6. Map of East Walnut Avenue in Monrovia, California, 1927 ......................... 13
Figure 1.7. Three houses placed or constructed on the Kennard lot in Monrovia ......... 14
Figure 1.8. Diagram of Kennard House at 533 East Walnut Avenue in Monrovia ........ 15
Figure 1.9. North Myrtle Avenue Postcard Monrovia,1920s .......................................... 16
Figure 1.10. Orange Avenue [Monroe] Elementary School Administration Building ..... 19
Figure 1.11. James and Robert Kennard at a Father and Son Banquet, 1930s ........... 20
Figure 1.12. Monrovia High School, Teachers Edna Chess and Roy Eller ................... 22
Figure 1.13. Benjamin F. McAdoo, Pasadena Junior College Year Book, 1940 ........... 24
Figure 1.14. Professor William Stone, Calvin C. Straub, T-Square Club, 1940 ............ 25
Figure 1.15. Robert Kennard, Pasadena Junior College Year Book, 1940 ................... 26
Figure 1.16. James L. Kennard, 1940s ......................................................................... 28
Figure 2.1. USC Bovard Administration Building and Campus, 1940 ........................... 30
Figure 2.2. Kennard with the Scarab Fraternity, USC El Rodeo Yearbook, 1949 ......... 32
Figure 2.3. Frank Wilkinson, 1940s ............................................................................... 33
Figure 2.4. An old street car converted into a house for the homeless ......................... 34
Figure 2.5. 1949 USC Commencement program and Robert Kennard ........................ 35
Figure 2.6. Helen King in Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper.......................................... 38

iv

Figure 2.7. Sketch of Elysian Park Height project ......................................................... 40
Figure 2.8. Kennard Architectural Firm at 5601 Washington Blvd. ............................... 42
Figure 2.9. Anderson Residence in Pasadena .............................................................. 44
Figure 2.10. Kelly Residence in Wonderland Park Avenue ........................................... 44
Figure 2.11. Hardyman Residence in Silverlake [East Exterior] .................................... 45
Figure 2.12. Hardyman Residence in Silverlake [West Exterior] ................................... 45
Figure 2.13. Calvin Straub with Conrad Buff, Donald Hensman, and USC Students .... 46
Figure 2.14. Arthur Silvers, Rabbi Lymon, and others .................................................. 46
Figure 2.15. Robert Kennard with Temple Akiba Building Committee .......................... 47
Figure 2.16. Rabbi Lymon and Robert Kennard ............................................................ 47
Figure 2.17. Lymon, Kennard, Silvers, Ray Kimuro, and Ernest Elwood ...................... 48
Figure 2.18. Temple Akiba, 1960s ................................................................................ 48
Figure 2.19. Remolded Temple Akiba, 2015 ................................................................. 49
Figure 2.20. Robert Kennard and Arthur Silvers, 1960s ............................................... 51
Figure 3.1. Robert Kennard, Ronald Delahouise, and Jeffrey Gault ............................. 55
Figure 3.2. Plans for Los Tules Resort in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico ................................ 59
Figure 3.3. Aerial View of the Los Tules Resort in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico .................. 60
Figure 3.4. Hut at the Los Tules Resort in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico .............................. 60
Figure 3.5. Robert Alexander, Kennard, Frank Sata, and Adolfo Miralles..................... 64
Figure 3.6. Exteriors of Carson City Hall ....................................................................... 66
Figure 3.7. Interior of Carson City Hall .......................................................................... 67
Figure 3.8. Carson Community Center .......................................................................... 67
Figure 3.9. Van Nuys Office Building ............................................................................ 69

v

Figure 3.10. UC San Diego Master Site Plan for Third College,1970s .......................... 70
Figure 3.11. University of California, San Diego Building .............................................. 71
Figure 3.12. Robert Kennard, 1991 ............................................................................... 72
Figure 4.1. Kelly Residence exterior backyard and pool ............................................... 75
Figure 4.2. Robert Kennard and Mrs. Kelly during kitchen construction ....................... 78
Figure 4.3. L.A. County Accessor Partial Map of Wonderland Park .............................. 79
Figure 4.4. Kelly Residence exterior carport and main entry way ................................. 80
Figure 4.5. L.A. County Accessor Map of Tract No. 15007 ........................................... 81
Figure 4.6. Kelly Residence exterior patio and pool ...................................................... 81
Figure 4.7. Kelly Residence exterior front door ............................................................. 82
Figure 4.8. Kelly Residence exterior front door and pathway ........................................ 82
Figure 4.9. Kelly Residence interior kitchen south view ................................................ 82
Figure 4.10. Kelly Residence interior kitchen north view ............................................... 82
Figure 4.11. Kelly Residence interior kitchen dinning room .......................................... 83
Figure 4.12. Kelly Residence interior living room with stairs leading to kitchen ............ 83
Figure 4.13. Kelly Residence interior living room facing sliding glass doors ................. 84
Figure 4.14. Kelly Residence interior living room facing fireplace ................................. 84
Figure 4.15. Kelly Residence interior dinning room ....................................................... 85
Figure 4.16. Kelly Residence interior master bedroom ................................................. 85
Figure 4.17. Zeiger Residence exterior two car garage ................................................ 86
Figure 4.18. Beatrice and Irving Zeiger on their wedding day ....................................... 87
Figure 4.19. Beatrice, Irving, and friends in backyard ................................................... 89
Figure 4.20. Beatrice and Irving Zeiger in family room .................................................. 89

vi

Figure 4.21. Zeiger lot and preliminary house sketch by Kennard ................................ 90
Figure 4.22. Contractor Fred Vandermeer .................................................................... 91
Figure 4.23. Hardyman Residence Exterior .................................................................. 92
Figure 4.24. Hardyman Residence Interior ................................................................... 92
Figure 4.25. Garrett Eckbo ............................................................................................ 93
Figure 4.26. Robert Kennard Residence ....................................................................... 94
Figure 4.27. Wonderland Park Area, 1950s .................................................................. 95
Figure 4.28. Zeiger Residence exterior backyard, 1958 ................................................ 96
Figure 4.29. Zeiger Residence exterior backyard, 1958 another view .......................... 96
Figure 4.30. Zeiger Residence exterior backyard, present day ..................................... 97
Figure 4.31. Zeiger Residence exterior landscaping in front of house .......................... 97
Figure 4.32. Laurel Canyon House on Fire, 1959 ......................................................... 99
Figure 4.33. L.A. County Accessor Map of Tract No. 15007 and Lot 29 ....................... 99
Figure 4.34. Zeiger House Sketch by Robert Kennard ............................................... 100
Figure 4.35. Zeiger Residence exterior and canyon, aerial view ................................. 101
Figure 4.36. Zeiger Residence exterior and canyon, closer aerial view ...................... 102
Figure 4.37. Zeiger Residence carport to the right of main entry-way ......................... 103
Figure 4.38. Zeiger Residence exterior main entrance ............................................... 103
Figure 4.39. Two cooper sculptured cranes designed by Kennard ............................. 103
Figure 4.40. Zeiger Residence exterior backyard, Eckbo landscaping design ............ 104
Figure 4.41. Zeiger Residence exterior, pool, and patio area ..................................... 104
Figure 4.42. Zeiger Residence interior, view of patio and pool ................................... 105
Figure 4.43. Zeiger Residence exterior, private patio .................................................. 105

vii

Figure 4.44. Zeiger Residence interior living room, chimney ...................................... 107
Figure 4.45. Zeiger Residence interior family room, chimney ..................................... 107
Figure 4.46. Zeiger Residence interior living room, floor to ceiling windows ............... 108
Figure 4.47. Zeiger Residence interior master bedroom cabinetry ............................. 108
Figure 4.48. Zeiger Residence interior kitchen, present day ....................................... 109
Figure 4.49. Zeiger Residence interior kitchen, 1960s ................................................ 109
Figure 4.50. The Zeiger Family: Irving, Beatrice, Susie, David, and Leni ................... 110
Figure 4.51. The Zeiger’s and extended family members ........................................... 111
Figure 4.52. Robert Kennard and Beatrice Zeiger ...................................................... 111
Figure 4.53. Robert and Helen Kennard with Irving Zeiger ......................................... 111
Figure 4.54. Danny Zeiger and his cousin Tara .......................................................... 112
Figure 4.55. Zeiger Residence exterior, pool, and patio ............................................. 113
Figure 4.56. Irving and Beatrice at their 45
th
Wedding Anniversary ............................ 114
Figure 5.1. 1965 Los Angeles Riot .............................................................................. 115
Figure 5.2. National Guard troops enter Watts ........................................................... 116
Figure 5.3. Figures in the Watts Riot Case ................................................................. 117
Figure 5.4. Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Watts ...................................................... 118
Figure 5.5. Note found at the Bailey home on 2130 South Dunsmuir Avenue ............ 119
Figure 5.6. The John McCone Watts Riot Commissioners ......................................... 121
Figure 5.7. Conceptual Design for Redevelopment of Watts ...................................... 122
Figure 5.8. Watts, California. Map ............................................................................... 123
Figure 5.9. Watts Redevelopment Plan Map Project #1. ............................................ 124
Figure 5.10. Watts Redevelopment Centers Concept Map ......................................... 125

viii

Figure 5.11. Watts Pacific Electric depot .................................................................... 127
Figure 5.12. Watts Towers formerly known as Towers of Simon Rodia ...................... 128
Figure 5.13. Watts Towers closer view ....................................................................... 128
Figure 5.14. Sketch of proposed Watts Residential Complex Exterior ........................ 129
Figure 5.15. Sketch of proposed Watts Civic Center .................................................. 131
Figure 5.16. The Weissenhof Estate designed by Le Corbusier ................................. 132
Figure 5.17. Proposed plan for the Watts Urban Redevelopment Project .................. 132
Figure 5.18. Bank of America, Watts Branch, view from Central Avenue ................... 133
Figure 5.19. Bank of America, Watts Branch, Closer View ......................................... 134
Figure 5.20. Bank of America, Watts Branch, view from 103
rd
Street ......................... 134
Figure 5.21. Bank of America, Watts, exterior teller, and drive-thru windows ............. 135
Figure 5.22. Bank of America, Watts Branch, walk-up teller window design............... 135
Figure 6.1. Robert Kennard, 1970s ............................................................................. 139
ix

ABSTRACT
Although Master Architect Robert A. Kennard received the American Institute of
Architects’ [AIA] highest lifetime of achievement honors, his contributions to architecture
and the community are relatively unknown to the public. In 1986, Kennard became an
inductee into the American Institute of Architects’ College of Fellows. A recognition
bestowed upon AIA members who “exemplify architectural excellence,” and made
“significant contributions to the profession and society.” According to the AIA, only three
percent of its membership has received this distinction. Despite these numerous
accolades, Kennard’s legacy is relegated to the collective memories of art historians
and a few conscientious architectural students. The life and artistry of Robert Kennard
need to be rediscovered.
Robert Alexander Kennard [1920 – 1995] was born in Los Angeles and believed
that people were more important than the spaces they occupied. It was “the architect’s
job to make the environment fit the people,” and not to fit people into the environment.
“The goal of the design is the organization of space for people…that is, space that
provides a secure, comfortable and healthful environment for work, play and leisure. In
addition to their professional responsibility to the client, architects should add a measure
of visual delight that makes space an area people want to occupy – and feel good about
being there,” said Kennard.
In 1957, Robert founded his firm. Today it is the oldest, continuously owned
African-American architectural firm west of the Mississippi River. Kennard designed
over seven hundred buildings and structures – including forty homes. Robert’s design of
x

the mid-century modern Zeiger House, with landscaping by architect Garrett Eckbo, was
designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.
Kennard led the effort on the redevelopment of Watts after the rebellion in 1965.
His plans, for the proposed Watts urban renewal project, included a series of elevated
bridges, plazas and walkways that allowed pedestrians to travel uninhibited by traffic. It
also included a Disneyland type of monorail that transported residents around the
community, with a fixed route that connected elderly housing complexes to shopping
establishments and social services. Mentored and inspired by architects Paul Williams,
Robert Alexander, Richard Neutra, and American civil liberties activist Frank Wilkinson,
Kennard also mentored and supported aspiring minority architects, as they too
maneuvered through the inequities and politics of the profession.

xi

INTRODUCTION
In 2003, British astronomers discovered sound waves emanating from a black
hole in the center of a galaxy known as the Perseus Cluster. The sound waves formed a
single note, and scientist, using a piano keyboard, determined that the note coming
from the universe was B-flat.
1
According to Gary Pratt Professor of Jazz Performance
at Cal State University, Northridge, “It’s a chord that is used a lot in marching bands.
Many blues or jazz compositions are arranged in B-flat too. The key is often used in an
arrangement to express either great adulation or the depths of sorrow. Look at it as the
chord for the common man or everyman.”
2

An Odyssey in B-Flat: Rediscovering the Life and Times of Master Architect
Robert A. Kennard is the rediscovery of a man of color that went on a journey marked
by many highs and lows to become a successful architect, mentor, and humanitarian.
He encouraged architects of color to become proficient in the trade and socially
conscious. This thesis captures only a fraction of Mr. Kennard’s portfolio. The objective
is to highlight a few of his significant accomplishments, with the hope that it will promote
a more thorough examination of his work.

1
Note: “Space is not a pure vacuum but rather it contains stray bits of stuff -- gas atoms and dust of varying
amounts. In the case of the Perseus cluster, the gas throughout it serves as the medium through which the sound
waves coming from the central black hole travel.” Interpreting the 'Song' Of a Distant Black Hole, NASA.gov,
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/universe/black_hole_sound.html [Accessed 6-7-18].
2
Professor Gary Pratt telephone interview dated June 11, 2018.

CHAPTER 1

THE KENNARD FAMILY ORIGINS
For almost any migrant, it is almost too late for them to benefit from the migration they
are about to embark on. Whatever limits on education they have, there was not much
that was going to change. Their lives had already been fairly well established. Any
migration involved hope that life would be better for their children.
Professor Isabel Wilkerson
Author of The Warmth of Other Suns
Speech at Yale University, January 19, 2011

1817 – 1899: Lambertville, New Jersey
In 1817, James Kennard was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania as a free man
of color.
1
By 1860, Kennard had long since migrated to Lambertville, New Jersey and
married Rachel Ann, a resident of the state. They had six children, four boys, and two
girls. Perry, the eldest son [and future father, of James Louis Kennard and grandfather
of architect Robert Alexander Kennard], was thirteen years old.
2
In 1860, 0.8% of the
free black population in the United States lived in the Mid-Atlantic area, and only thirty-
one “colored people” lived in Lambertville, New Jersey.
3
On February 15, 1868, Rachel
Ann Kennard sat in a Hunterdon County, New Jersey probate courtroom and settled the
estate of her late husband. James Kennard died at the age of fifty-one. The probate
record does not list the cause of his death.
4

The 1880 U.S. Federal Census classified Perry Kennard as a “Mulatto.”
5
He was
married to Anna Delsarte. She was born and raised in New York City. The U.S. Civil
War Draft Registration documents Anna’s father, Louis Delsarte, as a white male, born

1
Year: 1840; Census Place: Buckingham, Bucks, Pennsylvania; Roll: 446; Page 61; Family History
Library 0020539.
2
Year: 1860; Census Place: Lambertville, Hunterdon, New Jersey; Roll M653_696; Page 610; Image
133, Family History Library Film: 803696.
3
Fred Eisinger, Trustee Lambertville Historical Society e-mail message to author, March 20, 2017; Inter-
University Consortium for Political and Social Research, Historical, Demographic, Economic and Social
Data: The United States, 1790-1970.
4
Probate Records, 1785-1919: General Index to Estates, 1804-1970: Author: New Jersey Surrogate
Court [Hunterdon County]; Probate Place: Hunterdon, New Jersey.
5
Word Origin and History for mulatto. n. 1590s, "offspring of a European and a black African,"
Dictionary.com. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/mulatto (accessed May 15, 2017); Year: 1880; Census
Place: Lambertville, Hunterdon, New Jersey: Roll 1254787:Page 85D, Enumeration District: 070: Image
0173.

2

in the West Indies and recorded “barber” as his profession.
6
According to the 1880
census, Perry and Anna had three children: Mabel, seven [“attending school”]; James
[middle name Louis, after his maternal grandfather Louis Delsarte], age five; and Rachel
[named after Perry’s mother], age three. Perry’s occupation was listed as a “barber” and
Anna as “keeping house.”
7
The family resided on 24 Bridge Street in Lambertville, New
Jersey. “The total population of Lambertville was 4,183. The census enumerated [only]
twenty-four black residents. The Kennards, a family of five, may have made an
impression in the small African-American community.”
8
The Kennard house still stands
today. (Figures 1.1,1.2).

6
National Archives and Records Administration [NARA]; Washington, D.C.; Consolidated Lists of Civil
War Draft Registration Records [Provost Marshal General's Bureau; Consolidated Enrollment Lists, 1863-
1865]; Record Group: 110, Records of the Provost Marshal General's Bureau [Civil War]; Collection
Name: Consolidated Enrollment Lists, 1863-1865 [Civil War Union Draft Records]; NAI: 4213514; Archive
Volume Number: 4 of 5.
7
Year: 1880; Census Place: Lambertville, Hunterdon, New Jersey; Roll 1254787; Page 85D;
Enumeration District: 070; Image 0173.
8
Fred Eisinger Trustee, Lambertville Historical Society, e-mail message to author, February 24, 2017.
Figure 1.1: 24 Bridge Street circa 1880s - Two Story structure to the left of the three-story building, with
awning on the right. Photo courtesy: Lambertville Historical Society.

3

For James Louis Kennard, being born and raised in Lambertville, New Jersey
near the Delaware River was never as culturally restrictive as the antebellum South.
Nevertheless, there were occasional reminders for “colored people” living in a state,
which abolished slavery before the Civil War, that all men “were not created equal.” On
March 5, 1886, in Eatontown, New Jersey, sixty-four miles from Lambertville, a white
mob lynched a “Negro” named Samuel Johnson, alias Mingo Jack, for raping a white
woman. [James Louis Kennard was twelve years old.] No evidence connected the
elderly grandfather to the assault. Despite the lack of evidence, Mingo Jack was beaten
to death and hanged; before “he could even be questioned about the crime.”
9
The
beating was so severe that his right eye dangled from its socket. His alleged victim, the

9
Did They Lynch The Wrong Man, The Washington Post; Feb 26, 1888: p. 4.
Figure 1.2: 24 Bridge Street circa 2016 is the two Story Building on the left. [Lambertville, NJ] Map.
Google Maps, Google.com, June 2016, https://www.google.com/maps/@40.36568,-
74.94585,19z/data=!3m1!1e3 (accessed May 16, 2017).

4

twenty-four-year-old Miss Angeline Herbert, could not identify him. When presented with
Mango Jack’s blood-soaked clothes, she confessed that they were “not the clothes the
man had on who attacked her. There has been a mistake somewhere.”
10

Mingo Jack’s murder was New Jersey’s only documented lynching in the
nineteenth century, and newspapers across the country reported on the story.
11
The
New York Times and the Washington Post chronicled the investigation over several
months. The Times wrote: “The long-drawn-out inquest as to the lynching of Mingo Jack
on March 5 [1886] was concluded today, without bringing to light any evidence that will
lead to the conviction of the many suspected men.”
12

Before the turn of the twentieth century, undeterred by three generations of
Kennards living as free men in the state of New Jersey, Perry moved his family to a
house on 19 Post Road in Westerly, Rhode Island. Westerly is a beachfront community
on the southern coast of the state.
13
Whether Mingo Jack’s death was the precipitating
event that caused Perry Kennard and his family to migrate from New Jersey to Rhode
Island is unknown. Because “lynching occurred throughout the United States; it was not
a sectional crime.”
14
Nonetheless, Rhode Island was one of only four states with no
documented lynching recorded.
15

10
James M. Stone, The Murder of Mingo Jack: New Jersey’s Only Nineteenth Century Lynching, (Indiana,
iUniverse Publishing, 2010), 7-9, 20-22; Newark Letter; Article Type: News/Opinion, New York Freeman
[New York, New York], May 1, 1886, pg. 1; Judge Lynch In Jersey: "Mingo Jack" Hanged At The
Eatontown Lockup, New York Times, Mar 7, 1886: pg. 2.; Rob Spahr, Lynching of former slave
memorialized as 'low point' in Eatontown history, NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, September 24, 2012,
http://www.nj.com/monmouth/index.ssf/2012/09/lynching_of_a_former_slave_memorialized_in_eatontow
n.htm (accessed July 15, 2015). Note: One hundred and twenty-six years later, Gerald Tarantolo the
mayor of Eatontown, New Jersey dedicated a memorial plaque in Wampum Park. At the same location
where an angry mob dragged Mingo Jack from his jail cell and hanged him on a tree. During the
dedication, the mayor publicly apologized for the mischarge of justice.
11
James M. Stone, The Murder of Mingo Jack: New Jersey’s Only Nineteenth Century Lynching, (Indiana,
iUniverse Publishing, 2010).
12
The Eatontown Lynching, The New York Times, March 31, 1886: p. 2; Mingo Jack’s Lynching, The
Washington Post, April 11, 1886.
13
Year 1900: Census Place: Westerly, Washington, Rhode Island: Roll 1513; Page 11B; Enumeration
District: 0242; FHL microfilm: 1241513.
14
N.A.A.C.P. History of Lynching, NAACP.org, http://www.naacp.org/history-of-lynchings/ (accessed May
24, 2017).
15
Ibid. Note: Between 1882-1968 the following states had no lynching: Rhode Island, New Hampshire,
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Alaska [which became a state in 1959].

5

Perry Kennard owned a barbershop on 14 Broad Street. His daughter, Rachel,
shared the storefront and advertised her services as a “ladies’ hairdresser.” By 1910,
the family had moved to 131 Granite Street. Perry’s wife, Anna, worked alongside
Rachel, as a hairdresser and paid the property taxes. Their second daughter, Mabel,
earned wages as a dressmaker.
16
(Figure 1.3)

1900 – 1919: Pullman Porter | The Great Migration
James L. Kennard briefly worked as a barber, with his father, but abandoned the
profession to discover America during the turn of the twentieth century. In 1900, James
returned to his grandfather’s [James Kennard], home state of Pennsylvania. He lived in
Philadelphia at a boarding house on 528 Rodman Street – and worked as a laborer and
studied to become a mortician.
17
The 1910 U.S. Census records that the “mulatto,”
James Kennard, lived in a rooming house on Lawton Avenue, Ward 17, in St. Louis,

16
The Westerly and Pawcatuck directory, etc. Providence, R.I., etc.: Sampson & Murdock Co, 1909-10,
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100496177?type%5B%5D=all&lookfor%5B%5D=westerly&ft
(accessed May 25, 2017); Westerly [R.I.], A list of persons, corporations, companies, and estates
assessed a town tax and sewer tax,. [Westerly, R.I.] etc.: s.n.1875-1917,
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100075537?type%5B%5D=all&lookfor%5B%5D=westerly&ft=
(accessed on May 25, 2017); Year: 1910; Census Place: Westerly, Washington, Rhode Island; Roll:
T624_1445; Page: 10A; Enumeration District: 0311; FHL microfilm: 1375458.
17
Year: 1900; Census Place: Doylestown, Bucks, Pennsylvania; Roll: 1384; Page: 6B; Enumeration
District: 0014; FHL microfilm: 1241384.
Figure 1.3: Kennard Family Portrait late 1890s. From left to right: Rachel, Anna, Perry, Mabel,
and James Louis Kennard. Photo courtesy of the Kennard Estate.

6

Missouri. He was single, thirty-five years old and employed as a salesman.
18
That
same year, [his future wife] Marie Bryan was listed as single, thirty, a “mulatto,”
unemployed and living on Lee Street, Ward 10, in Charleston, South Carolina, with her
mother [“keeping house”] and father a [“carpenter”].
19
Architect Robert Kennard recalled
stories about his maternal grandfather, Dan Bryan. “He was what they call an
artisan...he carved wood for mantle pieces, very fancy carving, and he was very
successful. Many years later, I visited the house that he'd built for the family in
Charleston. It happened to be on 82 Lee Street. And all the homes in those days, there
was no central heating, so they all had fireplaces, and all the mantles were carved by
my grandfather.”
20
For over one hundred years, the Bryan family also lived as free men
of color in South Carolina. “The family history is that they owned slaves in Charleston.”
21

Although the location of where James L. Kennard and Marie L. Bryan met is uncertain,
they married on June 1, 1910, in St. Louis, Missouri. The couple moved to Westerly,
Rhode Island and had their first child, Anna, then returned to Missouri.
22
On March 22,
1911, James accepted a job as a Pullman Porter in St. Louis. From 1867 to 1969,
Pullman Porters were an elite all African-American male labor force hired to work on the
railroads as porters on the sleeping and dining cars. The Pullman Porter occupation
contributed to the development of the black middle class in America.
23
James
Kennard’s cheerful personality lead to the nickname: “Sunny Jim.”
24
He was the
quintessential example of a Pullman Porter. In 1914, a second child, Marguerite, was
born in St. Louis.
25

18
Year: 1910; Census Place: St Louis Ward 17, Saint Louis City, Missouri; Roll: T624_819; Page: 14A;
Enumeration District: 0269; FHL microfilm: 1374832.
19
Year: 1910; Census Place: Charleston Ward 10, Charleston, South Carolina; Roll: T624_1452; Page:
13A; Enumeration District: 0052; FHL microfilm: 1375465.
20
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, pg. 3.
21
Gail Kennard, e-mail message to author, September 10, 2015.
22
Year: 1880; Census Place: Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina; Roll: 1222; Family History Film:
1255222; Page: 466C; Enumeration District: 074; Kennard, Cal. Super. LA County, 1946 Case No.
D307469.
23
James L. Kennard Employment Card, Records of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Holdings of
the Chicago Historical Society and the Newberry Library; Larry Tye, Rising from The Rails: Pullman
Porters and the Making of the Black Middle Class, (New York, Henry Holt Publishing, 2004), 17,23, 175;
Note: St. Louis was one of several cities that manufactured Pullman Sleeping Cars.
24
Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, p. 6.
25
Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, p. 5.

7

In 1904, the city of St. Louis held the World’s Fair and the Games of the III
Olympiad. It became the fourth most populous city in the nation, after New York City,
Philadelphia, and Chicago. Between 1900 and 1917, St. Louis was a beacon for
African-Americans. The city was an industrial boomtown. World War I ended the flow of
immigrants from Eastern Europe and companies went to the South for a fresh supply of
cheap unskilled labor.
26
There were so many available jobs in the city that there was a
saying among blacks: “If you could not find a job in East St. Louis, you could not find
one anywhere.”
27
On June 17, 1915, James transferred to the Santa Fe Route, which
traveled to downtown Los Angeles. (Figure 1.4) There, James reported to the Pullman
Porter office on Sixth and Spring Street.
28

26
Adam Arenson, The Great Heart of the Republic: St. Louis and the Cultural Civil War, (Cambridge,
Harvard University Press, 2011), 4, 5, 42, 216, 217.
27
Michael Tackett, East St. Louis Shows Signs of Working, Chicago Tribune, August 4, 1991,
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1991-08-04/news/9103250682_1_city-hall-police-officers-american-
cities (accessed July 8, 2015).
28
James L. Kennard Employment Card, Records of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Holdings of
the Chicago Historical Society and the Newberry Library; National Association of Railway Agents, The
Railway Agent and Station Agent: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Interests of Ticket and Freight
Agents and the Traffic Departments of the Railway Service, Volumes 4-5, Arkose Press, 2015.
Figure 1.4: James L. Kennard Employment Card, Records of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
Holdings of the Chicago Historical Society and the Newberry Library. Column entitled Transferred
displays date of 6-17-15, when his employment began in Los Angeles. Photo courtesy of the Newberry
Library.

8

By 1910, the African-American population in Los Angeles had increased
exponentially from one hundred and eighty-eight in 1880 to nine thousand, four hundred
and twenty-four. The Pullman Car employees contributed to most of the growth. “In its
beginnings, the Negro community was a typical Pullman Car colony, made up almost
entirely of railroad employees. With most of the newcomers to Southern California being
Republicans from the East and Middle west. Los Angeles by 1900 had outgrown most
of its early hostility toward Negroes.”
29

The steady migration of African-Americans from the South to St. Louis began to
threaten the white citizenry. Blacks were no longer slaves, but an overwhelming majority
of white people did not consider them to be equal. White Americans debated how to
define the space between slave and free that the African-American should occupy in
society. “The Negro Problem,” became the catchphrase that united poor whites against
the black community throughout the country. In 1917, racial tensions in St. Louis
erupted into the worst race riot in the nation’s history. Over one hundred blacks were
murdered in the streets.
30

Whether it was instinctual, kismet, or James’ frontier spirit, the Kennards [James,
his wife Marie and their two daughters Anna and Marguerite], migrated from St. Louis to
Los Angeles one year before the riot. The Kennards resided on 1582 East 21st Street.
In 1916, a third daughter, Elizabeth, was born in Los Angeles. James and Marie
Kennard registered as [Lincoln] Republicans.
31

29
Karin L. Stanford, African Americans in Los Angeles, (Charleston, Arcadia Publishing, 2010), 7; Los
Angeles Almanac, Historical Census Records Ethnic Groups in Los Angeles County 1850 to 1960,
laalmanac.com. http://www.laalmanac.com/population/po20.php (accessed December 7, 2017); Carey
McWilliams, Southern California: an Island on the Land, Gibbs Smith Publishing, 1973, p. 324.
30
Will Discuss Negro Problem, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Feb 1, 1904: p. 2; Republican Says Negro
Suffrage Is to Blame, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Oct 22, 1906: p. 9; Robert N. Baldwin, State Charities
Meeting Opens at Springfield Today, St. Louis Post – Dispatch; Nov 8, 1914: p. 5BA; Alex Park, The St.
Louis Area Has a Long History of Shameful Racial Violence, Mother Jones, August 18, 2014,
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/08/riot-east-st-louis-ferguson-history-race (accessed July 20,
2015).
31
Year: 1920; Census Place: Los Angeles Assembly District 73, Los Angeles, California; Roll: T625_114,
Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 393, Image: 52; Gail Kennard, e-mail message to author, Nov 17, 2015;
California State Library, Sacramento, California, Great Register of Voters, 1900-1968.

9

Beginning in the middle of the First World War until the 1970s, a silent pilgrimage
took place within our nation’s borders. Historians would call it the Great Migration. Over
six million African-Americans migrated from the South. The majority moved to the North
and only three percent to the West. The Kennards were a part of the first wave of
migrants that traveled west for better opportunities.
32

1920 – 1937: Los Angeles to Monrovia
In 1917, James Kennard’s father, Perry, mother Anna and his two sisters Rachel
and Mabel moved to Los Angeles from Rhode Island. Perry, his wife, and their
daughters rented a house on 1267 East Fifty-First Street – and Perry continued his
trade as a barber.
33
The 1920 Census, taken on January 5, 1920, stated that James
rented a house on 1274 East Forty-Ninth Street where his wife, Marie, and their three
daughters, Anna, Marguerite, and Elizabeth lived. The house was located two blocks
from his parent’s home and one block east of Central Avenue, near the corner of Forty-
Ninth Street and Hooper Avenue.
34

Of the eighty-five residents living on East Forty-Ninth Street, between Central
and Hooper Avenues in 1920, twenty-three were born in California. From that number,
there were six adults and sixteen children. Only nine black residents lived in the
neighborhood, and five of those were in the Kennard household. The other four black
residents were two married, middle-aged couples who owned their homes. The
neighborhood also had a small contingency of Irish, Mexican, Swedish, German, and
Italian immigrants.
35
Twentieth Street Elementary School, near the Kennard house,
“was integrated and mostly Caucasian.”
36
(Figure 1.5)

32
Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns, 2010, (New York, Random House), 8-10.
33
U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995, California: Los Angeles, California, City Directory, 1917, p. 1160;
Year: 1920; Census Place: Los Angeles Assembly District 73, Los Angeles, California; Roll: T625_114;
Pages 2A; Enumeration District: 393: Image 42.
34
Year: 1920; Census Place: Los Angeles Assembly District 73, Los Angeles, California; Roll: T625_114;
Pages 3B; Enumeration District: 393: Image 49.
35
Year: 1920; Census Place: Los Angeles Assembly District 73, Los Angeles, California; Roll: T625_114;
Pages 3AB; Enumeration District: 393: Image 49.
36
Elmo Espree [former student of 20th St Elementary School in the 1920s], Interviewed by Jerome
Robinson, Los Angeles, California, March 11, 2017.

10

In the early 1900s, the black community migrated to an area near Central
Avenue that expanded south along the Central Avenue Street Car line, which ran north
and south. This area was known as Central Avenue. Its boundaries were Washington
Boulevard on the north, Vernon Avenue on the south, Central Avenue on the east and
one block east of Flower Street on the west [now the Harbor Freeway]. Since blacks
found it difficult to settle in other parts of the city, due to restrictive covenants and
discrimination, this area became the port of entry for most blacks, and the center of
black life in Los Angeles. By the late 1940s, as more blacks settled in the area, whites
moved further west of Central Avenue.
37

37
Bette Yarbrough Cox, Central Avenue: Its Rise and Fall, 1890-1955: Including the Musical Renaissance
of Black LA, (Los Angeles, BEEM Publications, 1996),3,8, 88; South Central Los Angeles Community
Plan, http://cityplanning.lacity.org/complan/pdf/sclcptxt.pdf (accessed August 17, 2015); Los Angeles
Times, Historic South Central, Maps.latimes.com,
http://maps.latimes.com/neighborhoods/neighborhood/historic-south-central/ (accessed December 7,
2017).
Figure 1.5: Group of boys at Twentieth Street Elementary School pose for a class picture circa 1921.
Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Public Library/Shades of L.A.: African American Community Collection;
image 00001959. (http://jpg1.lapl.org/00001/00001959.jpg].

11

Between October 1
st
and December 28
th
of 1917, James requested a leave of
absence from the Pullman Company. On June 23, 1918, the company “terminated” his
employment. The explanation on his employee record listed a “health” issue and noted
that James “sought other employment.”
38
He was gradually losing his hearing and could
no longer function as a porter. With this disability, James initially obtained a job at the
Broadway Department Store in downtown Los Angeles on the corner of Broadway and
4
th
Street. He left that job for a position as a general clerk in a wholesale bakery, then
found work as a laundry truck driver. He finally acquiesced and accepted employment
as a janitor. His work ethic and optimistic attitude helped him retain steady janitorial
work, with the Los Angeles Unified School District and Los Angeles City Hall.
39

On September 18, 1920, at three a.m., the future master architect, Robert
Delsarte Kennard was born in Los Angeles County Hospital [now LAC+USC Medical
Center]. The birth certificate does not have a designated space to record weight or
height. However, it does document that his mother, Marie, gave birth to five children and
only four were born alive. Under the section entitled “Color or Race,” the hospital clerk
listed his mother and father as “Caucasian.”
40

When Robert Delsarte Kennard was four years old, his father changed his middle
name to Alexander. “My birth name was Robert Delsarte Kennard. Delsarte was my
grandmother's [Anna] maiden name on my father's side. But when I was about four
years old, my father changed my name to Robert Alexander. Because he had made a
pact with one of his dear friends, whose name was Robert Louis Alexander when they
were kids that if they had a boy, they would name it after each other. Robert Alexander
never had any children.”
41

38
James L. Kennard Employment Card, Records of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Holdings of
the Chicago Historical Society and the Newberry Library.
39
Ibid; Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA
Library, University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, pp. 6,144; Year: 1920; Census Place: Los Angeles
Assembly District 73, Los Angeles, California; Roll: T625_114; Pages 3B; Enumeration District: 393:
Image 49.
40
Birth Certificate for Robert Delsarte Kennard, September 18, 1920, California State Board of Health.
Certified copy in possession of author.
41
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 2.

12

In 1924, James Kennard and his family moved to 533 East Walnut Avenue in
Monrovia, California. [Three years after his mother, Anna, died in 1921.]
42
Monrovia is
twenty-five miles from Los Angeles, located in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains
within the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles County. Incorporated in 1887, Monrovia is
the fourth oldest incorporated city in Los Angeles County -- after Los Angeles, Santa
Monica, and Pasadena. When the Kennards arrived, Monrovia was a sparse community
of five thousand four hundred and eighty inhabitants, with acres of orange groves.
James Kennard purchased a half acre of land and raised oranges.
43

When the Kennard’s moved back to Los Angeles in the 1950s, Mattie Diaz’s
father acquired the property on 533 East Walnut Avenue. Mattie remembered when the
lot was filled with orange and fruit trees:

We were the next owners after the original [ones]. Put it that way. Cause
when they sold it, my dad was buying it. As we moved in, they moved out
and left. And we moved in. They had [on the property] orange trees. The
yard had pomegranate, grapefruit, fig, and orange [trees]. It was the whole
front yard, and the trees went down one side and then there were fruit trees
on the other side. And we use to play around the trees and then later [her
father] had it opened up and a driveway put in, but back then there wasn’t
any [driveways]. He [Diaz’s father] said the Kennards offered him the other
three [lots], but he couldn’t afford to get it. So, he just bought that one
property. Since then me and my kids, we all talk and say you should of
bought all that. You know, because in later years, I was in real estate for
almost twenty years and now I can see the potential. But that’s gone now.
But, that was all [the money] my dad had.
44
(Figure 1.6)

42
Year: 1930; Census Place: Monrovia, Los Angeles, California; Roll: 167; Page: 10B; Enumeration
District: 1163; Image: 169.0; FHL. Microfilm; Gail Kennard, e-mail message to author, Nov 17, 2015.
43
Monrovia California, http://www.cityofmonrovia.org/ (accessed July 12, 2015); Annual Estimates of the
Resident Population for Incorporated Places: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2014,
http://www.census.gov/popest/data/cities/totals/2014/SUB-EST2014.html (accessed July 12, 2015);
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 4.
44
Mattie Diaz, [former resident of 533 East Walnut Street], Interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Monrovia,
California, April 9, 2017.

13

Figure 1.6: Red Dots surround acre of land bought by James Kennard in 1924. Map depicts property
circa 1927. Monrovia, California. [map] Scale not given. Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, 1867-1970 –
California, Los Angeles Public Library Digital Sanborn Maps,
http://sanborn.umi.com.ezproxy.lapl.org/image/view?state=ca&reelid=reel36&lcid=694&imagename=000
82&mapname=Monrovia%20Apr.%201927,%20Sheet%2034&CCSI=91n (accessed April 12, 2017).

14

When Mattie’s family moved onto the property, her father demolished the existing
house. Then relocated a house, set for demolition to make way for the 210 Freeway,
onto the Walnut property. (Figure 1.7)

Figure 1.7: Three houses placed or constructed on the Kennard lot in Monrovia. Clockwise, upper left:
House moved from the 210 Freeway demolition area. It replaced the original 533 East Walnut home. Upper
right and lower left are houses built on the Kennard orange tree orchard. Lower right photo is a perspective
of the property length. Property line begins five yards to the left of the three tall juniper trees and five yards
beyond the white car on the far right. Photo by author.

15

Mattie remembered the original Kennard house:

It was a wood frame house, two stories. When you walked in you had the
living room. You went over to your right, and it was a big huge kitchen, with
a walk-in pantry. Okay, the stairs came down into the kitchen. When you
went upstairs, it was a bedroom at the top of the stairs, then you walked
through that bedroom, and it was another bedroom. Downstairs like I say
there was a kitchen, a rear closed in porch [and] one bathroom to the side.
And on the other side, there was like a little [closet]. But it was big enough
to kind of use as a bedroom.
45
(Figure 1.8)

45
Mattie Diaz, [former resident of 533 East Walnut Street], Interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Monrovia,
California, April 9, 2017.
Figure 1.8: Diagram: 533 East Walnut Ave, original interior diagram by architect
Alexander Krylov. Commissioned by the author.

16

Mattie Diaz recalls seeing James and Marie Kennard:

I saw them [Kennards], but I was a kid. I was only five. I saw them. And to
be honest with you, I thought they were white. [laughter] He [James] had
light blue eyes. As a kid, I thought that. You know I was looking at him and
saying these are white people. [laughter]. My mom and dad, they actually
walked in and met them and everything. My dad would say, they ain’t
nothing but some ole’ white folks. But we do say that about people who are
mixed. I have some family members who are mixed.
46

The four-year-old Robert quickly learned that Monrovia had its racial boundaries.
Ten percent of the population was black, another ten percent Latino and five percent
were Asian, which was a relatively high concentration of minorities for a small town.
Walnut Avenue was the dividing line between the white and minority communities.
(Figure 1.9)

46
Mattie Diaz, [former resident of 533 East Walnut Street], Interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Monrovia,
California, April 9, 2017.
Figure 1.9: North Myrtle Avenue Postcard circa 1920s. This neighborhood of Myrtle is north of Walnut
Avenue and prohibited minorities from living in the area. Photo courtesy of The Monrovia Historical Museum
Foundation.

17

The racial demarcation line was down the middle of the street on Walnut. North
of the street was for whites and the south side for minorities. Though some whites lived
on the south side, very few black families lived north of Walnut Avenue. As more blacks
moved to Monrovia, the whites tried to subjugate the blacks, with short songs that
rhymed with the “n-word.” Robert was dumbfounded when the songs targeted him. He
never heard the word before and had to ask his mother for its meaning. Robert
described 1920s Monrovia as “a bunch of children fighting over territory.” Their wars
never went beyond “slingshots” and “rock fights.” A child received his battle scars on the
streets and came off duty when he went home. The white children played racism. They
picked up words and ideas from their parents, but the adults institutionalized racism.
They believed that white racial superiority was an inalienable right.
47

Monrovia was a “very” segregated community. At the Live Oak Cemetery, the
burials were racially segregated. Blacks could not obtain a public library card. Certain
business establishments, north of Myrtle Street, did not serve people of color, and the
community pool had “Colored Days.” Even the Lyric Theater had a segregated balcony.
“In Mississippi, the signs said, No Colored. But in Monrovia, you knew [where not to
go].”
48
Marie and James Kennard were determined that their son would succeed despite
the obstacles.

When Robert started school, he attended the segregated Huntington Drive
Elementary School, with his sisters. Huntington Drive was the school for minority
children. “It was black, Latino, everything, all minorities,” said Kennard.
49
The school
remained segregated until it closed in 1970. The white children attended Wild Rose
Elementary. Though the Kennards were one of the few black families that lived north of
Walnut Avenue and legally in the Wild Rose School District, the school board insisted

47
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, pp. 10,11.
48
Susie Ling, Thinking Aloud a little bit of this, a little bit of that, History of African Americans in Monrovia,
https://susieling.wordpress.com/2015/05/22/history-of-african-americans-in-monrovia/ (accessed July 24,
2015); History of African Americans in Monrovia, Monrovia Patch,
http://patch.com/california/monrovia/history-african-americans-monrovia-0 (accessed July 24, 2015).
49
Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, p. 12.

18

that Robert attend Huntington Drive. The education at Huntington Drive was inferior to
that of Wild Rose. The Kennards and some of the black families that lived on the north
side of Walnut wanted to challenge the school district. Robert’s Huntington Drive
teacher, Mrs. Savage, encouraged the Kennards – the faculty was one hundred
percent white. She could not publicly come out against the board; because, Mrs.
Savage would lose her job. Instead, she advised the Kennards. “Listen, your children
are very smart, and there's no reason they shouldn't be going to a school that probably
has better supplies and everything.”
50
Subsequently, the Kennards set out to perform a
conscious act of civil disobedience. Marie Kennard decided that her son would go to
Wild Rose Elementary School and refused to register him at Huntington Drive. When
Robert Kennard was seven years old, his mother and father sent him to Wild Rose.
Every morning, Robert’s mother would pack him a lunch. Then Robert walked three-
quarters of a mile to Wild Rose Elementary. Every day the school administrators turned
him away, and Robert walked back home. Where he would stay until it was time to start
the routine all over again the next day. This ritual went on for weeks.

Frustrated, in 1927, James Kennard acquired a lawyer to file a lawsuit against
the school district. Before legal action was taken, the school board agreed to a
compromise. Robert could attend Orange Avenue Elementary, but not Wild Rose. The
Kennards accepted. In 1934, a Los Angeles NAACP attorney, Thomas L. Griffith, along
with Monrovia African-American residents Frank and Mary Clark Adams and others,
successfully sued the Monrovia school board to repair the damages, at Huntington
Drive Elementary, left by the 1933 Long Beach Earthquake. It is unknown if the
Kennard’s joined the 1934 action. Facing an inevitable loss, Monrovia agreed to rebuild
Huntington Drive Elementary and prolonged its history of segregation.
51

Wild Rose was an upper-middle-class school; Orange Avenue served the white
middle and lower-class economic populations. Orange Avenue had previously enrolled

50
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 13.
51
Ibid; Smith v. Board of Trustees of the Monrovia School District, Case Number 379793, LA Superior
Court, filed 12 November 1934.

19

one black child because his family had moved into the area decades before the racial
boundaries were strictly enforced. Robert attended and found it awkward being the only
person of color in class. He shared no courses with the other black student. Robert felt
isolated. Fights with his white classmates had escalated. To survive, Robert fought his
way through school physically and mentally. Years later, Robert asked his mother why
she allowed him to go through so much rejection. "Because I wanted you to know the
kind of world you were going to grow up in. You might as well learn now; because, don't
think that you're going to have it that easy."
52
To support their son, his parents,
especially Robert’s mother Marie, never missed an open house. She was very careful
about being there and talking to the teachers. “She understood that teachers are very
responsive to a student if they know that his parents are concerned.”
53
(Figure 1.10)

52
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 14.
53
Henderson, Robert Kennard, p. 15.
Figure 1.10: Orange Avenue [Monroe] Elementary School Administration Building erected circa 1930s.
Monroe Elementary is the oldest school in Monrovia. It was originally called Orange Avenue School,
when Colorado Boulevard was named Orange Avenue, amid the orange groves of Monrovia. In 1937, the
school was renamed to honor the founder of Monrovia, William Monroe. (Many people incorrectly think
the school is named after United States President James Monroe). Photo by the author.

20

The life of James Louis Kennard became a compulsory routine. Every morning
he left for work at five a.m. and returned home late in the evening – a one hour
commute each way. James boarded the Pacific Electric Red Car from Monrovia to Los
Angeles on Olive Avenue, where people of color had to wait for the red car near the
south side of the tracks. Sometimes, father and son rode the streetcar to Central
Avenue and on Sundays “all the way to Venice and Redondo Beach, and we went to
the beach, and all on the red car for a dollar. That's all it cost because not many people
rode on Sunday,” said Kennard.
54
Despite Monrovia’s distance from Los Angeles, there
was “a big connection” between the two black communities:

So, we came into town for our dentistry [Dr. H. Claude] and we came into
town for our doctor [Dr. Gerald Stovall]. That way you made the connection
with the black community in Los Angeles. You got to know them and some
of their children because there was not a whole lot of social life in Monrovia.
I mean, you socialized, you went to parties in Monrovia, but Los Angeles
was where the action was, where a lot of the girls were. [laughter]
55
(Figure
1.11)

54
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, pp. 11-12.
55
Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, p. 11. Note: Dr. Stovall also came to Monrovia and Duarte on
certain days to treat the black community.
Figure 1.11: James and Robert Kennard at a Father and Son banquet in Los Angeles, early 1930s.
Photo courtesy of The Kennard Estate.

21

During the Depression, James needed more work and found employment, in the
evenings, as a custodian for several office buildings:

One of the jobs he had—I never will forget—was in an architect's office
downtown. And sometimes he would take me with him in the evening, and
I'd kind of help him, and I would empty the ashtrays and empty the
wastebaskets and go around with him and help him. By that time, I was
probably eight or nine, ten years old. And I never will forget, I was in this
architectural office, and, you know, years ago everything was done on
yellow tracing papers. And I remember they used to color the yellow trace.
Right on the tracing, they would color it. And then they would mount the
tracing. All blueprinting had to be taken up to the roof, and it was done by
sunlight you know.
56

When Robert entered the integrated Monrovia High School, he discovered his
natural ability for drawing. It became one of his passions. An art teacher, Edna Chess,
subscribed to many books and magazines. When she finished reading them, Edna
would allow Robert to pick from whatever books or magazines that piqued his interest.
What made Robert decide to become an architect was his passion for drawing and the
result of taking a mechanical drafting class. In 1936, Robert was sixteen and had
perfected the art of drawing nuts and bolts. His teacher, Mr. Roy Eller asked, "How
would you like to draw a house?"
57
Then he mentioned Paul Revere Williams and
asked if Robert was familiar with the architect. Robert said no.
58
Afterward, Robert’s
oldest sister, Anna, gave him a brochure on Paul Williams. The architect’s
accomplishments mesmerized him. Robert began drawing houses. He was flattered that
a white teacher equated his ability to draw with a career in architecture. He believed that
Mr. Eller was unique in his willingness to encourage him. Though Monrovia High was
integrated, white teachers often encouraged black students to prepare themselves for
menial work as domestics or cooks. With Mr. Eller’s encouragement, Robert continued
to draw houses and take more art classes. (Figures 1.12)

56
Henderson, Robert Kennard, p. 6.
57
Ibid, p. 20.
58
Note: Robert Kennard’s childhood friend was Elbert Hudson. Elbert would eventually marry Paul
Williams’ oldest daughter, Marilyn. Mr. Williams had two daughters: Marilyn and Norma.

22

Figure 1.12: Monrovia High School teachers: Edna Chess (top left); Roy Eller (top right); Photos Courtesy
of the Monrovia Historical Museum Foundation. Monrovia High School (bottom photo) two story
administration building with prominent arches [center] and tower [left] were built circa 1920s. Photo by the
author.

23

1938 – 1940: Pasadena Junior College | First Job
When Robert graduated from Monrovia High School in 1938, he enrolled at
Pasadena Junior College [now Pasadena City College], one of the few junior colleges
offering courses in architecture. Pasadena was a predominantly white suburb of Los
Angeles. It had “high degrees” of racial segregation due to the “ghettoization” of non-
white minorities. The school district designed policies to keep most schools highly
segregated. Though the racist attitudes of the city spilled over onto its junior college, the
African-American students formed a community within the college environment.
59

Robert’s first architecture professor was William J. Stone. He had very fiery red hair and
was remembered as “very demanding,” and “a tough but very good teacher.”
60
While
teaching at Pasadena Junior College, Mr. Stone was the architect of Altadena,
President of the West Altadena Community Council, and on the State Board of
Architectural Examiners.
61

Pasadena’s program had a strong emphasis on drawing perspective, shades,
and shadows. A significant part of the curriculum was competence in the history of
architecture and contemporary architecture, primarily the Bauhaus moment. Staatliches
Bauhaus, known as Bauhaus, was an art school in Weimar, Germany [north of
Nuremberg and west of Dresden], that combined crafts and the fine arts. The Bauhaus
Design school was famous for creating products that were simple in design and could
be easily mass produced. The school ran from 1919 to 1933. Bauhaus, in German,
means “construction house." Mr. Stone emphasized books on Bauhaus architects
Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
62

59
Kenneth M. Meier, The Community College Mission: History and Theory, 1930—2000, ProQuest, 2008;
Pasadena City College, African American Athletes, http://www.pasadena.edu/about/history/african-
american_history/athlete.cfm (accessed August 4, 2015); JM Beach, Jim Crow Cities in California,
http://www.jmbeach.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/Jim_Crow_Cities_in_California.8473043.pdf
(accessed August 1, 2015).
60
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 22.
61
Architect and Engineer Vol. 1. 1935, (England: Forgotten Books, 2013), 131-2; Pacific Coast
Architecture Database [PCAD]; http://pcad.lib.washington.edu/firm/3099/ (accessed July 29, 2015).
62
John Fleming and Hugh Honour, A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, (New York,
Penguin Books, 1999), 880; Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists, (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 4th
ed., 2009), 64-66; Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Daphne M Hoffmann, The New Vision: Fundamentals of
Bauhaus Design, Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, (New York: Dover Publications, 2010), 4.

24

In 1938, Pasadena Junior College had two first-year black architectural students
enrolled: Robert A. Kennard and Benjamin F. McAdoo. Ben lived with his parents in
Pasadena. The McAdoos came to California in 1899 and settled in Pasadena in 1900
and became a prominent Pasadena family. The McAdoos owned the first grocery store
managed by African-Americans in Pasadena [53 S. Fair Oaks Avenue]. Robert often
visited the McAdoos. After Pasadena Junior College, Benjamin enrolled at the
University of Southern California, then transferred to the University of Washington and
continued his architectural studies. After graduation, Mr. McAdoo became the first
African-American architect to establish a firm in Washington state. During the three
decades of his prolific architectural career, McAdoo designed churches, single and
multi-family dwellings, as well as commercial and institutional works.
63
(Figure 1.13)

63
Mystery Solved, Pasadena PIO, last modified March 24, 2011,
http://pasadenapio.blogspot.com/2011/03/mystery-history-solved_24.html (accessed August 17, 2015);
Ochsner, McAdoo, Benjamin [1920-1981] – HistoryLink.org.
http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=1161 (accessed August 17, 2015);
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 25.
Figure 1.13: Second row, fourth person from the left, Benjamin F. McAdoo Jr. 1940 Pasadena Junior
College Yearbook Photo. Courtesy of the Pasadena City College Archives.

25

Robert also became acquainted with future Brooklyn Dodger, Jackie Robinson,
and his older brother Mack. Both were raised in Pasadena and attended Pasadena
Junior College. Mack, also an accomplished athlete, won the silver medal in the men's
200 meters, at the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics. Mack finished just 0.4 seconds
behind Jesse Owens.
64
Another classmate, who became a friend, was Calvin C. Straub.
He transferred to USC, became a professor in design at the university [1946 to 1961],
and a practicing architect. His works are considered “highly influential in shaping the
iconography of the post-World War II contemporary Southern California style.”
65
(Figure
1.14)

64
Robert Weintraub, Two Lives After Losing to Jesse Owens, New York Times, July 20, 2012,
NYTimes.com. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/21/sports/olympics/after-losing-to-jesse-owens-in-1936-
two-others-took-different-paths.html (accessed September 21, 2015).
65
Buff, Smith and Hensman, Revolvy.com.
https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Buff,%20Smith%20and%20Hensman (accessed May 29,
2017).
Figure 1.14: 1940 Pasadena Junior College Year Book – T-Square Club for students interested in
architecture. Caption under the photo said: “The members are constantly practicing drawing with their
forty-five-degree triangles.” Second row center Professor William Stone (Advisor). Last row second
from right, Calvin C. Straub. Courtesy of the Pasadena City College Archives.

26

After completing an associate arts degree, Pasadena Junior College architectural
students could transfer to the University of Southern California School of Architecture as
a third-year student. USC recognized the curriculum as an appropriate prerequisite for
its five-year program. Because Paul Reeve Williams attended USC, Robert Alexander
Kennard wanted to attend the university -- but could not afford the ten dollar a unit
tuition. Determined to enroll after graduation, Robert decided to get a job and save
towards his education.
66
(Figure 1.15)

66
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, pp. 26, 27.
Figure 1.15: Robert Alexander Kennard 1940 Pasadena Junior College Year
Book Photo. Courtesy of the Kennard Estate.

27

Robert won several awards competing in Pasadena Junior College Architectural
Design competitions. During one contest, Robert won the first and third place prizes.
Benjamin F. McAdoo won the second place prize. Robert was a well-regarded student
with an excellent grade point average. His plan: Work as an architect’s apprentice,
while earning enough money to attend USC. He wrote thirteen letters to various
architectural firms in L.A. and Pasadena. He received thirteen responses. Seven
companies requested an interview. When Robert walked in, and the firms saw that he
was a person of color, they dismissed him and rescinded any offers. Some flatly stated
that they “don’t hire colored people.” In the interim, Robert got menial jobs. After eight
months, he confessed to his mother that maybe going to USC and becoming an
architect was a pipe dream. Then Robert remembered how his mother made him go to
Wild Rose Elementary School every day – until he received a better education. After a
year, Robert learned about a Pasadena architectural firm, in a Spanish-style building,
on the corner of Arroyo Seco Parkway and California Blvd. Robert knocked on the door.
A very tall and handsome architect, named [John] Curtis Chambers [USC School of
Architecture Class of 1925], opened the door:

He was in his shirtsleeves. I think he didn't have anybody working for him
at the time. He did a lot of houses and apartment houses. So, I said, "Do
you think you have anything for me, any work or anything?" So, I showed
him some of my work. And I never will forget—he was a very quiet kind of
guy. He looked a lot like Gary Cooper [a 1930s Hollywood movie star], and
he acted like Cooper. And I never will forget…it's funny how you remember
these things. He rubbed his arm back and forth, and he looked at me, and
he said, "I might be able to have something for you." And, you know, my
whole world was opening up. He said, "What kind of salary?" I said, "I don't
know. Whatever you think is right." So, he said, "How about twenty-dollars
a week, fifty cents an hour?” Shoot! I got excited. Man, I thought I was rich.
[laughter] Twenty dollars a week, fifty cents an hour, when I had been doing
menial work at about twenty and twenty-five cents an hour, you know, raking
leaves. So, I started working for Curtis Chambers. I drove from Monrovia
every day in my little old 1928 Pontiac. This was in 1940. And I learned a
great deal from him.
67

67
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, pp. 28,29; Pacific Coast Architecture Database, 2015
ttp://pcad.lib.washington.edu/building/15655/(accessed July 30, 2015); American Architects Directory
First Edition, R.R. Bowker LLC, 1956.

28

James and Marie had been separated since August 1937. The 1940 Census lists
James Kennard as a sixty-six-year-old “lodger.” (Figure 1.16) Renting a room at 1002
East 42nd Street, in Los Angeles. James lived with the homeowner, Daisy B. Liddell, a
fifty-eight-year-old divorcee, and her thirty-three-year-old son, [spelled] Theadore Harris
[Liddell]. Ms. Liddell worked as a maid and her son [listed as divorced] a porter. James
worked fifty-two weeks a year, as a custodian, and earned a yearly salary of $1,560. [In
1940, the average worker earned $1,368.] His stint as a lodger was brief. Later that
year, James registered to vote and listed his address as 4133 S. San Pedro Street.
68

On March 26, 1946, famed African-American attorney Hugh Macbeth
represented Marie Kennard as the plaintiff in her divorce proceedings against James
Kennard. Her attorney, a native of Charleston, South Carolina [Marie’s birthplace], had
received an appointment, from President Roosevelt, as consul, in Los Angeles, for the

68
Year: 1940, Census Place: Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California; Roll: T627_413, Page: 13A,
Enumeration District: 60-487; U.S. Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census of the United States: 1940
Population, vol. 3; The Labor Force. Occupation, Industry, Employment, and Income Part 1: United States
Summary, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1943, www.census.gov/prod/www/decennial.html, (accessed
May 29, 2017); California State Library, Sacramento, California, Great Register of Voters, 1900-1968,
1940.
Figure 1.16: James Louis Kennard circa 1940s.
Photo courtesy of Kennard Estate.

29

Republic of Libera.
69
To defend him in court, James Kennard hired Charles Matthews
Sr., a former Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney. Mr. Matthews was the first “black” to
serve on the Los Angeles City Police Commission. Marie’s complaint of willful desertion
was not contested.
70

Whatever inspired the young James’ adventuresome spirit, which carried his
family westward and inspired his parents and sisters to follow suit, may never be known.
James Louis Kennard’s dreams, for himself, may have never been fulfilled -- for no
young boy aspires to grow up and become a janitor. Though it is a noble profession, the
occupation is acquired through necessity and not ambition. Maybe his severe hearing
loss made him feel inadequate and caused James to disregard his dreams. Or perhaps,
he came to California knowing that he would have to sacrifice his dreams for his
children’s aspirations. “For almost any migrant, it is almost too late for them to benefit
from the migration they are about to embark on. Whatever limits on education they had,
there was not much that was going to change. Their lives had already been fairly well
established. Any migration involved hope that life would be better for their children.”
71

James Louis Kennard died on February 18, 1954, in Los Angeles. The former
Pullman Porter from Lambertville, New Jersey, with only a fifth-grade education, lived
long enough to see his son graduate from the University of Southern California and
become a practicing architect. In 1957, Robert Kennard opened an architectural
practice that would become the oldest, continuously owned African-American
architectural firm west of the Mississippi River.
72

69
Death Claims Veteran Atty. Hugh Macbeth, Los Angeles Sentinel, Oct. 25, 1956: p 1.
70
Charles Matthews Dies, Los Angeles Sentinel, Jan. 17, 1985: p. 2; Kennard vs. Kennard, Cal. Super.
LA County, 1946 Case No. D307469.
71
Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns, Lecture, Yale, New Haven, CT, January 19, 2011.
YouTube video, 109 minutes, Posted January 21, 2011,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyFUBPAZzqk (accessed June 3, 2015).
72
State of California. California Death Index, 1940-1997, Sacramento, CA, USA: State of California
Department of Health Services, Center for Health Statistics, Date 1954-02-18, James L Kennard; Note:
James Kennard’s father, Perry, died on July 22, 1932, in Los Angeles at the age of 83; California, Death
Index, 1905-1939, California Department of Health and Welfare; Prominent Architect Robert Kennard
Dies, Los Angeles Sentinel, Apr 06, 1995: p. A4.

30

CHAPTER 2

THE COLLEGE YEARS THROUGH THE FIRST FIRM

Achievement has no color.
Abraham Lincoln
1946 – 1949: The University of Southern California | School of Architecture
Armed with the G.I. Bill, First Sergeant Robert Alexander Kennard returned from
World War II and tried to register for the 1946 Fall Semester at the University of
Southern California. Classes were full, and Robert was denied admission.
64
While
walking through campus, he met his former Pasadena Junior College classmate, Calvin
C. Straub.
65
(Figure 2.1)

64
Note: Government benefit enacted to help service members and eligible veterans cover the costs
associated with getting an education or job training. G.I. Bill Overview, Military.com.
http://www.military.com/education/gi-bill/learn-to-use-your-gi-bill.html (accessed June 1, 2017).
65
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 65.

Figure 2.1: Bovard Administration Building and Campus, University of Southern California,1940s. Photo
courtesy of the USC Libraries Special Collections/ USC Campus Life/ Historical Views of the USC
Campus; [http://usclibstore.usc.edu/keyword/DWL433ISLA/].

31

After serving in the Navy, Calvin taught design at the university. When Robert
told Calvin about not being able to register, Calvin took Robert’s predicament directly to
the dean of the School of Architecture, Arthur Banta Gallion. Mr. Gallion served as dean
of Architecture at the University of Southern California from 1945 to 1964. During his
tenure, Gallion founded the Department of Industrial Design, served on the Los Angeles
City Regional Planning Unit, co-authored a book on urban design with Simon Eisner
that "became the standard textbook in the field” and was elected as a Fellow of The
American Institute of Architects [FAIA].
66

Calvin Straub talked Dean Gallion into admitting Robert. However, Dean Gallion
had one condition: Robert must re-take sophomore design, despite his many design
competition wins at Pasadena Junior College. If he made a good grade in the class,
Robert “would move where he should be” next semester. Clayton Baldwin taught the
design class. The professor fashioned the department’s design philosophy “in terms of
the nation, rather than the region.” Professor Baldwin emphasized to his students that
“the glories of the past should be used only as stepping stones. By all means, we
should develop a style truly American, that is alive to the present needs, and not
continue to build tombstones to an age that is dead.”
67

Baldwin joined the staff in 1920 and taught design and architectural history until
his death in 1958. Presently the school awards a memorial scholarship in the
Professor’s honor.
68
Robert received an A in the class. The next semester he registered
as a junior. Maintaining a high grade-point average, throughout his college career,
Robert earned membership into Scarab. A national architecture honor fraternity.
69

(Figure 2.2)

66
Arthur B. Gallion Collection 2012-08, Online Archive of California.
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8542rxd/entire_text/ (accessed May 28, 2017).
67
Deborah Howell-Ardila, Writing our own program: The USC experiment in modern architectural
pedagogy, 1930 to 1960, [M.H.P., University of Southern California, 2010), p 106; American Development
of Architecture Urged, Los Angeles Times, 1 April 1934.
68
Deborah Howell-Ardila, Writing our own program: The USC experiment in modern architectural
pedagogy, 1930 to 1960, [M.H.P., University of Southern California, 2010], p. 133; USC School of
Architecture, Scholarships, https://arch.usc.edu/students/scholarships (accessed June 4, 2017).
69
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 65; Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities,
Volume 9, Part 1920, p. 598.

32

An architecture curriculum started at USC in 1914. In 1919, a Department of
Architecture began, and a separate School of Architecture organized in 1925. In 1930,
the USC College of Architecture became the fifth out of forty-five schools of
architecture, in the United States, to shift from a Beaux-Arts inspired curriculum toward
a “pragmatic, hands-on alternative, grounded in contemporary, site-driven design and
regional identity.” When Gallion became dean, he continued the approach and
expanded “the school’s scope according to the pressing issues of the day: planning,
industrial design, and housing.”
70

70
USC Catalogue, USC School of Architecture,
http://catalogue.usc.edu/content.php?catoid=2&navoid=273 (accessed March 9, 2017); Deborah Howell-
Ardila, Writing our own program: The USC experiment in modern architectural pedagogy, 1930 to 1960,
[M.H.P., University of Southern California, 2010], pp. 8-9.
Figure 2.2: Robert Kennard Second Row, Second from the right. Scarab Founded in 1909. Photo from
USC Libraries. University of Southern California History Collection/El Rodeo Photograph Collection, 1949;
filename uschist-er-1949~0474 [http;//digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15799coll104/id/34450].

33

To educate his students, on the architectural possibilities and juggernauts of a
post-World War II metropolis, Dean Gallion introduced them to a diverse assortment of
lecturers from various professions. One lecturer that had a significant impact on
Kennard’s understanding of the juxtaposition between architecture and social
responsibility was Frank Wilkinson.
71
(Figure 2.3)
Ten years earlier, Frank Wilkinson graduated from the University of California,
Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. While lecturing at USC, he
worked for the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles and as a liaison with
Monsignor [Father] Thomas J. O’Dwyer for the Citizen Housing Council.
72

71
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 66.
72
Dale E. Treleven, Matters of Conscience: Frank Wilkinson, [University of California. Los Angeles,
1997], xv.
Figure 2.3: Frank Wilkinson points out housing plans at his regular job of Director,
Office of Information for the Los Angeles Housing Authority, circa 1952. Photo
courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library/Herald-Examiner Collection; image
00051548, [http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics34/00051548.jpg].

34

Mr. Wilkinson’s impassioned lectures and field trips to some of the most
impoverished areas of Los Angeles helped galvanize Kennard:
On a field trip he [Wilkinson] took us out, and it was true. Just east of
Los Angeles, I mean, within the shadow of the city hall…people were
living in a garage with a dirt floor, and I mean there were like ten or
twelve people living in that garage, families…I said, [to Wilkinson]
"Well, listen, I'm not doing a heck of a lot." My dad [James Kennard]
was an invalid, and I was staying with him. He was in a wheelchair.
But I had the mornings, and I thought, "Well, if you want me to, I'll
just come down there, and I'll work for free." I could type very well.
So I worked for the executive director. The executive director was a
woman named Shirley Adelson Siegel. She was a lawyer, probably
one of the first woman lawyers I'd ever met. Just a really lovely
woman. Just bright, very attractive. And I worked for her. Of course,
I'd type letters for her. I was kind of her secretary, you know, just
doing everything, filing, and all that stuff…. So all summer long, every
morning, I'd go down there, and I'd type for a half a day, and I'd work
on odd jobs the rest of the day.
73
(Figure 2.4)

73
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 67.
Figure 2.4: Photo of an old streetcar that was converted into a house. The family who lived in this
streetcar was moved to Ramona Gardens [a public housing development in the Boyle Heights
neighborhood of Los Angeles]. Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library/Housing Authority
Collection; image 00033520 [http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics28/00033520.jpg].

35

Between 1947 and 1950, attorney, Shirley Adelson Siegel, lived in Los Angeles
as a housing rights advocate. Returning to New York, her activism continued over many
decades. She became the first head of New York State’s Civil Rights Bureau and
served as the state’s solicitor general. In a 2015 recorded telephone interview, the
ninety-seven-year-old Siegel remembered having a “young man” help her in the office.
74

In the spring of 1949, Robert Kennard graduated from USC, with a Bachelor of Arts in
Architecture:
When I graduated, I went out to look for a job. I had met Helen King about
a year before. We were engaged in May of '49. So, when I got out, I wanted
to get a job, because I wanted to get married, and I couldn't get married if I
didn't have a job, right? Helen had graduated from the University of
California at Berkeley. She had a degree in social work, and she was
working with Aid to Dependent Children [ADC] for the county of Los
Angeles. So, she had a job, but I needed a job, too. So, I made a list of ten
architects I wanted to work for.
75
(Figure 2.5)

74
Shirley Adelson Siegel, Phone Interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, February 29, 2015.
75
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 67.
Figure 2.5: Left to Right: Commencement program, USC [66th: 1949: Alumni Memorial Park];
USC Libraries. University of Southern California History Collection/Commencement
Programs/ [http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15799coll104/id/249463]; 1949
Kennard Graduation Photo courtesy of USC Libraries. University of Southern California
History Collection/ El Rodeo.
[http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15799coll104/id/34091].

36

1949 – 1951: Robert A. Alexander | Marriage to Helen King
Kennard first applied for a job, with his role model, famed architect, Paul
Williams; but, at the time, he was not hiring. Williams, the first licensed African-
American architect west of the Mississippi River, would later become Kennard’s mentor.
In 1957, Williams became the first African-American to be inducted into the American
Institute of Architects’ College of Fellows, a recognition bestowed upon AIA members
for their “intangible qualities of professional brilliance, loyalty of purpose to the Institute
and service to the Public.” Kennard received the honor in 1986.
76

Although Williams was capable of successful modern design, his reputation was
traditional. Kennard wanted to design contemporary buildings. He wanted to work for
Bauhaus style architects like Richard Neutra, A. Quincy Jones, or Robert Alexander –
architects that had designed Case Study houses.
77
On the top of Kennard’s list was
Richard Neutra. Neutra's firm functioned in the style of a “European atelier.” He took in
apprentices for no pay, to whom the experience of working alongside him was
considered to be a sufficient reward.
78
When Kennard explained that he could not work
for free, because he wanted to get married, Neutra offered him fifty dollars a month.
Kennard considered the offer as unacceptable.
Next, he applied to work for Robert [Bob] Alexander. When Kennard volunteered
at the Citizens Housing Council, Mr. Alexander was its architect. Alexander frequented
the office and befriended Kennard. Without an appointment, Kennard walked into the
architect’s La Brea Avenue office located next to the Baldwin Hills Village
79
:

76
Henderson, Robert Kennard, p. 70; The American Institute of Architects College of Fellows History &
Directory, [2017] Washington, DC, United States, pp. 22, 118,194.
https://issuu.com/aiacollegeoffellows/docs/faia_20directory (accessed October 5, 2017).
77
Note: The Case Study Houses were experiments in American residential architecture sponsored by
Arts & Architecture magazine, which commissioned major architects of the day to design and build
inexpensive and efficient model homes for the United States residential housing boom caused by the end
of World War II. The Case Study House Program. Arts and Architecture Magazine, January 1945.
78
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 68.
79
Note: Presently known as The Village Green and designated a National Historic Landmark in 2001. The
629 units are located on 64 acres and considered an urban forest in Los Angeles; Evelyn De Wolfe, Black
Architect, His Struggle Behind Him, Now Role Model: Kennard's Firm Celebrates 30th Anniversary, Los
Angeles Times, November 15, 1987, p. H1; Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center
for Oral History Research, UCLA Library, University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, pp. 68,69.

37

I just didn't know any better. So, I walked in, and the secretary, whose
name was Mary Carpenter said, "Well, I'm sorry, but we don't have
anything right now, and Mr. Alexander is busy." But it was a very small
office, four or five people. When he heard my name, he [Alexander]
looked around—his door was open—and he said, "Don't pay any
attention to her, Bob [Kennard]. Come on in.” So, he said, "Let me
see your work, la, la, la." So, he said, "Well, we may have something
for you." He said, "Give me a call back in a couple of days." And I
remember almost distinctly it was either a Tuesday or a Wednesday.
So, I think Thursday or Friday I called him back, and he said, "Can
you start on Monday?”
80

On September 4, 1949, Helen King and Robert Kennard married at the Wilfandel
Club House [3425 W Adams Blvd.] in the West Adams district. Co-founded in 1945, by
Paul Williams’ wife Della, the organization is the oldest African-American women’s club
in Los Angeles.
81
The newlyweds lived with Robert Kennard’s mother, Marie, at 3609
Fifth Avenue in Jefferson Park. While the three lived together, Marie registered to vote
as a Democrat, her daughter-in-law Helen, as an Independent and Robert declined to
state his political affiliation on his voter registration form.
82

Before her marriage, Helen [King] Kennard, a native of Tulare, California, a small
town sixty miles north of Bakersfield, resided with her mother, father and four brothers:
Charles; Henry; Leonard and William Earl [who became a Claretian priest]. A fifth son,
Sylvester, died in infancy. Helen’s aunt, Mrs. Zella M. Taylor was an original board
member of the Broadway Savings and Loan. “Founded, in 1946, by a group of civic-
minded people to provide bank services to minorities in the greater Los Angeles area”,
who were being underserved by the existing financial institutions.
83

80
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, pp. 68,69.
81
Note: The Wilfandel club house provided people of all races with a public meeting place in Los Angeles
during the 1950s and presently functions in the same capacity. The Wilfandel house was built in 1922 by
silent film star Ramon Novarro [played role of Ben-Hur in 1927 film version] for his brother. The two-story
6,254 square foot house sits on an 18,335 square foot lot located in the Jefferson Park area,
[http://wilfandelclub.com/wilfandel-house]; Gail Kennard, e-mail message to author, June 5, 2015.
82
Year: 1952, California, Voter Registrations, 1900-1968; Los Angeles, California; Roll 87.
83
Gail Kennard, e-mail message to author, April 2, 2017; Pioneer Business Woman Succumbs, Los
Angeles Sentinel, July 27, 1989, p. C-14; The Crisis: August 1940 Volume 47, No. 9 Whole No. 356, page
264.

38

Helen and two of her brothers received undergraduate degrees from the
University of California at Berkeley. (Figure 2.6) Earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in
Social Work, Helen accepted a job with the Aid to Dependent Children [ADC] for the
county of Los Angeles. In the 1960s, she received a teaching credential from Cal State
University, Los Angeles, and became an elementary school teacher for the Compton
and Los Angeles Unified School districts. Continuing her education, Helen earned a
Masters in Urban Education from CSULA. Unlike the Kennards, Helen’s ancestors were
slaves in Mississippi. The white slave owner was her grandmother's father.
84

84
Gail Kennard, e-mail message to author, September 10, 2015.
Figure 2.6: Newspaper Photo of Helen King 1949. Although
the wedding announced the summer, it was postponed until
the early fall. Photo Courtesy of Los Angeles Sentinel [1934-
2005], May 12, 1949. Betrothal of Helen King Revealed:
Summer Bride, pg. C1.

39

1952 – 1960: Robert Alexander and Richard Neutra | First Firm
Bob Alexander managed a staff that socialized together during and after work.
Alexander and his wife, Jeannie, would regularly go out to dinner, with Robert and
Helen. “It was very much like a family.” Each employee had an opportunity to “contribute
to the design and philosophy of the firm.”
85

In 1949, President Harry S. Truman signed the Federal Housing Act [Title V of
Public Law 81-171]. Among its many provisions, the law provided federal financing for
“slum clearance programs associated with urban renewal projects in American cities”
and offered federal funds to build more than eight hundred and ten thousand public
housing units.
86
Two years later, Robert Alexander wrote a book entitled Rebuilding a
City: A Study of Redevelopment Problems in Los Angeles. It became a roadmap to
potential urban renewal projects. The book recommends Chavez Ravine as “the most
favorable first step in a redevelopment program.” Alexander thought that the ravine’s
three hundred and seventy-two acres was the “only central area [in Los Angeles] which
a new plan could house three times as many people as now live there.”
87

Mayor Fletcher Bowron approved a citywide public housing project, with newly
acquired federal funding secured through the Housing Act. Of the ten thousand
proposed citywide public housing units, three thousand three hundred and fifty units
were planned for Chavez Ravine. The federal government required that architects
collaborate on urban renewal projects. Alexander partnered with Richard Neutra and
received the Chavez Ravine commission.
88

85
Barbara Ellwood, Interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, March 14, 2017; Wesley
H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library, University
of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 71.
86
Housing Act of 1949, Summary of Provisions of the National Housing Act of 1949,
https://bulk.resource.org/gao.gov/81-171/00002FD7.pdf (accessed May 1. 2017).
87
Robert Alexander and Drayton S. Bryant, Rebuilding a City: A Study of Redevelopment Problems in
Los Angeles, (Los Angeles, The Haynes Foundation, 1951), vii; Note: The ravine was a L-shaped
canyon, in the hills northwest of downtown. The community primarily impoverished Mexican American,
relied on farming for income; Note 2: Urban renewal is criticized for discriminating against minorities,
because it resulted in disenfranchised minority communities being destroyed and replaced with more
expensive or non-residential public housing that did not accommodate the original inhabitants.
88
Marlene L. Laskey, Architecture, Planning and Social Responsibility: Robert E. Alexander, Center for
Oral History Research, UCLA Library, University of California, Los Angeles, 1.17. Tape Number: IX, Side
One, October 4, 1986.

40

The commission became known as The Elysian Park Heights project; because
the ravine was partially located in the Elysian Park neighborhood. Robert Kennard
worked directly for Neutra:
I learned so much from him. Very difficult to work for, just almost impossible
to work for, but he was nice to me. But every morning at eight or eight-thirty
he would come in the office, and he would bring schemes and sketches.
The whole site—it would have been just an incredible project because of
the hillside of Chavez Ravine. He designed it in such a way that they had
one bedroom, two bedrooms, three bedrooms, four bedrooms, and five
bedrooms. But there were some buildings that were actually three stories.
So, what I did is he would give me some ideas, and then I'd work them out.
89

(Figure 2.7)

89
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 73.
Figure 2.7: Sketch of Elysian Park Heights project. Image shows the exterior of an Elysian Park Heights
housing project, designed by Neutra and Alexander, which was never built. Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles
Public Library/Herald- Examiner Collection; image 00029059 [http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics19/00029059.jpg].

41

On June 25, 1950, the Korean War began, and within a year Kennard received a
notice to serve in the army.
90
Robert Alexander unsuccessfully tried to obtain a
deferment for Kennard. When his tour of duty concluded, Kennard returned with the
hope of working with Alexander and Neutra. The Elysian Park Heights Housing Project
had been terminated. The new mayor, Norris Poulson elected in 1953, opposed public
housing, claiming that it was "un-American," and support for projects like Elysian Park
Heights faded.
91
Despite the project’s cancellation, Robert Alexander and Richard
Neutra maintained their partnership. Kennard re-applied for a position with the firm, but
Neutra refused to meet his salary requirements. Since both partners had to agree on
employee compensation, Kennard was not offered a job.
92

Robert acquired temporary employment as a draftsman for the Los Angeles City
Department of Parks and Recreation. He eventually obtained permanent employment
and became the first African-American architect hired at the architectural firm of Daniel,
Mann, Johnson, and Mendenhall. The firm is known for its inventive approach to
corporate architecture.
93
In 1954, he became a staff architect at Victor Gruen and
Associates. Mr. Gruen’s firm advocated for architectural designs that prioritized
“pedestrians over cars in urban cores.” Credited with designing the first outdoor mall in
the United States, located in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Gruen, in his later years,
“disavowed shopping mall developments as having bastardized his ideas.”
94

In 1957, Robert Kennard established his architectural firm Kennard Associates.
Located at 5601 W. Washington Blvd, on the corner of Clyde Avenue and Washington.
The office was a one-minute drive from the Kennard home on 1915 S. Curson Avenue.

90
The Korean War began when North Korea, supported by the Soviet Union and China, invaded South
Korea. On June 27, 1950, the US enters the war to stop the spread of communism. On July 27, 1953, an
armistice was signed that ended the war after three years of heavy fighting. More than 36,000 Americans
died in the conflict. Congress did not officially declare it a war therefore it is officially known as The
Korean Conflict.
91
Elina Shatkin, Remembering Dodger Stadium when it was Chavez Ravine. SCPR.org.
https://www.scpr.org/news/2017/10/31/77135/remembering-dodger-stadium-when-it-was-chavez-ravi/
(accessed June 25, 2018).
92
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 93.
93
Henderson, Robert Kennard, pp. 94,95.
94
Malcolm Gladwell. The Terrazzo Jungle. The New Yorker, March 15, 2004, New Yorker.com.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/03/15/the-terrazzo-jungle (accessed February 10, 2016).

42

Robert and his wife Helen, their oldest daughter, Gail, second daughter Lydia, and
youngest son William lived in a 1939 Spanish colonial, five room, one story single family
house that occupied a 50 by 130 square foot lot.
95
(Figure 2.8)

95
LA Department of Building and Safety,
http://ladbsdoc.lacity.org/IDISPublic_Records/idis/ImageMain.aspx?DocIds={0b539c1f-af4a-401d-bbff-
55c1128c4c56} (accessed February 10, 2016). Note: Gail born in 1951; Lydia born in 1954 and William
born in 1957.
Figures 2.8: Counter Clockwise top right. Picture 1: View of Kennard Office 5601 West Washington Blvd from
across the street. Picture 2: View of building from the corner of Washington Blvd and Clyde Ave. Picture 3:
Closer view of the exterior staggered entry way. Picture 4: Kennard house 1915 S. Curson Ave. A one minute
[via car] to the office. The windows have been replaced, and the shingled roof now extends over the patio.
Photos by author.

43

Kennard shared the office expenses with another architect, Edward Richard Lind.
Lind worked for famed mid-century modern architect Rudolph Schindler in the 1930s.
Kennard and Lind were active members of the Unitarian Church [2936 W. 8th St in Los
Angeles], which was “the center of all” liberal activism in the city. Lind and Kennard
leased the space and divided the forty-five dollar a month rent between them. The office
had three small rooms, one big conference room, a restroom, and a little storage space.
During the early part of his career, Kennard concentrated on designing houses
inspired by the mid-century modern movement -- an architectural design that celebrated
the Southern California lifestyle. Mid-century modern became the identifiable
architectural style and moniker for the region. The trademarks of the style are a simple
and straightforward design. The interior and exterior spaces are fused and become a
continuum. An overhanging flat roof connects the interior and exterior spaces. Post and
beam construction techniques remove cumbersome support walls that allow the floor to
ceiling windows to engulf the sun’s rotating light, into the interior’s open floor plan
throughout the day. In mid-century modern architectural design, the form is based
primarily upon its intended function.
Some of Kennard’s exceptional design work includes the Anderson Residence
[446 Redwood Dr. Pasadena; 1959]. A 1,563 square foot, split-level house perched
atop a hillside. The Kelly Residence on 9032 Wonderland Park Avenue in Laurel
Canyon. Built in 1957, the one story, single-family house is nestled in the canyon.
Another design that merits landmark status is the Hardyman Residence [2076 Redcliff
St. in Silverlake; built 1964]. The 1,746 square foot, two-story house rests on a hill. The
second floor cantilevered above the first. The east exterior wall is a massive row of
curved windows facing the Silver Lake reservoir. The west exterior has an overhanging
flat roof that extends above the front porch. A cement entryway cuts the front lawn in
half and stretches to the street. A deliberate garden separates the two-car garage and
the front entryway. An interior terrace divides the living room, dining room, and kitchen.
The single-family house has two bedrooms and bathrooms. (Figures 2.9-2.12)

44

Figure 2.9: Anderson Residence in Pasadena. The two-story house has large plate-glass windows and
multiple viewing decks. Placed on a 6268-sq ft. lot, the residence has 3 bedrooms and bathrooms. Photo
Public Domain.
Figure 2.10: Kelly Residence located on 9032 Wonderland Park Avenue in Beverly Crest. Photo courtesy of
DAMLS and Hathaway Home Services.

45

1961 – 1962: Temple Akiba
When widower Susan Hardyman commissioned Kennard to design her home, Ed
Lind had long moved out of their shared Washington Blvd office space. Although Lind
left his freelancing career to run the office for the early modernist architect, Robert Trask
Cox, Kennard, and his associates were thriving. The associates working with Kennard
consisted of recent 1957 USC School of Architecture graduates Sheldon B. Caris,
Ernest Elwood, and Arthur H. Silvers. Kennard met Silvers when he was a USC student.
After college, Silvers worked for Albert C. Martin and Associates; but “he didn't feel like
he was getting the full respect for his talent, so he joined the firm [Kennard
Associates].”
96
Similar to Kennard, Silvers was politically active. Both performed leading
roles in drafting civil rights legislation and non-violent resistance to protest racial
discrimination. Kennard was president of the West Adams Democratic Club and a
delegate from the California Democratic Council to the Sixty-First Assembly District.
Silvers was chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality [CORE] and officiated a Los
Angeles memorial service for President John F. Kennedy.
97
(Figures 2:13, 2:14)

96
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 125.
97
Photo standalone 4 -- no title, Los Angeles Sentinel, November 25, 1963.
Figure 2.11: Hardyman Residence in Silverlake. East
exterior windows overlook the Silver Lake Reservoir.
Photo courtesy of Michael Locke.
Figure 2.12: Hardyman Residence west exterior
entry way with overhanging flat roof. Photo by
author.

46

Silvers helped Kennard with several designs, including the Hardyman Residence
and Temple Akiba. Kennard received the commission, to construct the synagogue, in
Culver City, through his association, with Irving B. Zeiger, a Temple member. Four
years earlier, Kennard had designed the Zeiger’s residence. In a letter to Kennard’s son
[William], Zeiger conveyed how his father received the Temple Akiba commission:
A few years later I was sitting with Rabbi Herschel Lymon during the
Cuban mission crisis, both of us were wondering what was going to
happen. Almost as an aside, Herschel said Temple Akiba was planning
to build a new structure on the present site and did I know an architect. I
immediately recommended Bob. Herschel was a unique man. He liked
Bob immediately and urged his board to select Bob as the architect to
build the temple. As you know, Bob went on to build Temple Akiba and
subsequently a second temple in the Valley. While I’m not sure of this,
Bob [being an African-American] designing a Jewish Temple may have
been a first in Los Angeles.
98
(Figures 2:15-2:20)

98
Irvin B. Zeiger to William Kennard, Letter dated December 17, 1997.
Figure 2.13: Professor Calvin Straub, third from the left,
with associates Conrad Buff, Donald Hensman and USC
students. Arthur Silvers stands far right. Photo courtesy
of Marchitecthistories.
Figure 2.14: Discussing racial events in
Mississippi at press conference [6-28-64], are
from left, the Rev. Mansfield Collins [All Saints
Community Church], Maureen Murphy [activist],
Arthur Silvers and Rabbi Herschel Lymon
[Temple Akiba]. The clergymen joined in urging
all faiths to pray for the three missing [CORE]
civil rights volunteers in Mississippi. Photo
courtesy of Los Angeles Times Photographic
Archive. Department of Special Collections,
Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.

47

Figure 2.15: Signing the contract. Seated left to right: Robert Kennard,
Rabbi Herschel Lymon, Albert Fordis, President. Standing left to right:
Samuel Moot, Building Co-Chairman; Arthur Frankel Building Chairman.
Photo by The Kennard Estate.

Figure 2.16: Left to Right: Rabbi Lymon and Robert Kennard discuss the
plans. Photo courtesy of the Kennard Estate.

48

Figure 2.17: Rabbi Hershcel Lymon reviewing the Temple Akiba model. From left to right:
Arthur Silvers, Ernest Elwood, Rabbi Lyman, Robert Kennard, and Ray Kimuro, junior office
assistant from Los Angeles Trade Technical College. Photo courtesy of The Kennard Estate.

Figure 2.18: Built in 1962, the Temple’s shape [5249 Sepulveda Blvd in Culver City], is based
on a hexagon. Kennard recommended Albert Wein to create the interior menorah and 24-foot
metallic sculpture placed on the exterior wall. Photo courtesy of The Kennard Estate.

49

The Board’s election of Bob [what his close friends called Kennard] was
remarkable. According to Mr. Zeiger, “My experience in Jewish organizations was one in
which there was always a relative of a board member who was an accountant, an
attorney, an architect or whatever.”
99

Architect and USC Alumnus, Frank Sata, who collaborated with Kennard and
Robert Alexander, on the Carson City Hall and Community Center, understood as to
why Kennard had such a remarkable reputation, and why his clients were so eager to
work with him. Sata remembers Kennard as “extremely diplomatic” and “very politically
appropriate.” “He was so good as a representative if that’s the right word, of human
beings. The quality of the man is more important than the color or whatever we
represent. The clarity, the consistency, the honesty, I can’t pay a higher homage to
someone like Bob.”
100

99
Irvin B. Zeiger to William Kennard, Letter dated December 17, 1997.
100
Frank Sata interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Pasadena, California, March 4, 2017.
Figure 2.19: In 2015, the congregation began renovating the sanctuary. Contractor Ron
Badraun added the protruding windows. The temple donated Albert Wein’s exterior sculpture
to the Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary in Culver City. Photo by author.

50

After the synagogue was complete, Temple Akiba’s board members decided that
Rabbi Herschel Lymon “somehow or other was now inadequate for this grand new
edifice and he was fired.” David Zeiger [Irving’s son], saw the termination as “a very
political move.” “He was too much of an activist. They wanted to bring in more money.”
When the board members fired Rabbi Lymon, the Zeiger family ended their relationship
with Temple Akiba.
101

1963 – 1973: Kennard and Silvers Partnership
Although Kennard garnered many successful projects during and after
completing Temple Akiba, by the end of 1964, the firm had no commissions. Kennard
was not “making any money.” He “could not hold the office together,” and thought that
he was “not going to make it.” By 1965, he released his staff to find employment
elsewhere. Kennard considered giving up his firm and looking for a job. His wife
intervened. Helen said, "Well, I'll tell you what. Why don't you hold on for this year? I'll
go back to work." She got a job at Bell Avenue School in Compton, while Kennard
labored to find a commission.
102
Kennard heard that the Los Angeles Unified School
District [LAUSD] wanted to spend fifteen million dollars to build Southwest Community
College on Imperial Highway in Los Angeles. Kennard had designed many schools for
Daniel, Mann, Johnson, and Mendenhall, and Victor Gruen and Associates. He even
designed Willowbrook Middle School, with Kennard and Associates. The community
wanted to hire black architects, but city building projects looked more favorably at
partnerships: “Art [Silvers] and I formed a partnership, Kennard and Silvers. [It] was '66.
The time could not be more fortuitous. For one thing, Art was an excellent designer.
Both of us were designing, but I said, "Okay, why don't you design and let me get out in
the street and hustle.”
103
Though not awarded the Southwest College project, their
tenacity eventually landed them the commission to design Hyde Park Elementary
School, a six hundred-thousand-dollar job. Kennard became one of the first African-
American architects to receive a commission from the LAUSD and various city building

101
David Zeiger, Interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, March 15, 2017.
102
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 126.
103
Henderson, Robert Kennard, p. 129.

51

projects. The Kennard and Silvers partnership allowed the firm to acquire more
substantial projects including some located in northern California. The firm’s prestige
allowed them to take part in the redesign of Watts after the 1965 riot [which is discussed
in a later chapter]. The firm re-staffed and hired exceptional architects. In 1968,
architect Ronald J. Delahousie and a recent UC Berkeley graduate, Jeffrey M. Gault
joined the firm. Gault joined as a summer intern to work on the Watts redesign.
104

Kennard and Silvers ran a successful business. (Figure 2.20) Both men were
passionate about their designs and realized that being men of color, in a profession
dominated by white males, meant greater scrutiny. When Kennard reached out to a
former colleague at Daniel, Mann, Johnson, and Mendenhall to collaborate, with the
hope of receiving the Southwest College commission, the colleague declined, then
offered advice,” You can't come in here and think you can get a job." He said, "You've
got to crawl before you walk.”
105

104
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 131.
105
Henderson, Robert Kennard, p. 127.
Figure 2.20: Left to right, Robert Kennard, and Arthur
Silvers in their offices [circa 1960’s] on Washington
Blvd. Photo courtesy of The Kennard Estate.

52

Roland Wiley, a successful architect and mentored by Kennard, uniquely
described the dilemma of being a black architect:
I equate a black architect to a black actor. Those are the two hardest
roles or positions to get in Los Angeles. And I have a theory about that.
Architecture and being an actor have a commonality, in that they both
represent immortality. If you do a great role as an actor, you are
immortal – even if you do a bad role. But if you’re in a great role, like
Charlton Heston as Moses, you’re immortal. Just like architecture. If
you design a great building, your genius stands for decades. Centuries.
That’s immortality. And immortality is something that is very precious
and tightly held by the powers that be. The powers that be do not reflect
us [people of color], they are not a reflection of us. They are a reflection
of the white male power structure. So, they hold on to that immortality
very tightly, and they are very selective in whom they choose that are
not of their color.
106

Wherever they traveled, Kennard and Silvers become the de facto
representatives of African-American businessmen and architects. Both men worked
diligently to expand the practice, while simultaneously involving themselves with various
civic groups and organizations that championed anti-discrimination and poverty.
Kennard expanded his civic-minded duties by mentoring and providing jobs to young
architects.
107

Kennard and Silvers were passionate about their work and philanthropies.
Though Kennard could keep a calm demeanor and purposefully compartmentalize the
prejudice associated with being a black man in the 1960s, Silvers could not. “Bob was
very thoughtful, self-effacing, and very self-aware. Art was not a self-aware guy. He did
not spend a lot of time figuring out how other people were going to perceive him. [When]
he saw wrong it didn’t matter who it was, he was going to take it on,” said Frank Sata,
Silvers’ classmate at USC. Art “always had a chip on his shoulder,” though Frank
admits, he might have been accused of the same thing when he was younger. Barbara
Ellwood, the wife of Ernest Ellwood, remembered that “Art Silvers’ kids ended up going

106
Roland Wiley, interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, March 20, 2017.
107
Note: The USC School of Architecture annually awards the Robert and Helen Kennard Memorial
Scholarship.

53

to school with [her] kids at Elysian Heights Elementary school in Echo Park because the
Silvers lived up the street from the school.” She laughed when acknowledging that Art
had “a temper.”
108
However, Barbara witnessed its usefulness when Silvers became
involved, with the Citizens Committee to Save Elysian Park.
109
Summer intern, Jeffrey
Gault, worked directly with Silvers on several projects:
[Art] was a lion. I mean, if…let me try to respond this way, I’ll use
a sports analogy. Bob Kennard was like Phil Jackson [legengary
NBA coach], quite Yoda like, calm thoughtful. Art was Red
Auerbach [legendary NBA coach with a temper]. I mean there was
nothing he wouldn’t say. He was passionate. He was wonderful.
He would get right in my face, and he and I used to go at it. And
we would disagree [like] cats and dogs. We were never
disagreeable. Al was very passionate. Art and I would be in an
argument, and I started throwing pencils on the ceiling. This was
when we would use the old number two. And we’d argue. When
we argued it wasn’t like “Gee Art, I think we ought to do this.” It
was like, “Goddam it Art, that’s not the way we got to figure it out!
How about this?” “Goddam Jeff, you don’t know nothing!” Then
eventually after a couple of shots of scotch, we’d reach a
consensus. He was a lion. He missed his calling in my mind. Some
guys would say Art took offense too easily. And I heard some guys
say, this is some years ago, “Oh Art doesn’t like white people.”
And my response would be, I know you’re taping this, but I’m just
going to say it, “Go fuck yourselves.” You don’t know this guy. I
worked with him. You’re talking about a guy who was 6’4,
domineering, big tough, thoughtful and an argumentative black
guy. And this short dumpy little Jewish guy that had a great
education. And we would go at it and never once would he say,
“You short shit white kid. Don’t talk to me like that!” And I never
used the opposite. We just argued on content. I have not just
wonderful memories of him; I have an extraordinary admiration.
110

After a divorce and a major heart attack, Silvers left the firm. On occasion, he
worked as a free-lance designer. Frank Sata became “reacquainted with Silvers” after
his heart attack. “I went to see him. I hadn’t realized what he had gone through and why
he was such a strong vocal person. Though I did not quite understand his causes at that

108
Barbara Ellwood interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, March 14, 2017.
109
Note: Citizens Committee to Save Elysian Park, organized by Grace E. Simons, in 1965, a group of
Los Angeles citizens successfully prevented the development of a convention center in Elysian Park-- Los
Angeles's first and oldest park. Founded in 1886 and the second largest park at 600 acres.
110
Jeffrey M. Gault interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, April 1, 2017.

54

time, now I can appreciate what he’s done.”
111
Ronald Wiley encountered Silvers at an
architect event in Los Angeles:
I had heard about him for many years; before I finally met him. And
there was an architect’s event, and there he was Art Silvers just
talking. And you can just feel his energy in the room, just talking to
everybody and I guess a lot of people knew him and hadn’t seen
him in a long time. So they were all coming up to him. And I was a
young architect. You know maybe thirty years old or something.
And I finally get to have a one on one with him, and he was telling
me he was an integral partner with Bob Kennard. And I’m like,
cause Bob was like the man you know. He was doing all these
great projects. And I said “Well Art, why aren’t you still in the mix?
Why did you like take off to Arizona?” You know what, he didn’t say
anything, but he opened up his shirt and showed this big ole’ scar
going down the middle of his chest. And he said, “I almost had a
heart attack and died doing this work, I had to get out!” I’ll never
forget that.
112

Jeffrey Gault remembers his last conversation with Silvers after he accepted a
teaching position at California State Polytechnic University, in Pomona:
So [when Silvers] got a divorce, he went to Cal Poly. Now I remember this
because I remember saying this to him. I said, “Why Cal Poly?” He said,
“Well they made me an offer.” [I said] “Art, dude, it’s an okay school, but if
you want to really have an impact, on the profession and on minority
students having opportunities, dude, you got to go to Berkeley. You got to
go to SC.” And I remember him saying, “They are not going to take me.” He
was very very conscious of racism. But I said, “No, I know you say that but
crap, call Charlie Moore [a friend of Gault] up at Yale!” He was the chairman.
He’s a Berkeley guy. He was very highly regarded. [Art never called Charlie
Moore.] I think Arthur thought less of himself than the rest of the world.
113

During Arthur Silvers’ departure, the company’s workload had increased
exponentially. Kennard absorbed Silver’s duties and worked tirelessly to manage the
firm’s creative design and administrative responsibilities. Soon, Kennard would find two
new partners, within the company, to help him manage the firm -- the production
manager and a summer intern.

111
Frank Sata interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Pasadena, California, March 4, 2017.
112
Roland Wiley interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, March 20, 2017.
113
Jeffrey M. Gault interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, April 1, 2017.

55

CHAPTER 3
FROM KENNARD, DELAHOUSIE, AND GAULT TO THE KENNARD DESIGN GROUP
Architecture is a negotiated art, and it’s highly political, and if you want to make
buildings, there is diplomacy required.
Thom Mayne

1974 – 1978: The Formation of Kennard, Delahousie, and Gault
The Kennard and Silvers’ staff increased from ten to thirty-five employees. In
1968, the firm opened up an office in San Francisco. The bay area office hired ten
workers. Arthur traveled back and forth to manage both locations, but work-related
stress and his “personal problems” made the commute intolerable. Robert exchanged
duties, with Silvers, and the firm continued their expansion. Their summer intern, Jeffrey
Gault, became a full-time employee. Jeff handled the planning department, and Ronald
Delahousie ran the production office. While Art Silvers concentrated on design, Bob was
responsible for acquiring new business and marketing. During this period, the company
Figure 3.1: Standing from left to right: Robert Kennard, Ronald J. Delahousie and Jeffrey
M. Gault at their offices on 5601-5605 West Washington Blvd. Photo courtesy of The
Kennard Estate.

56

received work in Washington D.C. and Mexico. However, as Art Silvers’ marriage began
to unravel, he became more depressed and contemplated leaving the firm.
On several occasions, Arthur would announce his departure. These
announcements usually occurred on Friday, and over the weekend Arthur would
reconsider. Finally, Arthur contacted his childhood friend and lawyer, David B. Finkel.
[David became a Santa Monica municipal judge and City Council member.] Finkel
negotiated Silvers’ buyout agreement. The day that Arthur and Robert signed the
contract, in their respective offices on Washington Boulevard, Art became “unglued.” He
realized that he did not want to leave the firm. So, Art sent David Finkel to rescind the
contract. Kennard remembered when David walked into his office and said, “Bob, would
you consider rescinding this and letting Art come back?" Then Kennard remembered
that Dave and Art attended kindergarten together. Dave knew Art better than Kennard
knew him. So Bob turned to Dave and said, "Dave, you know Art. You love Art. I love
Art. I mean, he's fantastic. Would you be his partner?" [Dave did not respond.] Bob
never received an answer. With Arthur’s departure, Ronald Delahousie and Jeff Gault
pressed Kennard to become partners. Kennard said, “I can't run this damned thing by
myself, and if you want a partnership, I will make it so you can buy into it as a partner."
Gradually they bought into the company and Kennard, and Silvers become Kennard,
Delahousie, and Gault in 1974.” The firm incorporated in 1976.
115

Born in Los Angeles, Jeffrey M. Gault graduated from U.C. Berkeley. He
continued his education by earning a master’s in planning, from the Yale School of
Architecture. Upon receiving his degree, Jeff was inundated, with job offers from various
prestigious firms. [i.e., Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill; Daniel, Mann, Johnson &
Mendenhall; and Parson]. However, it was the Kennard and Silvers architectural firm
that impressed him the most. He came across the company through architect Jerry
Pollak. The Pollak and Barsocchini architectural firm had partnered on the Watts
Development Project, with Kennard and Silvers. Though he interviewed, with Pollak and
Barsocchini, he wanted to meet the other firm collaborating on the development project:

115
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, pp. 159, 160.

57

When I first met Bob, in particular, and Art, I just really liked them. The issue
of Bob being a black man that wasn’t even on my list. I mean, all I cared
about is who is this guy, can I learn from him and is he a decent guy. That
was my decision making. The idea of being a drone in a big firm, even
though the normal path would be a drone. If you’re a drone, eventually you
will be promoted. But honestly, it wasn’t like I ever said to myself, [Should I]
take a job working for a black man or should I go find a white guy?” That
wasn’t on my list.
116

When Jeff arrived at work, the office environment resembled the “United
Nations.” “I mean we had some other white guys, we had Latinos. The office kid who
got promoted to a job captain was black. Our accountant, Shirley, Japanese. Stuff like
that didn’t matter,” said Jeff.
117

Jeff viewed Ron Delahousie as “the Rock of Gibraltar” and described himself as
a “wild man.” “He [Ron] would probably say, oh shit, Jeff in those years was like a wild
man. Because there was nothing, he wouldn’t go after. So, if Pan Am had a job and we
knew about it, I’d say screw it let’s go after it. And Ron used to say, well Skidmore is
going after it, and we don’t have a chance against Welton Beckett. And I’d say, I don’t
care. So, he was the voice of reason. When I say the Rock of Gibraltar, he really was.”
Ronald Delahouise was born in Los Angeles and graduated from Dorsey High School.
He attended Los Angeles City College and transferred to USC. For two years he took
design classes. Frank Sata was his classmate. Arthur Silvers was one year ahead of
him. Ron remembers the professors teaching design as being “color blind” to race. They
judged every student on their merits. The university wanted Ron to continue his studies,
but he exhausted his funds and had to support a wife. While taking odd jobs, Ron
independently studied architectural history and enrolled in engineering classes. He
obtained a job, with Hawkins & Lindsey. Jasper Hawkins and Tom Lindsey graduated
from USC in 1955 and were eager to give aspiring architects an opportunity. Ronald
took the exam and became a licensed architect by missing only one question. Ron was
skilled at taking the schematic design and translating it into operational construction
documents. When asked how he met Kennard, Ron described it with no flourishes. “I

116
Jeffrey M. Gault interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, April 1, 2017.
117
Ibid.

58

think I was looking for a job. I don’t know how I contacted him. Anyway, I applied for a
job, and he hired me.”
118

Enacted in 1958, Section 8 of the Small Business Act [15 USC 636], introduced
policy intended to help disenfranchised groups, with improved business opportunities. In
1969, President Richard Nixon signed Executive Order 11458 and established the
Office of Minority Business Enterprise.
119
The order promoted growth by offering
access to federal capital and competitive contracts. Both regulations provided minority-
owned or controlled firms an opportunity to bid on public sector jobs.
120
The most
successful minority firms receiving contracts were those partnered, with mainstream
white architectural firms. The white firms that historically received these non-compete
bids welcomed the collaboration, because it preserved their portfolios on public sector
jobs.
121
To obtain an enhanced presence and compete for more substantial
commissions, Kennard, Delahousie, and Gault moved their offices to 3600 Wilshire
Boulevard near larger, more established Los Angeles firms.
122
Robert Kennard was
instrumental in persuading larger firms to partner with the company. “He had this
wonderful way about him that he could bridge cultures,” said Gault. “You saw that smile
on his face in that photograph [p. 56]. And Bob opened a lot of doors. And on those
jobs, if we thought we didn’t have the horsepower, we’d joint venture. It was only
twenty-five or thirty guys or gals. Not that many gals. So, we partnered up; I’m doing this
from memory, Skidmore [Owings and Merrill], we did a job, I think we partnered up. Of
course, we did [a job] with Albert C. Martin when Al [Albert C. Martin Jr.] was alive. We
[also] did a big master project in Cancun and Puerta Vallarta.”
123
(Figures 3.2-3.4)

118
Ronald J. Delahousie interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, April 3, 2017.
119
Eugene Boyd. Minority Business Development Agency: An Overview of its History and Current Issues
Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, November 9, 2017,
https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R45015.pdf (accessed December 10, 2017); Note: In 1979, the Office of
Minority Business Enterprise was renamed The Minority Business Development Agency.
120
Note: Public Sector aka Public works is a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and
constructed by the government, for recreational, employment, and health and safety used in the greater
community.
121
Daniel Widener, Black Arts West: Culture and Struggle in Postwar Los Angeles, (Durham, Duke
University Press, 2009), 224-226.
122
Note: Distance from Kennard, Delahousie, and Gault offices on Wilshire Blvd from A.C. Martin at 444
S Flower St, 3 miles and Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill at 333 S Grand Ave, 3.4 miles.
123
Jeffrey M. Gault interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, April 1, 2017.

59

Figure 3.2: Plans for Los Tules Resort in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Map courtesy of Los
Angeles Times Photographic Archive. Department of Special Collections, Charles E.
Young Research Library, UCLA.

60

Figure 3.3: Aerial View of the Los Tules Resort in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Photo courtesy
of Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive. Department of Special Collections, Charles E.
Young Research Library, UCLA.
Figure 3.4: Hut at the Los Tules Resort in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive.
Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research
Library, UCLA.

61

1978 – The Formation of Kennard Design Group
Within four and a half years, the Kennard, Delahousie and Gault partnership
dissolved. Delahouse became the first partner to depart. He separated from his wife,
and their pending divorce had Delahousie contemplating bankruptcy. “Ron, the U.S.
government has no word in their dictionary that spells bankruptcy. If you've got a house,
[or] you've got a car, you will pay the tax, so forget it,” said Kennard.
124
Within thirty
days, Kennard bought him out of the partnership. Shortly afterward, Gault left to
pursue a career in real estate development and accepted the position as Executive Vice
President and Director of Real Estate for Home Savings of America. Gault hired
Delahousie as Head of Design and Construction.
125
Then Kennard offered Shirley
Nakamoto-Downs, his administrative secretary a partnership. Shirley managed the
office and was “extremely competent.” She would buyout Gault and replace him as a
partner. After becoming a partner, Shirley experienced marital problems and decided
she could no longer continue. Because several partners departed, due to their failing
marriages, Helen Kennard jokingly told her husband, “You’re the kiss of death.”
126

Though he considered another partnership, Kennard knew he could never
recapture the past. “The best partner was my first one, Art. And even then, because of
his emotional inability to deal with the stress, it turned out that he was not good. But as
far as intellect, willingness to work, integrity, competence, talent, Art was undoubtedly
the most superior of all. Now, all these other people had a lot of things going for them,
but the one that I think I could have made it the most with still would be Art.”
127
In 1978,
Robert Kennard created the Kennard Design Group [KDG], with the dba of KDG
Architecture and Planning.
128


124
Ron Delahousie interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, April 3, 2017; Wesley H.
Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library, University of
California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 162.
125
Jeffrey M. Gault interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, April 1, 2017; Jeffrey M.
Gault, Capital Markets Company Overview of LandCap Partners, Bloomberg.com.
https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=432216&privcapId=43927202
(accessed January 6, 2018).
126
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 164.
127
Henderson, Robert Kennard, p. 155.
128
Gail Kennard e-mail message to author, March 24, 2017.

62

Despite his demanding schedule, Kennard continued to develop his employees’
skills. If they wanted a partnership, Kennard encouraged them to launch their own
firms.
129
A few success stories include architect Ernest P. Howard, who designed the
Venice-Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library.
130
USC graduate James C. Moore III
designed actor Gene Kelly’s house, the Maxine Waters Skill Center, and the Watts
Library.
131
USC graduates Daniel Escudero and Arturo Fribourg of Escudero-Fribourg
Associates started the first architectural firm run by Latinos in Los Angeles.
132
Adolfo
Miralles created the “Hooray for Hollywood” project for the Hollywood and Vine Metro
Station. Miralles Associates specializes in redefining public architecture and space.
133

Mahmoud Gharachedaghi is an AIA Los Angeles Board of Directors member, guest
lecturer and architect that specializes in “an environmentally focused approach to
planning and design.”
134
Drake Dillard served as president of the Southern California
Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects. Dillard’s projects include the
Charles R. Drew Medical Education Building [with Kennard], and many buildings in the
U.S., Middle East, and Africa.
135
Art Director Ward Preston received a 1975 Academy
Award nomination for his art direction of The Towering Inferno. He lost to The Godfather
Part II. Preston wrote the book What an Art Director Does: An Introduction to Motion
Picture Production Design,” listed as suggested reading on the USC Cinema School’s
Introduction to Art Direction class [SCA CTPR 456] Syllabus for the fall of 2017.
136


129
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 165.
130
Grand opening celebration for the new Venice - Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, Venice | LAPL
Landmarks. http://laplhistoricsites.org/venice.php (accessed January 6, 2018).
131
James C. Moore III; Architects' Firm Founder, Los Angeles Times.com,
http://articles.latimes.com/1996-05-25/news/mn-8196_1_james-c-moore-iii (accessed January 6, 2018).
132
Leon Whiteson, Designs on the Future: Through the Legacy Left by Her Father, Gail Kennard Madyun
Hopes to Build a Better L.A. for the Next Generation, Latimes.com http://articles.latimes.com/1996-01-
21/news/ls-26952_1_robert-kennard/2 (accessed January 6, 2018).
133
Hooray for Hollywood, 1999, Artwork | Hooray for Hollywood - LA Metro Home
https://www.metro.net/about/art/artworks/hooray-hollywood/ (accessed July 12, 2018).
134
Lecture for Seminars for Innovative designers for USC Architecture, 599: Special Topics in Building
Science [#11314R], https://web-app.usc.edu/soc/syllabus/20073/11314 (accessed July 12, 2018).
135
Note: Kennard’s Minority Architecture and Planning organization was a precursor of NOMA; Drake
Dillard President, Southern California Chapter of NOMA, Leadership Team, SocalNoma.org,
http://socalnoma.org/leadership/ (accessed July 12, 2018); Henderson, Robert Kennard, p. 179.
136
The 47th Academy Awards, Oscars.org http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1975 (accessed
January 6, 2018); USC Introduction to Art Direction Syllabus, taught by Adjunct Professor: Mimi Gramatky
Fall 2017, Mon. 7pm-10pm Rm.# SCS 108.

63

When architect Paul Williams asked Kennard, whose earlier career became
stagnant, “whether he was still making payroll.” A discouraged Kennard “nodded in the
affirmative.” “Then consider yourself successful,” said Williams.
137
Paul mentored and
encouraged Kennard, which inspired Kennard to mentor and support aspiring minority
architects, as they too maneuvered through the inequities and politics of the profession.
After establishing the Minority Architecture and Planning Organization [the only group of
its kind formed in Los Angeles], Kennard became a founding member of the Southern
California Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects. He participated in
countless projects and organizations for the betterment of his community. A partial list
includes The USC Architectural Guild, Dean’s Council of the Graduate School of
Architecture and Urban Planning at UCLA and an original board member for the Inner
City Cultural Center. In 2016, the ICCC posthumously awarded Kennard for his service.
138
He received the Whitney M. Young Jr. award, in honor of the late civil rights leader.
The award is bestowed upon architects that challenge the architectural profession to
assume its responsibility toward current social issues. For his many notable
contributions to the architectural profession, Kennard received an honorary designation
of “Fellow” from the American Institute of Architects. The honor also recognized him for
“his work with young people and the time and encouragement he has given to those
wishing to explore the field.” When interviewed by the Los Angeles Times, in 1986
regarding his FAIA honor, Kennard said, "Life is a two-way street, and it is very
rewarding to be able to give back a little of what one was fortunate enough to
receive.”
139


137
Evelyn DeWolfe, Black Architect, His Struggle Behind Him, Now Role Model: Kennard's Firm
Celebrates 30th Anniversary, Latimes.com. http://articles.latimes.com/1987-11-15/realestate/re-
20780_1_role-model (accessed January 7, 2018); Laine Waggoner, They call him A dreamer and doer,
Los Angeles Sentinel, February 1, 1968: B12.
138
Tracy Brown, George Takei, and Robert Kennard to be honored at Inner City Cultural Center's
anniversary celebration, Los Angeles Times, Oct 24, 2016. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-
et-cm-george-takei-robert-kennard-iccc-20161024-snap-story.html (accessed December 8, 2018);
Note: At the ICCC’s 50
th
Anniversary, Kennard’s daughter, Gail posthumously accepted the Elaine Gayle-
Kashiki-Josie Dotson Award on his behalf. The ceremony took place at the Nate Holden Performing Arts
Center in Los Angeles, California on November 4, 2016.
139
Evelyn De Wolfe. AIA Honors Five Southland Architects. Los Angeles Times, April 13, 1986.
http://articles.latimes.com/1986-04-13/realestate/re-4685_1_synagogues (accessed August 17, 2018);
Note: “AIA Fellows are recognized as the AIA's highest membership honor for their exceptional work and
contributions to architecture and society. The prestige of FAIA after your name is unparalleled and the
judging is rigorous.”

64

Although, Kennard mentored an innumerable number of students, one of his most
celebrated mentees is architect Roland Wiley. For over thirty years, Wiley has
successfully managed his own company, RAW International:

I would always meet with him [Kennard] to share my frustration about not
being able to get significant commissions. I just couldn’t get a decent
building. A small building. A decent housing project. I just could not get in
any of the private sector markets. And he would encourage me to keep
doing what I was doing and not to give up. To not compromise my integrity.
And I saw that he didn’t, and I saw his success. So, I was willing to just stay
on the track that I chose to stay on based on his encouragement. He
modeled success, and he modeled all the things I’m talking about: integrity,
openness, sharing. He did all of that, and I could see the success that he
had. So, I’m like okay, I’m willing to do that.
140

1975 – 1982: Kennard | Alexander | Sata | The City of Carson

140
Roland Wiley interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, March 20, 2017.
Figure 3.5: From left to right architects Robert Alexander, Robert Kennard, Adolfo Miralles and
Frank Sata. Photo courtesy of the Frank Sata Estate.

65

The newly incorporated city of Carson, California needed a city hall. After
meeting the city council members, Robert Alexander noticed that the members included
two whites, two blacks and a Nisei “a person born in the U.S. whose parents are
Japanese immigrants.” The council was very divided, and the Nisei became the swing
vote. “So, in his wisdom, Alexander asked me [Frank Sata] to join, Kennard and himself
to politically fit in if you will. And it worked one hundred percent.” Sata was Alexander’s
student, while a visiting critic, at USC. “I [Frank] thought he was a big snooty character.
He had this long stick where he had his cigarette at the end. That’s how he carried
himself. And that’s how he got around through school. And it turns out he was a political
power. He was an activist in Los Angeles.” At the age of nine, Los Angeles native and
Japanese-American, Frank Sata, along with his mother and father were sent to an
internment camp during World War II. “I’m named after the president who put me in a
camp [Franklin Delano Roosevelt.]”
141

For Alexander, Kennard was an obvious choice. They had worked together
before, and Kennard had built up a reputation as a competent and congenial architect:
Bob Alexander was extremely impressive and an intellectual. His presence
and how [he] talked. Bob Kennard was just as impressive. His stature. He’s
tall. Handsome. And I’m the shortest guy. But for an Asian, I wasn’t short in
that period. I was just impressed because I didn’t have command of the
language as they did. I didn’t know about all of the things or some of the
things he [Kennard] had to go through as a young man looking for work after
he graduated. But I didn’t know that because I couldn’t see it or sense it.
You see I always sensed a calmness about Bob. I think he radiated that
confidence too. Getting housing work, when everybody’s going after work,
you have to have a presence and a quality. He had those.
142

Alexander created the city hall masterplan. Sata the design, and Kennard, the
schematic design that translated it into operational construction documents. Their
copacetic relationship help add a building to the project. “In fact, the second job [Carson
Community Building], wasn't even a joint venture. We did it, but we [Kennard Design

141
Frank Sata interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, March 4, 2017; Carson To
Break Ground for $3 Million City Hall, Los Angeles Times, January 9, 1975: p. CS3.
142
Frank Sata interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, March 4, 2017.

66

Group], still kept them in the deal. Bob Alexander didn't want to have a liability policy on
it. So rather than have a joint venture, which our insurance didn't like, I was prime, but
we still kept the team together, and we all worked together.”
143
During the end of Robert
Alexander’s career, collaborations were ideal. “On these joint ventures, I [Alexander]
needed no draftsmen. I needed no employees except to simply work with other people
as part of my winding down.”
144
(Figures 3.6-3.8)


143
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 183; Community Center Going Up in Carson, Los Angeles
Times, August 30, 1981: p. SB3.
144
Marlene L. Laskey, Interview of Robert E. Alexander, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1.23. Tape Number: XVI, Side Two May 13, 1987.
Figures 3.6: Photos of Carson City Hall. Top: Exterior courtyard. Bottom: Carson Blvd view of
building. Photos courtesy of author.

67

Figure 3.7: Carson City Hall Interior. Photo courtesy of Kennard Estate.

Figure 3.8: Carson Community Center [across from Carson City Hall] Photo courtesy of Kennard Estate.

68

1974 – 1985: Kennard’s Notable Public Projects
Although the public sector provided more equitable opportunities for minority
architects, with the recessions of the early 1980s and 1990s, minority job loss was
significantly higher in the public sector than their white counterparts in the private
sector. Acquiring business contacts, in a social setting, for private sector projects was
difficult when minority architects are rarely invited or considered.
145
Norma Sklarek, the
first licensed black female architect in America, once expressed that “it takes more than
just knowing what you’re doing in this field. The hardest part is getting assignments for
jobs.” Roland Wiley, the founder of the RAW architectural firm, defined the argument as
African-Americans hesitant to hire minority architects. “Affluent blacks have absorbed
themselves into the white mainstream where they are advised by whites to hire white
architects within the social inner-circles they’ve formed.” Most African-American
architects received much of their work from public sector contracts. Kennard thought
that a vast majority of Black architectural firms get at least two-thirds of their work from
public works, which doesn’t pay really well, but the pay is consistent.” Thus, the
challenge for black architects is to imprint their style into public works projects.
146

Kennard infused his modernist style into every public work assignment. On a joint
venture with architects Harold Williams and Jim Dodd, Kennard designed the Van Nuys
State Office Building and parking structure [1985]. The four-story structure became the
first significant state building, in twenty-five years, constructed in Los Angeles. The
building resembles a modernist interpretation of a Spanish hacienda, with offices that
face onto an open courtyard. To Kennard’s dismay, his vision of encasing a space
frame above the building in glass, to act as a cover for the middle of the building was
never constructed.
147


145
David Cooper, Mary Gable and Algernon Austin, The Public-Sector Jobs Crisis:
Women and African Americans hit hardest by job losses in state and local governments, Economic Policy
Institute, Washington D.C., May 2, 2012, Epi.org. http://www.epi.org/files/2012/bp339-public-sector-jobs-
crisis.pdf (accessed January 13, 2018).
146
Roland Wiley interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, March 20, 2017; Melvin L.
Mitchell, The Crisis of the African-American Architect: Conflicting Cultures of Architecture and (Black)
Power, Bloomington: IUniverse, 2002, pp. 101,175.
147
Lynn O’Shaughnessy, New State Building Dedicated in Van Nuys, Los Angeles Times, February 9,
1985, F7.

69

Figure 3.9: Top photo: Van Nuys State Office Building. Bottom photo: Model of Van Nuys
State Office Building. Photos courtesy of Kennard Estate.

70

Kennard designed the University of California, San Diego Master Site Plan, for
the Thurgood Marshall College, and the construction of eight buildings on the site. More
than a dozen firms throughout the United States submitted proposals, and only eight
firms interviewed before the final selection was announced.
148
(Figures 3.10, 3.11)

148
UC San Diego Press Release, University Archives, RSS 6020, 1973,
https://library.ucsd.edu/dc/object/bb6076415n/_2.pdf (accessed January 13, 2018).
Figure 3.10: UC San Diego – Master Site Plan for Third College [circa the 1970s]. Map courtesy of the
Kennard Estate

71

Kennard is responsible for the construction and design of over seven hundred buildings
and structures. Some of his other noteworthy projects and buildings commissioned for
Watts, after the 1965 riots, are examined in a later chapter and chronicled in the
Appendix.

Figure 3.11: The University of California, San Diego [one of eight buildings designed on the campus
following the Master Site Plan]. Photo courtesy of the Kennard Estate.

72

1995 – Robert Alexander Kennard

On Friday, March 24, 1995, Robert Kennard died of lymphoma at the University
of Southern California Norris Cancer Center.
149
Memorial Services were held at the

149
Robert McG. Thomas Jr., Robert A. Kennard, 74, Is Dead; Architect and Mentor for Blacks, New York
Times, March 30, 1995: D23; Prominent Architect Robert Kennard Dies, Los Angeles Sentinel. April 6,
1995: A-4; Notes: Unlike the collation between smoking and lung cancer, scientists have not
magnanimously defined the causality of lymphoma. Lymphoma develops when cancer attacks the white
blood cells known as lymphocytes. These cells help fight disease in the body and strengthen the immune
system. Since cancer originates in the white blood cells [i.e., lymphocytes], it can metastasize throughout
the body. In 1997, two years after Kennard’s death, a monoclonal antibody was approved by the FDA that
has been successful in treating lymphoma and other blood-related cancers. In 1995, the cancer mortality
rate was 209.9 per 100,000 population. By 2015, the rate decreased to 158.5 per 100,000 population.
Between 1995 and 2015 there were 51.4% fewer deaths per year or a decrease of 24.49%; Deaths by
cancer in the U.S. from 1950 to 2015, The Statistics Portal,
https://www.statista.com/statistics/184566/deaths-by-cancer-in-the-us-since-1950/ (accessed January 15,
2018); Lymphoma, Center for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC.gov.
https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/lymphoma/index.htm (accessed January 15, 2018).
Figure 3.12: Kennard circa 1991. Photo courtesy of the
Kennard Estate.

73

Church of the Hills in Forest Lawn Hollywood. He was seventy-four years old. His wife
Helen died seventeen years later in 2012.
150

As an architect and humanitarian, Kennard left a legacy on the built environment
and the community that reverberates beyond Southern California. His excellent
character and work ethic were transferred and continue to be in effect through his
mentees. “Bob Kennard was the kind of architect that I would like to be. That I aspire to
be. Bob Kennard was an architect who had integrity, an architect who was passionate
about his work and an architect who was involved in the community. Whatever type of
architect you want to call that, that’s the type of architect Bob Kennard was, and that’s
the type of architect I aspire to be,” said Roland Wiley.
151

Though responsible for over seven hundred projects, Kennard’s colleagues
insisted upon including his three children as the centerpiece of his many achievements.
“[Bob] had a bigger commitment to see that his legacy through his children, which is
pretty impressive, was intact,” said Frank Sata.
152
Former partner, Jeffrey M. Gault,
passionately exclaimed, “I mean holy crap! Think about that, all three children [are]
amazing. So that’s a reflection of Helen and Bob. That’s who they were. I haven’t talked
to Gail for a while. I talked to Lydia from time to time and also Billy. So, when you’re
talking to Billy, you’re talking to Bob. That doesn’t happen by accident!”
153

Roland Wiley was taken aback when asked if he had a personal anecdote on Mr.
Kennard:
You know Bob Kennard, to me, is not an anecdote. He is not a funny story.
Bob Kennard is a life. He is a lifestyle. And I’d say a role model. And I say
that very, very seriously. Because of one major thing that we did not talk
about that is so important to me and that’s his children. You can tell a man
by his group, and his children are simply amazing. Gail Kennard took over
the firm and is still running it twenty-five years later or more. And she wasn’t
an architect, but she took over the reins. Her inner strength enabled her to
do that. And Lydia Kennard, my goodness, she is past director of the
Airport. Big time corporate board member and Lydia, by the way, became
my mentor after Bob. We would have breakfast, and I would ask her the

150
Gail Kennard, e-mail message to author, June 5, 2015.
151
Roland Wiley interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, March 20, 2017.
152
Frank Sata interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Pasadena, California, March 4, 2017.
153
Jeffrey M. Gault interview by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, April 1, 2017.

74

same questions I would ask Bob. She is such a sharp lady. Just a good
lady. A good woman and they’re both giving. Very similar. Very giving and
very open like her dad. And I didn’t know, but I went to a lecture by his son.
Bill Kennard was chair of the FCC [Federal Communications Commission].
That’s just amazing, and he’s an attorney and good man, just from the
lecture I went to. So, his children are all just good men and women. That’s
not an accident. That was his ability to balance his business and balance
his family. And that’s what I try to do in my life. That’s the biggest impact
that Bob had on me was how he lived his life and the examples of his life.
The fruits of his labor are just incredible. He just inspired me not to neglect
my children; because you can easily get caught up in architecture and try
to pursue your career and build your company at the expense of your
children – and they don’t know you. But clearly, his children knew him.
154

From the boy, growing up in Monrovia, who persevered to receive a good
education, to the man who started the longest continuously operated African-American
owned architectural firm in Los Angeles. The spirit of Robert Kennard is tangible and
experienced through his many architectural achievements and his family. Like his father
before him, Robert seized upon his opportunities. James Kennard’s only chance in life
may have been to buy a ticket from St. Louis to California. Knowing that geography
alone could not improve his status in life; nevertheless, James was determined that his
children would be highly educated – and Robert Kennard shared his father’s conviction
and bestowed that same determination upon his three children. As author Peter Rose
expressed in his book Americans from Africa: Slavery and Its Aftermath, “That the
Negro American has survived at all is extraordinary – a lesser people might have died
out, as indeed others have.”
155


154
Roland Wiley interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, March 20, 2017.
Notes: Lydia Kennard served as Principal of Airport Property Ventures and was responsible for all LAX
Airport properties. She earned a B.A. from Stanford University, a master’s degree from Massachusetts
Institute of Technology [MIT], and a Harvard Law School Degree. Lydia is a USC Trustee, and President
and Chief Executive Officer of KDG Construction Consulting. Gail Kennard is President of Kennard
Design Group. She serves as Vice President of the City of Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission. A
former journalist for United Press International, Time Magazine, and a journalism adviser for UCLA. Gail
serves on the Board of Advisors for the USC School of Architecture and is a Board Member and former
President of Homeless Health Care Los Angeles. She earned a B.A. in Communications from Stanford
University, and a master’s degree in Journalism from UC Berkeley. William [Bill] Kennard is the former
Chairman and Director of the Federal Communication Commission. He serves as Director at Duke
Energy Corporation, AT&T Inc., and The Ford Motor Company. Currently Bill is co-Founder and non-
Executive Chairman of Velocitas Partners and a Senior Advisor at Grain Management. William graduated
Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University and received his J.D. from Yale Law School.
155
Peter I. Rose, Americans from Africa: Slavery and Its Aftermath, New York: Atherton Press, 1970,
page 389.

75

CHAPTER 4

TWO HOUSES ON WONDERLAND PARK AVENUE

It was just a really comfortable place. And I know this is kind of how it was designed, to
be a place to live in and to be able to breathe without restriction.
David Zeiger

Early Commissioned Houses
This chapter will focus on two of Kennard’s earlier house designs. Both houses
masterfully capture the Southern California architectural aesthetic of indoor/outdoor
living. Nestled in the Hollywood Hills, they are classic modernist asymmetric designs.
Although one is listed on the Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments register, the
Kelly Residence is not listed. (Figure 4.1) The two houses also share the distinction of
having famed architect Garrett Eckbo design the landscapes. Kennard was the only
African-American architect, to design in Eckbo’s Wonderland Park housing cooperative.
In the 1950s, Wonderland Park becomes one of the first affluent integrated
neighborhoods in Los Angeles. However, the housing cooperative that became a
defender of tolerance, progressive politics, and presented Kennard the opportunity to
Figure 4.1: Kelly Residence located at 9032 Wonderland Park Avenue in Laurel Canyon [Suburb of Los
Angeles]. The neighborhood is located east of Coldwater Canyon Drive and borders the city of Beverly Hills
on the east, west, and south. Exterior backyard. Pool added in 1978. Photo courtesy of DAMLS and
Hathaway Home Services.

76

contribute two exemplary houses could not have happened without the courage of
Judge Stanley Mosk.
156

Restrictive Covenants
In 1947, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stanley Mosk became the first judge,
in the nation, to rule against a restrictive real estate covenant that preventing a black
family from moving into a white neighborhood. He called the practice “reprehensible”
and an “un-American” act. A year later, the U.S. Supreme Court concurred that racially-
restrictive housing covenants are unenforceable in court. Though the court confirmed its
decision by evoking the Equal Protection Clause in the Fourteenth Amendment, it would
take another twenty years to add “enforcement procedures” prohibiting “discrimination
concerning the sale, rental and financing of housing based on race, religion, national
origin or sex.”
157

It took tenacity for a young Robert Kennard to aspire to become an architect
during a time when the areas which Kennard looked to design houses, restricted him
from living in their neighborhoods. The determination needed for Kennard to open an
architectural firm, in 1957, with the expectation of designing mid-century modern
homes, to a mostly white clientele was beyond optimistic. It was audacious. Kennard,
shared a similiarty with Paul Williams, they were both stoic battleships, from a fleet not
manufactured in the US anymore. Though Kennard successfully designed many mid-
century modern houses in white neighborhoods, his two design achievements, on
Wonderland Park Avenue, are testaments to the mid-century modern architectural
movement.
Wonderland Park Avenue
Several liberal architects including A. Quincy Jones, Robert Alexander, Pierre
Koening, Philip Kimmelman, Buff & Hensman, and landscape architect Garrett Eckbo

156
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p 177.
157
Los Angeles news in brief, Los Angeles Times, October 24, 1947: A16; Shelley v. Kraemer 334 U.S. 1
[1948]; The Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Fair Housing Act [Public Law 90–284, 82 Stat. 73,
enacted April 11, 1968]; Richard Rothstein, Why Los Angeles is still a segregated city after all these
years, Los Angeles Times, Op-Ed, Aug 20, 2017.

77

developed an integrated housing cooperative. The architects collectively intended to
create a planned community. According to Kennard, “This was going to be an area
which would also be multi-racial. In those days, restrictive covenants were still in, in
most cases. Minorities couldn't buy anywhere. They never could get financing for it, so
in desperation, they all went to an area of Wonderland Park up in the Laurel Canyon
area, and many of them just individually built homes. Garrett Eckbo built a home, and I
did two or three houses up there. One of them was for the Zeigers.”
158

In the 1950s, Wonderland Park Avenue was one of the first planned integrated
neighborhoods in Los Angeles. “The street was created specifically to diversify.” The
residents championed social change and “embraced inclusiveness and were open to
new concepts in design and architecture.” Garrett Eckbo was responsible for
landscaping Wonderland Park Avenue. Eckbo and his architect co-founders had several
rules to keep the area cohesive. No second story houses were allowed, and every lot
“was clear above the house next door.” Robert Kennard became the first African-
American architect to design houses in this exclusive neighborhood and he became one
of the many catalysts for the mid-century modern architectural movement. Kennard’s
first house was located at 9032 Wonderland Park Avenue, in 1957. A year later, his
second house at 8941 Wonderland Park Avenue was constructed. It sits on top of a hill,
and a one-minute drive from the first house.
159

Mr. and Mrs. Berry Kelly
Very little is known about the clients, Mr. and Mrs. Berry Kelly. The only verifiable
facts on record are their application to construct a new building and a photograph of
Mrs. Kelly and Kennard standing in the kitchen during its assembly. While their
Wonderland Place house was under construction, the couple lived at 3029 ½ Westview
Street in Los Angeles, a five-minute drive from Kennard’s architectural firm on
Washington Blvd. The Kelly Residence, at 9032 Wonderland Park Avenue is a 1,747

158
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 177.
159
David Ash, Wonderland Park A Neighborhood Story, http://www.wonderlandparkfilm.com/ (accessed
March 17, 2018).

78

sq. ft. house resting on a 19,146 sq. ft. lot. The original plans had two bedrooms, two
bathrooms, a living room, and kitchen.
160
(Figures 4.2, 4.3)

160
Building Permit #1957LA88376 dated 7-18-1957.
Figure 4.2: Interior Kelly Kitchen. During a conversation, Kennard lights a
cigarette, while Mrs. Kelly looks on as a construction worker, with measuring tape,
walks towards them. Photo courtesy of Kennard Estate.

79

Figure 4.3: Partial Map of Wonderland Park Avenue looking west. Address 9032 is to the southwest of the
8941 house. 8941 sits atop a hill and the driveway, on the far right, flows downhill and onto Wonderland
Park Avenue. Map Courtesy of the Los Angeles County Assessor.

80

The Mid-Century Modern Aesthetic
Mid-century modern architecture is a collection of designs built roughly between
1945 to 1975. The houses share “an emphasis on lifestyle, a way of modern living
centered around family and home.” The style launched “the era of the patio.” The design
creates an integration with nature and encourages its residents to explore the
environment around them. Most scholars agree that the popularity of the style began
with influential publisher John Entenza, of California Arts & Architecture magazine. Mr.
Entenza commissioned The Case Study House Program in 1945. Many prominent
architects including Richard Neutra, A. Quincy Jones, and Pierre Koenig set out to
design and construct “inexpensive and efficient model homes” for the United States
housing “boom” created by the end of World War II. The Kelly House possesses all the
distinctive features that characterize the mid-century modern residential style. A low
pitched flat roof that overhangs. Exposed rafters, angular details, and asymmetrical
profiles. Expansive walls of glass, clean lines and a wide-open floor plan that connects
indoor and outdoor living.
161
(Figures 4.5-4.16)

161
Melissa Allison, Mid-Century Modern: Bringing the Outside In, Zillo Porchlight,
https://www.zillow.com/blog/mid-century-modern/ (accessed March 18,2018); John Entenza,
Announcement: The Case Study House Program, January 1945. artsandarchitecture.com.
http://www.artsandarchitecture.com/case.houses/pdf01/csh_announcement.pdf (accessed March 18,
2018).
Figure 4.4: Kelly Residence. Exterior Carport and adjacent main entry way to the right. Photo
courtesy of DAMLS and Hathaway Home Services.

81

Figure 4.5: Map of Tract No 15007. Lot 47 is the Kelly Property, 9032 Wonderland Park
[1957]. Next door, to the left is Lot 48, 9038 Wonderland Park Ave. known as Case Study
House #21 [Bailey House] designed by Pierre Koenig in 1958. Map Courtesy of the Los
Angeles County Assessor.

Figure 4.6: Kelly Residence. Exterior exposed eaves, sloping roof, white stucco chimney,
wooden patio deck, stone pathway. Notice Eckbo’s mature landscaping. The pool was
added in 1978. Photo courtesy of DAMLS and Hathaway Home Services.

82

Figure 4.7: Kelly Residence. Exterior, front door.
Photo courtesy of DAMLS and Hathaway Home
Services.
Figure 4.8: Kelly Residence. Exterior, stone
pathway. Photo courtesy of DAMLS and
Hathaway Home Services.
Figure 4.9: Kelly Residence Interior. Gallery style
kitchen south view. Photo courtesy of DAMLS
and Hathaway Home Services.
Figure 4.10: Kelly Residence Interior, Kitchen
north view. Kennard designed all the cabinetry.
The counter-tops and floors have been
remodeled. Photo courtesy of DAMLS and
Hathaway Home Services.

83

Figure 4.11: Kelly Residence. Interior Dinning area with small patio as a partition between another wing of
the house. Photo courtesy of DAMLS and Hathaway Home Services.

Figure 4.12: Kelly Residence. Interior. Living Room with stairs leading to the kitchen. A private nook placed
in front of a wooden paneled wall and the side wall to the left protrudes out enough to separate the room.
The sliding glass doors are interrupted by a wall with two windows positioned above it. Photo courtesy of
DAMLS and Hathaway Home Services.

84

Figure 4.13: Kelly Residence. Interior Living Room facing sliding glass doors. The exposed eaves are clearly
defined and penetrate through to the outside of the house. A wall of sliding glass doors allows natural light to
flow into the interior space and lead to the outdoor patio. Photo courtesy of DAMLS and Hathaway Home
Services.

Figure 4.14: Kelly Residence. Interior Living Room with stairs leading from the dining room to the living
room. Vaulted beam ceiling and a cantilevered concrete and stone fireplace. Wide plank wood walls and
built-in storage display cabinets. Photo courtesy of DAMLS and Hathaway Home Services.

85

Figure 4.15: Kelly Residence. Interior Dining Room from a top the stairs that step-down into the living room.
Photo courtesy of DAMLS and Hathaway Home Services.

Figure 4.16: Kelly Residence. Interior Master Bedroom. The sliding glass door creates immediate access to
the patio and pool. Notice how Eckbo’s landscaping creates a living portrait for the large window. Photo
courtesy of DAMLS and Hathaway Home Services.

86

When designing homes, Kennard considered himself a “Case Study house-type
guy like Bob Alexander, who was doing socially important significant housing.” Kennard
thought that ”If you ever do a house, it's a checklist of every room in the house and what
people do in the room and other questions [like]: Do you have a dog? How many
children do you have? What is their lifestyle? Do they watch television? Do they
entertain much? All those kinds of things. It gives you an idea of how the house fits.”
162

The Zeiger Family
The youngest of three boys, Irving Zeiger, was born on May 4, 1918, in
Cleveland, Ohio. Zeiger grew up during the Great Depression of the 1920s. His parents
were Lithuanian immigrants. His father owned a company that sold chinaware to
restaurants. In 1941, Zeiger’s earned a bachelor’s degree, in economics, from the
University of Michigan. His savings from a newspaper route paid his tuition. In 1943,

162
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 98,99.
Figure 4.17: Irving Zeiger Residence. Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument # 1083 located at 8941
Wonderland Park Avenue in Laurel Canyon. Exterior front yard. Two car garage, left entry door. The site
slopes but the gable goes straight. Photo Courtesy of Google Earth. Source: 8941 Wonderland Park
Avenue, 34 06’55.26” N 118 23’23.24” W. Google Earth. October 25, 2017. March 18, 2018.

87

during World War II, while stationed in California, Zeiger traveled to Los Angeles. At a
poker game, while awaiting his transfer orders to Pearl Harbor, Zeiger, a Navy pilot, met
his future wife. After a thirteen-month deployment overseas, he returned to California
and married Beatrice Blau. Their marriage lasted sixty-three years. “She was beautiful,
smart as hell, had a great build, a sense of humor and seemed interested in me.”
163

(Figure 4.18)

163
David Zeiger interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, March 15, 2017; Irving Zeiger,
How to Succeed in Business by Busting Your Ass: A Memoir with Lessons Learned and Good Advice,
(Los Angeles, Author House, 2007), 22-25.
Figure 4.18: Marriage photo of Beatrice and Irvin Zeiger. Photo courtesy
of the David Zeiger.

88

Mr. Zeiger’s insistence to recommend Robert Kennard as the architect for
Temple Akiba, after he commissioned Kennard to design his new home, was not
happenstance. From his stint as a union organizer, his work with the American Civil
Liberties Union, and benefactor to the Venice Family Clinic, Los Angeles Music Center,
and the Los Angeles Inner City Cultural Center, Zeiger championed the arts and many
liberal causes that helped workers, the disfranchised, and minorities.
164

Not influenced by the political climate of the time, Zeiger employed black-listed
Hollywood screenwriters during the McCarthy era. “My father would hire black-listed TV
guys to work in his very small aircraft parts company [Liberty Electronics]. He would hire
these guys because they could not get work in Hollywood. They became life-long
friends. Most of those friendships had started even before we moved into the house.”
165

Zeiger was more than just a patron of the arts; he doggedly labored for the
inclusion and recognition of groundbreaking musicians forgotten by their peers and the
public. He began an “intensive letter writing, and phone campaign” directed at the
Kennedy Center Honors Committee. Annually, the Kennedy Center honors individuals
that throughout their lifetime made significant contributions to American culture through
the performing arts. When Zeiger discovered that the public could recommend an
honoree, he enlisted the help of prominent friends and influential political leaders. In
1994, after a two-year campaign, folk singer Peter Seeger, blacklisted by Joseph
McCarthy, received the honor. Zeiger learned the news while recuperating from heart
surgery. The following year, in 1995, Zeiger’s advocacy influenced the center to honor
jazz musician and bandleader Benny Carter. Many friends thought Zeiger accomplished
the impossible, but he credited their collective success with hard work. “I learned that
very few appointments are made on the basis of merit alone. Appointments are a
consequence of vigorous campaigning.”
166

164
Note: The Inner City Cultural Center was a minority theater complex, “which developed multicultural
plays and performers.”
165
David Zeiger interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, March 15, 2017; Irving Zeiger,
How to Succeed in Business by Busting Your Ass: A Memoir with Lessons Learned and Good Advice,
Los Angeles: Author House, 2007, pp. 30-31,103.
166
Zeiger, How to Succeed in Business, 101-103; History of the Kennedy Center Honors, Kennedy-
Cener.org. http://www.kennedy-center.org/pages/SpecialEvents/honors (accessed March 23, 2018).

89

Figure 4.19: Zeiger House. Backyard party. Irving Zeiger in
Dodger uniform. His wife Beatrice is on the left. Photo courtesy of
David Zeiger.

Figure 4.20: Zeiger House circa 1990. Irving and
Beatrice Zeiger stand in the Family Room. Irving
dedicated his self-published memoir to his wife Bea:
“Who says war-time romances never last? The secret
is we fell in love and have never fallen out.” Photo
courtesy of David Zeiger.

90

Designing the Zeiger House
By the mid-1950s, Irving Zeiger and his family now included three children, two
girls Leni and Susie and a boy David. A friend and mechanical engineer, J. Marx Ayers,
who helped Zeiger protest the House of Representatives Un-American Activities
Committee, suggested that Robert Kennard design the addition to their home.
167
“We
were in Westchester [7724 Emerson Ave]. It was mostly G.I. built housing. Boxes. And
they lived in that house since my sister was born,” said David Zeiger.
168
After four
meetings, Zeiger recognized that the addition would cost several times more than the
original price of the house. So Zeiger scrapped the renovation plans and set out to find
land to build a new house. Within several months, Zeiger brought a two-acre parcel of
land in the Wonderland Park community, and according to Irving Zeiger, Kennard
worked with his wife Beatrice on the design:
Bob and Bea[trice] set about planning the house. Most times Bob came to
our house in Westchester and spent hours mostly with Bea designing our
new home. After several months Bob came in with a final design. As we
looked at it together, Bob said to Bea, “Do you really like this plan?” Bea

167
Note: House of Representatives Un-American Activities Committee [HUAC] was created in 1938 to
investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens.
168
David Zeiger interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, March 15, 2017.
Figure 4.21: Zeiger lot and preliminary house sketch by Robert Kennard. Photo
courtesy of The Office of Historic Resources, City of Los Angeles.

91

said, “Not really.” Bob said, “Neither do I.” The entire plan was scrapped,
and new plans were begun. I don’t recall how many times Bob was at our
home while every detail of our present house was planned. These were
some wonderful evenings. Bea understood the plans and did not agree to
change anything suggested by the contractor unless it was approved by
Bob.
169

Contractor Fred Vandermeer
Fred Vandermeer, a general contractor, was brought on board to adapt the plans
to the site. (Figure 4.22) Vandermeer immigrated from the Netherlands in 1929 and
developed a reputation as an exceptional contractor. Described as a “lifelong
progressive” Democrat, Vandermeer was a quiet man, who adopted a “quality first
approach” to his projects and readily defended anyone of color from being marginalized.
“A friend in Junior High School used the “N” word at our house one day,” said his son
Jan. “My dad told him never to do that in our home again. “I’ve always assumed his
views originated from growing up in a country where people of color were not
discriminated against.”
170
Vandermeer worked with Frank Lloyd Wright on the Arch
Obloer Gatehouse and Retreat in Malibu.

169
Letter from Irving Zeiger to [William] Bill Kennard, December 17, 1997.
170
Jan Vandermeer e-mail message to Jerome Robinson, March 19, 2017.
Figure 4.22: Fred Vandermeer circa 1950. Photo courtesy of Jan
Vandermeer estate.

92

Structural Engineer Robert Marks
Robert Kennard, in a 1990 interview, refers to Robert Marks as “our structural
engineer.”
171
[In 1964, Marks worked with Kennard on the Hardyman Residence.] Born
and raised in New York, Robert moved to Los Angeles after serving in World War II. In
1951, he earned a degree in Structural Engineering from the University of California at
Berkley. In 1957, he established his practice, Robert Marks & Associates, and worked
with many prominent architects. He received awards for his “excellent use of steel
structure” on the Seattle Center Coliseum [i.e., Key Arena in Seattle, Washington], and
“outstanding esthetic design in structural steel for a unique modernist home in Los
Angeles.”
172

171
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 129.
172
Board of Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, License Search for Professional Engineers and
Land Surveyors and Geologists, bpelsg.ca.gov.
http://www2.dca.ca.gov/pls/wllpub/WLLQRYNA$LCEV2.QueryView?P_LICENSE_NUMBER=757&P_LTE
_ID=737 (accessed March 23, 2018); Robert Marks Obituary - Los Angeles, Ca, Los Angeles Times,
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/latimes/obituary.aspx?pid=184756566 (accessed March 24, 2018).
Figure 4.23: Exterior Hardyman Residence. Photo
courtesy of The Kennard Estate.
Figure 4.24: Hardyman Residence
Interior. Living Room Atrium. Photo
courtesy of The Kennard Estate.

93

Landscape Architect Garrett Eckbo
Famed landscape architect, Garrett Eckbo was hired to organize and shape the
Zeiger’s substantial yard. (Figure 4.25) Kennard recalled after “working with Garrett
Eckbo, who was one of the top landscape architects at the time, I felt that the site is just
an extension of the architecture. I almost became a landscape architect, because I
really feel that the urban design and the siting [are] much more important than the
building. If you go down the Champs-Elysees in Paris or you go to Washington, D.C.,
down the vistas of Washington that L'Enfant designed, the buildings are pretty
nondescript in both cities.”
173
Eckbo, a Harvard educated landscape architect, is
regarded as the father of modern landscape architecture.

173
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 202.
Figure 4.25: Garrett Eckbo circa 1950s. Photo courtesy of
University of California at Berkeley Environment Design Archives.
https://archives.ced.berkeley.edu/collections/eckbo-garrett.

94

Eckbo designed the landscape as an instrument for social change. Eckbo’s book
Landscape for Living became a “manifesto.” “The book not only influenced the
progressive landscape architecture of the era, but it also affirmed its value and
status.”
174
Robert Kennard became familiar with Eckbo while a USC student. In 1946,
the School of Architecture hired Eckbo to create and lead a landscape architecture
program.
175
Kennard and Eckbo’s relationship developed when both architects worked
alongside Richard Neutra and Robert Alexander on the Chavez Ravine housing project.
Eckbo would eventually landscape three houses Kennard designed: The Kelly and
Zeiger houses on Wonderland Park, and Kennard’s private home, in 1960. (Figure 4.26)

174
Robert Riley, Landscape for Living by Garrett Eckbo, Harvard Design Magazine,
http://www.harvarddesignmagazine.org/issues/6/landscape-for-living-by-garrett-eckbo (accessed March
3, 2018); University of California at Berkeley Environment Design Archives. Eckbo_project_index-Final-
print.xls https://archives.ced.berkeley.edu/collections/eckbo-garrett. (accessed March 24, 2017).
175
Deborah Howell-Ardila, Writing our own program: The USC experiment in modern architectural
pedagogy, 1930 to 1960, [M.H.P., University of Southern California, 2010], pp. 106,133.
Figure 4.26: Kennard House. Circa 1970s. The house cantilevers over a hill. Photo courtesy of The
Kennard Estate.

95

Architect Robert Alexander said that Eckbo “was about as patriotic and radical as
I was.” Alexander met Eckbo after he completed The Village Green Housing complex.
“He did all of my landscape work until I got a major project for the air force to design
family housing, and he refused to do any work for any military establishment. I took the
position that it was for the poor bastards and their families who were in it, but he took
the position that it was still for the military and he would have none of it.”
176
In 1950,
Garrett Eckbo surveyed Wonderland Park, a subdivision in Laurel Canyon. (Figure
4.27). By 1956, Eckbo had designed over half of the gardens in the area, including his
garden financed by the Aluminum Company of America as a publicity promotion.
“Aluminum had been used widely during the war years as a component in airplane
manufacturing, but ALCOA was interested in promoting the metal's peacetime use as
well.”
177

176
Marlene L. Laskey, Interview of Robert E. Alexander, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles,1.13. Tape Number: VII, Side One October 3, 1986; Ibid, 1.17 Tape
Number; IX, Side One October 4, 1986.
177
ALCOA Forecast Garden, Los Angeles, CA, 1952-1966, University of California.
https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/28722/bk0000m892r/ (accessed October 23, 2017); Garrett Eckbo
Collection, 1933-1990, UC Berkeley, Environmental Design Archives,
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ark:/28722/bk0000m9f3v/?order=1&brand=oac4 (accessed March 3, 2018).
Figure 4.27: Wonderland Park, Los Angeles, CA 1950. Photo taken by Garrett Eckbo, Landscape
Architect. Photo courtesy of U.C. Berkeley, Environmental Design Archives.
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/ark:/28722/bk0000m9f3v/?order=6.

96

Figure 4.28: Exterior Zeiger backyard circa 1958. Before the landscaped trees and bushes
matured. Notice large bush near house. Photo courtesy of The Kennard Estate.

Figure 4.29: Exterior Zeiger backyard circa 1958. Bush near house is more prominent in the
photo. Photo courtesy of The Kennard Estate.

97

Figure 4.30: Exterior Zeiger Backyard. Present Day. Eckbo landscape matured. Photo courtesy of
The Office of Historic Resources, City of Los Angeles.
Figure 4.31: Exterior Zeiger Landscape in front of house. Present Day. Photo courtesy of The
Office of Historic Resources, City of Los Angeles.

98

The Laurel Canyon Fire
David Zeiger remembered that “It might have taken them a year [to build the
house]; because there was a fire in Laurel Canyon while they were building it. It was a
pretty famous fire. My guess is that it slowed things down.”
178
On July 10, 1959, at
approximately 3:37 pm, the Laurel Canyon Fire started on a hillside across the street
from 8561 Lookout Mountain Avenue. The address was a four-minute drive from the
under-construction Zeiger house on Wonderland Park Avenue. Some reports cite the
incendiary origin of the blaze began when an empty, littered bottle magnified the sun’s
one-hundred-degree rays on to the canyon’s overgrown brush.
179
The fire raged
throughout the canyon and destroyed forty-three homes, charred three hundred acres,
and cost multi-millions in damages.
180
(Figure 4.32)

178
David Zeiger interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, March 15, 2017.
179
Report Laurel Canyon Fire July 10, 1959, Los Angeles Fire Department Historical Archive
http://www.lafire.com/famous_fires/MajorIncident-index.htm (accessed March 11, 2018).
180
43 Homes Lost in Laurel Canyon: 22 Fire Companies Stand Guard to Prevent Flareup From Embers
43 HOMES BURNED IN LAUREL CANYON BLAZE, Los Angeles Times, July 12, 1959: p. 1.
Figure 4.32: “Tongues of flame consume $30,000 [$2,621.838.67 – calculated for 2018 inflation], home at
2600 Laurel Canyon as fire whips through Santa Monica Mountains in one of the worst flaming disasters in
Los Angeles history” – at that time. The fire burned over 300 acres and destroyed over 40 homes in a
residential area that included houses belonging to Hollywood celebrities, such as Steve McQueen, Charles
Coburn, and Alan Bergman. 10-15 m.p.h. winds combined with the summer heat fed the fires that moved
so fast that residents were caught off guard and had only enough time to gather a few belongings before
evacuating their homes, many fleeing on foot. Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Library/Valley Times
Collection. Image 00114956 [http://jpg1.lapl.org/00114/00114956.jpg].

99

The Zeiger House
Building Permit Number LA 10811 allowing the construction of a one-story 65’ x
‘115’ frame and stucco residence at 8941 Wonderland Park Avenue located on Lot 29
of Tract No. 15007 was granted on September 22, 1958.
181
(Figure 4.33) The proposed
3,939 square foot house would consist of four bedrooms, four bathrooms, one-half bath,
a living room, family room, dining area, a kitchen, and a laundry room. The cost of
construction was $35,000.
182
“The site slopes, but the gable goes straight, so it's a very
interesting house. I [Kennard] was involved not only in the house but the site, the
interiors, etc.”
183

181
Los Angeles Building Permit No. LA 10811 date September 22, 1958.
182
Ibid.
183
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 177.
Figure 4.33: Map of Tract No 15007 and Lot 29 [highlighted in yellow] of the Zeiger Property. Map
Courtesy of the Los Angeles County Assessor.

100

Figure 4.34: Zeiger House Sketch by Robert Kennard. Permission of the Kennard Estate.

101

The Zeiger House Exterior
The Zeiger Residence, completed in the fall of 1959, exhibits character-defining
features of mid-century modern house exterior and a Contemporary Custom Ranch
style interior. (Figure 4.35) The exterior has a rectilinear shape, asymmetrical profile,
and minimal ornamentation. [The interior features two brick chimneys and, custom built
wood cabinetry and display cases.] However, the sloped roof and gable-end overhangs
become the device that seamlessly transitions the mid-century modern style exterior to
the Contemporary Custom Ranch style interior.
The house rests on top of the southern terminus of an irregularly shaped 73,380
square foot lot. The main lot connects to Wonderland Park Avenue via a fifteen-foot
wide driveway. The lot sits 150 feet behind several lots and above the street on the
same tract. Garrett Eckbo’s landscaping surrounds the house and creates a type of
forestry privacy wall. Asphalt and gravel cover the gabled roof. Pergolas connected to
the roof line expose patio areas to natural light.

Figure 4.35: Irving Zeiger Residence. Aerial view exterior layout of house east view. Near hill [far right] and
slop of driveway south of the house and adjacent to the tall tree lined road that runs onto Wonderland Park
Ave. Photo Courtesy of Google Earth. Source: 8941 Wonderland Park Avenue. 34 06’55.26” N 118 23’23.24”
W. Google Earth. October 25, 2017, (accessed March 18, 2018).

102

The house layout is comparable to the “plan of some commercial buildings,” a
series of wings extending off the central spine of the house. (Figure 4.36). The southern
wing has the most substantial square footage, with the living room in the south-west and
the family room and carport to the south-east. The two-car carport faces the driveway
and connects to the main body of the house. The northern wings branch out into
bedrooms. The wings further to the northwest were altered and expanded from the
original plan but maintain the integrity of the original design. The low gabled roof has
extended eaves with an open trellis design extending the flat surface of the roof out into
the outdoor area along the northeast corner of the living room. The house has two
chimneys. The first had a rectangular design and located on the west living room wall.
The second chimney, at the north end of the family room, with a single concrete flue,
extends above the roof line.
184

184
Charles J. Fisher, Zeiger House Architectural Description, Los Angeles Department of City Planning
Recommendation Report. Cultural Heritage Commission. Case No. CHC 2014-4411-HCM ENV-2014-
4412-CE. [http://planning.lacity.org/StaffRpt/CHC/2-5-15/chc-2014-4411.pdf] (accessed June 15, 2015).
Figure 4.36: Irving Zeiger Residence. Aerial view looking south. Visible from the roof are a series of
wings extends off the central spine of the main house. Photo Courtesy of Google Earth. Source:
“8941 Wonderland Park Avenue.” 34 06’55.26” N 118 23’23.24” W. Google Earth. October 25, 2017.
(accessed March 18, 2018).

103

Figure 4.37: Zeiger Residence Carport to the right of main entry-way. Photo courtesy of The Office of
Historic Resources, City of Los Angeles.

Figure 4.38: Zeiger Residence Main Entry-way.
Original sculptural art work to the left. Tall, heavy
wooden main entry-way door to the right with floor
to ceiling sky light to the left of the door. Photo
courtesy of The Office of Historic Resources, City
of Los Angeles.

Figure 4.39: Two copper sculptured cranes
enjoy wading in a concrete pool with ocean
blue colored tile. The concrete pool is split by
a decorative metal curtain that extends to an
exterior patio. Kennard designed the art work.
Photo courtesy of The Office of Historic
Resources, City of Los Angeles.

104

Figure 4.40: Exterior Backyard highlights Garrett Eckbo’s landscape design. Photo courtesy of
The Office of Historic Resources, City of Los Angeles.

Figure 4.41: The pool was a part of the original construction and installed in 1959. Photo courtesy
of The Office of Historic Resources, City of Los Angeles.

105

Figure 4.42: View of the pool from the living room windows. The pergola cover extends from the
roof line to the patio. Photo courtesy of The Office of Historic Resources, City of Los Angeles.

Figure 4.43: Each bedroom has clerestory windows, a sliding
glass door secondary entry-way and a patio with over hanging
pergola. Photo courtesy of The Office of Historic Resources, City
of Los Angeles.

106

Zeiger Interior Description
On March 31, 2015, the Zeiger House became the one thousand, and eighty-
third Historic-Cultural Monument designated by the city of Los Angeles. While
appraising the house for distinction, the Los Angeles Department of City Planning
committee found that “the property embodies the distinguishing characteristics of an
architectural type specimen, inherently valuable for a study of a period style or [the]
method of construction as an example of the Contemporary Custom Ranch style.”
185

Though the exterior has a modern asymmetrical design, the interior is undeniably a
Contemporary Custom Ranch style house. The sophisticated interior design evokes a
Donna Reed style of comfort as if being catered to by the perfect, 50s television mom.
The interior has communal areas and areas of isolation. It has areas where natural light
pours in unhindered and spaces that filter the light. Garrett Eckbo’s surrounds the house
with plants and trees. In doing so, he evokes the notion of living in an isolated forest,
with all the comforts of home. The house serves its residents, with dual access to
bedrooms, private patios, and natural light that pours throughout the house through
windows that stretch from floor to ceiling. The various wings of the house also provide
space for small patio areas between them. Interior features include open acoustic
ceilings with their original popcorn texture, spacious rooms, and clerestory windows.
Kennard installed dark wood paneling in the primary entryway, hallways – and dark
wood cabinetry in the master bedroom. An imposing cream-colored concrete brick
fireplace becomes the centerpiece of the living room. While red brick, used for a smaller
fireplace, in the family room, extends to create a wall. Clerestory windows are placed
above the red brick fireplace. Various built-ins, often using lighter wood, are found
throughout the house – including a built-in credenza in the family room and built-in
dresser drawers in the bedrooms. The Zeiger house propels Kennard into the category
of a master architect. As a native son, Kennard deserves consideration in any
discussion or obligatory list mentioning exceptional designers within the Mid-Century
Modern movement, especially within Southern California.

185
Charles J. Fisher, Zeiger House Architectural Description, Los Angeles Department of City Planning
Recommendation Report. Cultural Heritage Commission. Case No. CHC 2014-4411-HCM ENV-2014-
4412-CE. [http://planning.lacity.org/StaffRpt/CHC/2-5-15/chc-2014-4411.pdf] (accessed June 15, 2015).

107

Figure 4.44: Living Room west view. Center cream-colored concrete brick fireplace. Custom bookshelf
on the right and sliding glass door to the left. Sloped roof with an acoustic ceiling [aka popcorn]. Photo
courtesy The Office of Historic Resources, City of Los Angeles.

Figure 4.45: Family Room, Slope roof. Fire place, brick wall, custom cabinetry, floor to ceiling windows
and sliding glass door on the right and clerestory windows [flue chimney visible], above the fireplace
and built-in book case and cabinetry. Painting above chimney is by artist/writer David Shaw. He won a
1991 Pulitzer Prize. Photo courtesy The Office of Historic Resources, City of Los Angeles.

108

Figure 4.46: Living Room east view. Floor to ceiling windows Wood wall partition, with built-in sliding
storage units, separates the large space and creates a small nook. To the far left is the sheet metal
fence dividing the concrete pool located near the entry-way to an interior/exterior patio. On the far right
a table and two chairs are placed in front of a sliding glass door. Photo courtesy of The Office of Historic
Resources, City of Los Angeles.

Figure 4.47: Master bedroom walk in closet. Built in wooden cabinetry. Photo courtesy of Office
of Historic Resources, City of Los Angeles.

109

Figure 4.48: Kitchen south view. Custom wood cabinetry, book shelf and desk. Notice tile ceiling
in kitchen and a wood beam divides the tile from the acoustic “popcorn ceiling.” Photo courtesy
of Office of Historic Resources, City of Los Angeles.

Figure 4.49: Kitchen looking toward the family room circa Early 60s. Notice phone, book nook and
intercom on the kitchen counter. Daughter Leni Zeiger sits on the couch. Photo courtesy of David
Zeiger.

110

David Zeiger’s Memories Of The House
David Zeiger, the only son of Irving and Beatrice Zeiger, recalled when they first
moved into the house. (Figure 4.50) He sat “on the edge of the swimming pool watching
the water go in.” He remembers the house “as a comfortable place.” David described it
as “an easy house to live in.” The living room was the only restricted area. “We always
had dogs. It was the only room the dogs were not allowed. That was my mom’s rule, but
my dad would have let us.” David remembers that “people were always there. This is
where all my friends hung out, and my parents always had people over. They were
always having dinner parties. They had a famous New Year’s Day party every year. My
mom would get all the food from Art’s Deli in the valley for all of their friends and the
whole family. There would be like one hundred people there. People could kind of
wander anywhere they wanted to.” Every new visitor was obligated to receive a house
tour. The house took on the personalities of Irving and Beatrice. “Very open, very
welcoming and very informal,” said David. “There was nothing formal about that house.
Figure 4.50: Zeiger Family circa 1987. Living room. Standing: Irving and Beatrice Sitting Left to
right Susie, David, and Leni. Photo courtesy of David Zeiger.

111

You never felt like you were in a museum or anything like that. It was like; there wasn’t
anything that you couldn’t touch or no place you couldn’t be.”
186

186
David Zeiger interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, March 15, 2017.
Figure 4.51: Zeiger extended family circa 1980’s. Living room. Back row Beatrice is second to
far left. Irving far right and David is next to Irving. Second row Sitting far right is Susie. Leni is
second to right in the orange and white dress. Photo courtesy of David Zeiger.

Figure 4.52: Zeiger Family Party.
Backyard. Bob Kennard sits at a table
with Beatrice. Photo courtesy of David
Zeiger.

Figure 4.53: Zeiger Family Party.
Irving Zeiger stands with Bob
Kennard and his wife Helen. Photo
courtesy of David Zeiger.

112

When asked for memories of the house David smiles and recalls:

I have two sisters. We each had our own room. There was a hallway and,
my sisters’ rooms were on the right, and they shared a bathroom. Since I
was the boy and the youngest, I had my own room, bathroom, and a big
huge shower. Each of our rooms had its own outdoor patio, and in each
room, one wall was a sliding glass door, that we could go in and out. It
became pretty convenient when we were teenagers – especially for one of
my sisters. My middle sister got real involved, this was in the 60’s, and she
got real connected with the music scene on Sunset and in the Canyons.
She would sneak out at night. It would be very easy to sneak out through
her porch. That’s one of the features that I really remember being a
prominent thing growing up. You could do stuff out on the patio. That was
like our own private little world.
187

The Zeiger’s were one of the first families in Laurel Canyon to install a swimming
pool. This predicament made them popular with their neighbors, family members, and
friends. The Zeiger’s enjoyed the company yet still managed to carve enough time for
themselves. Beatrice and her oldest daughter enjoyed sunbathing. They spent hours

187
David Zeiger interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, March 15, 2017.
Figure 4.54: David’s Zeiger’s childhood room. Left David Zeiger’s son, Danny, sits
on a chair. His cousin Tara sit on the bed. Notice the sliding glass window and
outdoor patio.

113

lounging on beach chairs, with tin sun reflectors. “There was a lot of sunlight,” said David.
“But we didn’t have a view. There was no view. Because a lot of places up in the canyon,
the big thing was having a view. There was no view on [8941] Wonderland Park.”
188

Kennard, on the specification of the Zeigers, designed the house for privacy.
(Figure 4.55) “They didn’t want not to see neighbors. Not because they didn’t like them,
but they just wanted that kind of privacy. This was something Bob played a major role
in. The lot was up a driveway and was really tiny. They had to actually dig out a whole
lot of the hillside, to get it big enough to put the house on it. A big part of the
construction is where they used a huge KAT [evacuation equipment] getting the dirt
out.”
189

188
David Zeiger interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, March 15, 2017.
189
Ibid.
Figure 4.55: Zeiger Patio and Pool. Notice the mature trees and bushes of the Eckbo landscape
act as privacy wall. Photo courtesy of David Zeiger.

114

After Irving and Beatrice Zeiger died, their children sold the house. When
confronted with the question as to why David had a two-fold answer:
I will answer your question as to why we sold the house. That house was
mom and dad. It was them. It was their house. Not in a negative way, but in
a very positive way. They embodied it. It embodied them. It made no sense
for any of us to kind of take their place in the house. It was theirs. That was
part of the reason, and that the real soul of the house was my parents. The
other side point as to why we sold the house. My parents were heavily
invested with a guy named Stanley Chais. Who turned out was investing all
their money with Bernie Madoff. And that collapsed literally a month after
my mother died. Dad died first in 2007. My mom died a year and a half later.
And a month after that, all of their money disappeared. So, it became
necessary. We had to sell the house to pay off all of their debts.
190

190
David Zeiger interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, March 15, 2017; Stuart
Pfeifer, Financial advisor Stanley Chais sued in Bernie Madoff scheme, Los Angeles Times.
Articles.latimes.com, http://articles.latimes.com/2009/sep/23/business/fi-chais23 (accessed 3-24-18)
Note: Bernie Madoff was an American stockbroker. He operated the largest Ponzi scheme in world history
and perpetrated the largest financial fraud in U.S. history.
Figure 4.56: Irving and Beatrice Zeiger celebrate their 45
th

Wedding Anniversary, in their backyard. Photo courtesy of
David Zeiger.

115

CHAPTER 5

THE WATTS REDEVELOPMENT PROJECT

In this country, American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.
Toni Morrison

The Watts Riots
191

On Wednesday, August 11, 1965, shortly after 7:00 pm, California Highway
Patrol officers Lee Minikus and Bob Lewis, cited the driver of a 1955 Buick for drunk
driving. The officers pulled the car over near the intersection of 116th St. and Avalon
Blvd in the Watts district. The twenty-one-year-old African-American driver, Marquette
Frye, was accompanied by his brother, twenty-two-year-old Ronald Frye. The officers
insisted on towing the car, and an argument ensued. The confrontation escalated when
the officers refused to allow Ronald to drive the car, registered to their mother, back to
her house. She lived two blocks away. A bystander summoned their mother, Mrs. Rena
Frye, forty-nine, to help resolve the conflict. A crowd quickly gathered, and over two

191
Note: It is also commonly called the Watts Rebellion today, because “riot” is a term that has been used
to de-legitimize the grievances of protestors. Since the Black Lives Matter movement and body cams
have exposed the chronic problem of police violence in minority communities, the resistance to police
violence in Watts and Los Angeles in 1992 are more obvious today.
Figure 5.1: Watts Riots circa 1965. View taken from a helicopter, shows several buildings on fire at the
same time, during the rioting in the Watts area. Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library/Herald-
Examiner Collection; image 00036445 [http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics33/00036445.jpg].

116

hundred African-American residents surrounded the officers. “Tempers were rising. The
day had been hot and the night uncomfortably warm.” During the scuffle, officer Lee
Minikus had his shirt torn off his back. Minikus and Lewis radioed for assistance. Over
twenty city police officers responded. Rocks were thrown at the officers and their
vehicles when Marquette Frye, his brother, and their mother were arrested and placed
into a patrol car. As the police car sped away, the crowd became restless. Bricks and
bottles were thrown at passing vehicles. In the chaos, false rumors circulated that the
police had injured Marquette’s mother and kicked a pregnant woman. Overnight, the
violence spread throughout an eight-block radius in Watts. In six days, from August 11
th

to the 16
th
, ten thousand adults participated, resulting in forty million dollars of property
damage. Thirty-four died, one thousand and thirty-two were injured, and three thousand
four hundred and thirty-eight people were arrested. It took sixteen thousand law
enforcement personnel, including four thousand National Guardsmen to maintain order.
192
(Figure 5.2)

192
Darrell Dawsey, To CHP Officer Who Sparked Riots, It Was Just another Arrest, Los Angeles Times,
Articles.latimes.com. http://articles.latimes.com/1990-08-19/local/me-2790_1_chp-officer (accessed
March 25, 2018); 1,000 Riot and Battle Police in Watts Area, Los Angeles Times, August 12, 1965:3;
Charles Davis, Anatomy of a Riot: Minor Incident Ignited Violence, Los Angeles Times, August 15, 1965:
A.
Figure 5.2: National guard troops enter Watts, at order of Lieutenant Governor dated
August 15, 1965. Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library/Herald-Examiner
Collection; image 00041018 [http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics43/00041018.jpg].

117

California Governor Pat Brown convened the McCone Commission to investigate
the riots. Within three months they identified the causes as years of frustration with high
unemployment, the low-quality of health care, underachieving schools, and the lack of
low-income housing. Though the commission issued recommendations, most were
never implemented. Unfortunately, Marquette Frye, who could never escape the
moniker of “the man who started the Watts riots,” blamed the label for ruining his life. In
1986, Marquette died of pneumonia, at the age of 42.
193
(Figure 5.3)

193
Michael Szymanski, How Legacy of the Watts Riot Consumed, Ruined Man’s Life, Orlando Sentinel,
articles.orlandosentinel.com, http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1990-08-05/news/9008031131_1_frye-
riots-in-american-rights-leaders/2 (accessed on March 26, 2018); Rena Price dies at 97; her and son’s
arrests sparked Watts riots, Los Angeles Times, Latimes.com. http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-
me-rena-price-20130623-story.html (accessed March 25, 2018); Low Income, Bad Housing: Scene of
Rioting Is Substandard District, Los Angeles Times, August 14, 1965: p. 3.
Figure 5.3: Figures in Riots Case. Attorney A. L. Wirin, left, with Mrs.
Rena Frye, and her sons, Ronald, center, and Marquette, right. Photo
courtesy of Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive. Department of
Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA. Image
uclalat_1429_b557_230015
[http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewItem.do?ark=21198/zz0002twqb].

118

History of The Watts District and The Disenfranchised
Before the district became synonymous with Molotov cocktails and civil unrest,
Watts was part of a 6.9 square mile Spanish land grant known as Ranch Tajauta. When
California became a state, in 1850, various owners subdivided the ranch. In 1909, Watts
incorporated as a city and developed into a residential community conveniently adjacent
to downtown Los Angeles. In 1926, Los Angeles annexed the City of Watts.
194
(Figure
5.4) Throughout the first part of the Great Migration, which occurred after World War I
and continued to the end of World War II, a mass exodus of African-Americans moved
from the segregated south to cities in the North, East, and West. African-Americans
arriving in Los Angeles found job opportunities and restrictive covenants. These
contractual agreements prohibited the purchase, lease, or occupation of a piece of
property by people of color. “By the 1940s, 95% of Los Angeles and Southern California
housing was off-limits to African-Americans and Asians.”
195
The covenants corralled

194
KS/PBA Urban Design Collaborative, Illustrative Plan: Watts Urban Redevelopment Project No. 1
Prepared for the Community Redevelopment Agency City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, August 1970, p.
6.
195
Shana Bernstein, Bridges of Reform: Interracial Civil Rights Activism in Twentieth-Century Los
Angeles, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 107-109.
Figure 5.4: Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Watts, Los Angeles County, California. Sanborn
Map Company, Aug, 1922. Map. Retrieved from the Library of Congress,
https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn00922_002/.

119

African-American neighborhoods to primarily the south of downtown Los Angeles and
the Watts area. These high population density areas lacked expansion and affordable
housing. Many all-white municipalities or neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles
observed: “sundown town” policies. These local laws prohibited non-whites, especially
African-Americans, in their communities after dark. Blacks followed these “rules of de
facto segregation,” which barred any travel north of Slauson Avenue.
196
(Figure 5.5) The
consequences of noncompliance involved harassment by the white citizenry or law
enforcement officers with the threat of violence or physical violence. The police
interpreted noncompliance as a violation of that community’s vagrancy laws. After World
War II, manufacturing jobs diminished, and opportunities were limited.
197



196
Richard Rothstein, Why Los Angeles is still a segregated city after all these years, Los Angeles Times,
August 20, 2017. Latimes.com, http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-rothstein-segregated-
housing-20170820-story.html (accessed March 26, 2018); Erin Aubry Kaplan, Sun hasn't set on
`sundown towns', January 24, 2007. Articles.latimes.com,
http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jan/24/opinion/oe-kaplan24 (accessed March 27, 2018).
197
Erin Aubry Kaplan, Sun hasn't set on `sundown towns', January 24, 2007, Articles.latimes.com,
http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jan/24/opinion/oe-kaplan24 (accessed March 27, 2018); John P. Davis,
The Negro Population in the United States, The American Negro Reference Book, (Englewood Cliffs, NJ,
Prentice Hall), 122.
Figure 5.5: Copy of the note found at the William Bailey home on 2130 South Dunsmuir Avenue, after it
was bombed. The note reads, "Negros move off Dunsmuir north of Adams we will bomb all negros off."
Photograph dated March 17, 1952. Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library/Herald-Examiner
Collection; image 00033899 [http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics28/00033899.jpg].

120

Although minority business ownership fared better in neighborhoods south of
downtown Los Angeles, in Watts the white residents moved out when the black
population multiplied. The former residents did not abandon their businesses and
refused to hire minorities. Further alienating the community was the Pacific Electric
Company’s decision to cease all rail service on the line running through Watts. The
result deprived the community of essential transportation to jobs and “the locational
advantage” previously enjoyed by the railroad access. Having a car became an
unaffordable luxury. The community remained disenfranchised from high paying jobs,
accessible transportation, affordable housing, and “pressured to remain in an
increasingly inconvenient and unattractive living environment.” Though several anti-
discrimination bills passed, they were overturned by a California state proposition or
lacked any enforcement apparatus within the law. In 1965, the Watts unemployment
rate was 10%. The national average was 4%. The national median income was $7,800
compared with Watts at $3,800.
198

The Los Angeles Police Department cultivated an antagonist relationship, with
the minority community. Between 1963 and 1965, police killed sixty African-Americans,
of which twenty-five were unarmed, and twenty-seven were shot in the back. The Watts
residents regarded the police as the city’s blunt instrument to keep them subjugated.
Police Chief William H. Parker reinforced the community’s defiance, with his bombastic
televised comments on African-Americans. "It is estimated that by 1970, 45% of the
metropolitan area of Los Angeles will be Negro…If you want any protection for your
home and family . . . you're going to have to get in and support a strong Police
Department. If you don't, come 1970, God help you."
199
His comments never tarnished
his positive media image among the white majority. His support was due in part to
Parker’s consultation, with a popular TV police detective series, set in Los Angeles
entitled, Dragnet. The show riveted the nation, with its depiction of L.A. policemen’s
impartial approach to its citizens in distress, modern-day evidence laboratories, and

198
John McCone and Warren Christopher, Violence in the City--an End Or a Beginning?: A Report By The
Governor’s Commission On The Los Angeles Riots, Los Angeles: the State of California, 1965, pp. 1-2.
199
David Shaw, Chief Parker Molded LAPD Image--Then Came the '60s: Police: Press treated officers as
heroes until social upheaval prompted skepticism and confrontation, May 25. 1992, Articles.latimes.com,
http://articles.latimes.com/1992-05-25/news/mn-236_1_police-brutality/2 (accessed March 27, 2018).

121

crime-solving techniques. When he died in 1966, a Los Angeles Times editorial
remembered Parker as “the man who devoted his life to making this the best-policed
city in the nation."
200
Blacks and Latinos protested Parker’s militaristic “proactive”
policing style of cruising the streets, interrogating residents, and identifying possible
criminals by their appearance as harassment. These police encounters became
physical and often violent. The McCone Commission appointed to investigate the Watts
riots, concluded that "a resentment, even hatred, of the police was a fundamental cause
of the riot." (Figure 5.6) However, two years earlier the California Advisory Committee,
to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, reported that “the widely shared attitude among
Los Angeles Negroes [is] that they are at the mercy of bigoted police[men]."
201
In
response to the accumulated factors of inferior housing, transportation, jobs, and police
brutality, the Watts Redevelopment Project created an illustrated plan to rebuild the
community.

200
Paul Houston, PARKER TRIBUTES: Police Chief's Passing Mourned Successor May Be Named at
Meeting Today, Death of Police Chief Parker Widely Mourned by Many Tributes to Chief Parker Pouring
In, Los Angeles Times, July 18, 1966: p. 1.
201
John McCone and Warren Christopher, Violence In the City--an End Or a Beginning?: A Report By
The Governor’s Commission On The Los Angeles Riot, Los Angeles: the State of California, 1965, p. 2.

Figure 5.6: McCone Riot Commission begins three month study. The McCone Riot
Commission prepares to hear Gov. Edmund Brown. Seated from left: Judge Earl C.
Broady; Gov. Brown; John A. McCone; Warren M. Christopher. Standing: Rev. James
Edward Jones; Harold W. Horowitz; Sherman Mellinkof; Terrence Lee; Samuel
Williams; Thomas Sheridan; Mrs. Marlen Neumann; Jack Mitchell; and Asa V. Call.
Photo dated: September 16, 1965. Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Public
Library/Herald-Examiner Collection; image 00049404.
[http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics29/00049404.jpg].

122

Figure 5.7: Conceptual Design for Redevelopment of Watts. From the Illustrative Plan Watts Urban
Redevelopment Project No. 1. Circa 1970. Photo courtesy of The Kennard Estate.

The Plan to Rebuild Watts
On June 26, 1966, Robert Kennard and Arthur Silvers consolidated their
architectural practices and established a new firm, “Kennard and Silvers, Architects and
Planners.”
202
However, the Watts Riot changed the firm's trajectory towards civic-
minded projects that resonated with a more socially conscious community. After the
riots, Kennard increased his activism. He raised funds with actor Gregory Peck and film
director Robert Wise to develop the Inner City Cultural City while managing a
professional architectural office. “It was right after the Watts riots,” remembered
Kennard. “And everybody felt a real social consciousness. Well, someday what are you
going to say that you did?"
203
When the city of Los Angeles searched for architects to
re-build Watts, Kennard diligently pursued the commission. He saw it as an opportunity
to establish a directive as to how disenfranchised communities could be organized and
designed for the comfort of its residents. Kennard thought that marginalized

202
Two architects establish firm, Los Angeles Times, June 26. 1966; p. L2.
203
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 224.

123

communities should be respected and that architects should design for the poor as
thoughtfully as their wealthy corporate clients.
204

In August 1969, Robert Kennard and Art Silvers partnered with Pollak,
Barsocchini, and Associates, a predominantly white architectural firm, to design the
Illustrative Plan for the Watts Redevelopment Project #1. Working as KS/PBA an Urban
Design Collaborative, the firm joined with the Community Redevelopment Agency of the
City of Los Angeles to create a plan to redevelop Watt’s infrastructure, housing, and
design criteria. The redevelopment would occur in phases. The first phase consisted of
one hundred and seven acres of land bounded by 100th Street and East Century Blvd
on the north, 104th Street to the south, Wilmington Avenue on the east, and Success
Avenue [which borders Ted Watkins Memorial Park], on the west.
205
(Figures 5.8 and
5.9)

204
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, pp. 72,73.
205
KS/PBA Urban Design Collaborative, Illustrative Plan: Watts Urban Redevelopment Project No. 1
Prepared for the Community Redevelopment Agency City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, August 1970, p.
2.
Figure 5.8: Watts, California. Map. Google Maps. Google.com.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Watts,+Los+Angeles,+CA/@33.9416793 (accessed April 1,
2018).

124

Infrastructure
The City Planning Department proposed a concept that Kennard and his
associates must incorporate into their design aesthetic. Watts lacked form. The remedy
was to stimulate the southeast section of Downtown Los Angeles and make it the
primary center, with reinforced satellite centers in Watts. The “centers concept” would
centralize Watts’ commercial areas into hubs. Each center would have been a self-
contained unit that served a surrounding residential population. (Figure 5.10)

Figure 5.9: Watts Redevelopment Plan Map Project #1. Map courtesy of The Kennard Estate.

125

The centers envisioned a series of communities within the area in order to
centralize the area’s sporadic commercial facilities. It increased efficiency for residents
by reducing drive time for shopping and community services. The plan intended to
strengthen and encourage a sense of community. Each center provided access to
convenient transit stations and regional freeways. It restricted industry land use to
freeway corridors and eliminated unnecessary traffic congestion within residential and
commercial districts. Kennard’s illustrative plan recognized Watts as a residential
neighborhood and recommended that no manufacturing or warehousing be allowed in
the area. Cognizant of the Community Redevelopment Agency department mandate,
KS/PBA planned to incorporate the center concept with modern designed buildings that
complemented the existing historic building stock.

Figure 5.10: Watts Redevelopment Centers Concept. Each center was to be a
center of concentrated commercial activity. Map courtesy of The Kennard
Estate.

126

Circulation Systems
A proposed series of elevated bridges, plazas and walkways allowed pedestrians
to walk uninhibited by traffic. A slow, on-grade electric tram would run between parks,
housing units, and shopping centers, with a fixed route that connected elderly housing
complexes to shopping establishments and social services. Modified streets allowed
more significant separation between pedestrian and vehicular flows -- these alterations
took into consideration potential traffic congestion proposed by future freeway
expansions. All commercial and residential units had commuter parking lots and
garages, with low landscaped raised banks or terrace borders that prohibited their view.
An open space park-like multi-level parking structure and passenger terminal were
located adjacent to each significant bus transfer stop.
Existing Building Stock
According to the plan, every building standing after the Watts riots should be
evaluated and, if possible, salvaged. KS/PBA did not want to re-design a community by
abolishing its past. They wanted the old and the new buildings to coalesce. All
community churches would be restored and incorporated into the design of the
residential community. All public schools were to be surrounded by open park spaces.
The Watts Library and L.A. County Health Center buildings would be expanded. All
older buildings that had historical significance should be restored and adapted for re-
use. KS/PBA recommended the conversion of the 1904 Pacific Electric Railway station
into a community center. It was the only structure along 103rd Avenue that remained
undamaged as the rest of the stores along the street burned. The station was a symbol
of hope for the community. It was subsequently declared a Los Angeles Historic-
Cultural Monument on December 3, 1965 [#36] and listed on the National Register of
Historic Places on March 15, 1974. (Figure 5.11) The plan created residential houses
flanked on the station’s north, east, and west sides. Two parks were placed around the
building. The first park, to the north on 103rd Street, extended between the station and
residential houses. The second park, to the south, stretched linearly to the south and
connected to the Watts Towers. (Figures 5.12, 5.13) The open park around the Towers

127

included meandering paths, fountains, small plazas, benches, recreational areas, and
tram stops.
206

206
Watts Station Declared of Historic Significance, December 9, 1965, Los Angeles Sentinel,
http://dbase1.lapl.org/webpics/calindex/documents/12/521491.pdf (accessed April 1, 2018); National
Register of Historic Places. Npgallery.nps.gov.
https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/AssetDetail?assetID=da9772a0-45f2-4fab-ad90-dcd6be4d27c1
(accessed April 1, 2018).
Figure 5.11: Watts Pacific Electric depot. Looking across a set of tracks towards the main depot on 103rd
Street, served by both Pacific Electric Railway Company and Southern Pacific Railroad Company.
Numerous passengers are waiting for a train outside the station. Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Public
Library. Circa 1942. Image 00102630. [http://jpg1.lapl.org/00102/00102630.jpg].

128

Figure 5.12: Formerly known as the Towers of Simon Rodia. He built the
seventeen interconnected sculptural towers between 1921 and 1954. The
towers are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a U.S. National
Historic Landmark, a State of California Historical Landmark [#993], and a Los
Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument [ #15]. Photo by author.
Figure 5.13: Watts Towers. Located at 1727 E. 107th Street. The tallest tower
is 99.5 feet. Photo by author.

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Residential Buildings
From background research and input from the community, KS/PBA developed a
plan to create a desirable and sustained living environment achieved through
“architecture, landscaping, signs, parking, lighting, and circulation” design controls. With
design control mandates, Homeowner Associations could help administer the
community’s approved guidelines. The community required six hundred and thirty
additional housing units of which one hundred and thirty units were reserved for the
elderly. KS/PBA housing approach eliminated clustered living. They designed
accessible residential areas that provided ample outdoor and recreational land use.
(Figure 5.14) Separate walkways ended unnecessary vehicle and pedestrian
interactions. Parking was to be conveniently adjacent to each residential complex.
207

207
KS/PBA Urban Design Collaborative, Illustrative Plan: Watts Urban Redevelopment Project No. 1
Prepared for the Community Redevelopment Agency City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, August 1970, pp.
11,12.
Figure 5.14: Sketch of proposed Residential Complex Exterior. Pedestrian Walk-way and play
area. Each unit had a patio and privacy wall. Notice the modern widows and design aesthetic.
Sketch courtesy of The Kennard Estate.

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The proposed residential buildings included fourteen three-story multi-family
houses, with two-hundred and sixteen vacant units, forty-three two-story townhouses,
with two hundred and seventy-nine units, and one senior complex capable of housing
one hundred and thirty occupants. The New residential housing units had a three-story
height limit. The exception was the twelve-story senior citizen housing unit, with elevator
service to each floor. The senior housing unit required a location near commercial
buildings and community services. The first floor, of the senior center, included the
dining room, kitchen, recreational rooms, lounges, and any accommodations or facilities
that benefit the residents. The second level had a terrace, landscaping, an elevated
pedestrian walkway, and a tram stop. A park bordered the complex and provided
recreational activities.
The plazas and pedestrian walkway design criteria consisted of appealing
landscaping constructed for people, with reflecting pools, fountains, and quality
benches. The residential plazas served as a public meeting space for dancing, parties,
concerts, plays, cafes or whatever activities and enterprises the community deemed
beneficial. KS/PBA encouraged the Redevelopment Agency to employ local artists to
enhance the walkways and plazas with sculptures and artworks. Every plaza and
walkway had immediate access to emergency vehicles.
The orientation of each new residential building, within a parcel, was aligned
towards landscapes, courtyards, plazas, or walkways. No unit placement allowed
residences to view parking lots, maintenance areas or freeways. The design controls
helped with consistent future development. They would not restrict design, but instead,
provided a framework by which architects creatively elevated their aesthetic. The design
control established the hope of bringing a unique characteristic style and unified
architectural design to Watts.

131

Commercial Buildings
New commercial buildings had a more stringent adherence to the design controls
than residential. (Figure 5.15) The planners, not adverse to ethnocentric architecture
styles, had specific principals as to its construction and design. Any new buildings
constructed by a singular or multiple developers must adhere to the current design
aesthetic. In so much as to match the existing exterior materials, fenestrations, scale,
and proportion. KS/PBA even defined a new type of architectural style that they wanted
to be adopted within the area, called Afro-Western Architecture:
The Afro-Western architectural style should be an outgrowth of
contemporary American architecture, related to the particular climatic
conditions of Southern California. These conditions, which include bright
sunlight, warm summers, and moderate winters with light rainfall, suggest
an architectural style of mass and volume, with the emphasis on the
treatment of walls in terms of strong contrast of sun shadow, solids, and
voids. The style exemplified by the architecture of Le Corbusier [Figure
5.16] is an excellent example of this approach. The geometry of the
architecture should make use of the circle, square, rectangle and triangle,
all representative of African culture.
208

208
KS/PBA Urban Design Collaborative, Illustrative Plan: Watts Urban Redevelopment Project No. 1
Prepared for the Community Redevelopment Agency City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, August 1970, p.
14.
Figure 5.15: Sketch of proposed Civic Center exterior. It included the Civic Center, a Cultural
Arts Center, theater, and health facility. Sketch courtesy of The Kennard Estate.

132

Figure 5.16: The Weissenhof Estate, built circa 1927, an UNESCO World Heritage Site. Designed by
Le Corbusier for an exhibition in Stuttgart, Germany. “Advertised as a prototype of future workers'
housing,” it became a showcase for the International style of modern architecture. Photo by Andreas
Praefcke. Public Domain.
Figure 5.17: This drawing shows the proposed explanatory plan for the Watts Urban Redevelopment
Project which list the name of each element of the plan. Drawing courtesy of The Kennard Estate.

133

Bank of American Commission
While the Watts Redevelopment Committee deliberated over the implementation
of the KS/PBA proposal, Kennard continuously sought out opportunities in Watts and its
nearby disenfranchised communities to promote stability through architecture. Since the
riots, the Watts community had no commercial bank. Civic leaders and business
professions partnered to build a Bank of America on Central Avenue near East 103
rd

Street, a flashpoint of the riots. The proposed bank would be the first built in Watts since
1917. Kennard and Silvers designed a fortress-like style that flourished from the 1950s
to the mid-1970s. It was the style that architect Le Corbusier often preferred.
209


209
Groundbreaking, Los Angeles Sentinel, September 11, 1969: p. A3.
Figure 5.18: Bank of America 10340 S Central Ave opened in July 1970. View from across South
Central Avenue. Photo by author.

134

Figure 5.19: Closer view. The characteristics of this modern style of architecture are repeated
modular shapes, bulky and structural use of raw concrete materials. Photo by author.
Figure 5.20: View from 103
rd
Street. The bank sits on an isolated lot. The parcel adjacent to the
bank that stretches to 103
rd
street is vacant. Only the remains of building pavements are evident.
Photo by author.

135

Figure 5.21: The bank’s amenities included a walk-up window and drive-thru teller, which are no
longer operational. Photo by author.
Figure 5.22: Walk-up teller window cover has sheet metal etched as a design element. Photo by
author.

136

Watts Redevelopment Project Never Implemented
The Watts Redevelopment Committee never implemented the KS/PBA proposal
and abandoned any overall plan to rebuild Watts. As an alternative, the city of Watts
unsystematically, and over a period, gradually rebuilt sections of the community. Buildings
were commissioned on a need basis -- instead of a concentrated effort to stimulate the
area through a combination of jobs, affordable housing, and business. The city initially
moved some residents, living in damaged houses to new apartments and houses on
another similarly distressed parcel. They never addressed the complaints mentioned in
the McCone report, nor did they centralize housing, commerce, and services as
prescribed in Kennard’s development plan. It has been over fifty years since the riots and
the city often diagnoses grievances with antiquated methods – and by not focusing on the
symptoms, it germinates into revolving injustices. Though Kennard’s design borders on a
utopian view of community empowerment, the majority of his egalitarian concepts are
cost-effective and easily implemented: create a sense of place; more green open areas;
easy access to transportation and services; position newly built townhouses, on parcels,
with unobstructed views and ample parking and provide pedestrian walkways that do not
compete with vehicles.
210

The aftermath of the riots did generate opportunities for the civic pride that helped
establish a sense of place such as annual themed parades, youth centers, and art
galleries. Kennard’s thoughtful approach to the Watts redevelopment project parlayed
into other planning opportunities, with the cities of Inglewood, Compton, Long Beach,
Santa Ana, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Washington D.C. Although his plans for Watts
never entirely came into fruition, the city retained his services as a consultant and
architect on many beneficial community projects, which include the Kaiser Watts Learning
Center [1973] and the Watts Shopping Center [1979].
211


210
Charles Baireuther, Community Speaks Out Both for, Against CRA: Filth of Five-Part Series, Los
Angeles Sentinel, May 21, 1970: A3.
211
Charles Baireuther, BY 1971, Model Homes: By 1975, 'New Watts', Los Angeles Sentinel, May 7,
1970: A5.

137

Jeffrey Gault worked for Kennard as a summer intern during the study. A recent
graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, receiving his Master in Planning, he
eventually became a managing partner with Kennard and Delahouise. Gault viewed the
attempt to redevelop Watts in 1970 as a missed opportunity:

I don’t think re-development can be accomplished by [just]
Social Services. Nobody in the political establishment and the
business establishment, aligned and engaged. Putting an
office for the Department of Social Services, in Watts, is good.
Putting a car dealership or a grocery market does a lot. How
much new development was there that actually created jobs?
Or offered a consumer service that South Central didn’t have?
This is during the era when they created the tax income
financing. Where you paid for a lot of public improvements by
the increment of property taxes, right? Well, you get a little bit
of income from residential, but you really need the
commercial. The reason you need car dealers and the reason
you need grocery markets is under the tax laws of California,
property taxes go up to the state, and then they get
redistributed down to the city. Sales taxes from cars, groceries
and hotel rooms, called transient occupancy tax, go directly to
the city. So if you had a car dealership there, wherever those
sales taxes are they don’t make a round trip up. They directly
benefit the city. But look, at the end of the day, these guys
couldn’t get together. I mean there are a lot of polite reasons,
but they couldn’t get together.
212

A new challenge has arisen - gentrification. The community’s building stock, once
considered undesirable, now receives an appreciation from millennials and workers that
do not desire long commutes. Real estate agents are sending potential home buyers to
Watts. The community bordering downtown Los Angeles is accessible to freeways, public
transportation, and has affordable housing. Real Estate broker Julio Ruiz sells the idea
that "There is cheap housing in L.A. … The American dream is still affordable in Watts,
Compton and all the forgotten ghettos."
213
Some of the house interiors built between the
1920s and 1940s retain hardwood floors, ornamentation on or around the fireplace,

212
Jeffrey M. Gault interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, April 1, 2017.
213
Steve Lopez, Finding the L.A. real estate gold rush — in Compton, Watts, and South L.A, Los
Angeles Times, December 9, 2017, http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-lopez-housing-compton-
20171209-story.html (accessed April 4, 2018).

138

intricate etching on windows, built-in cabinetry, wood molding around the ceilings,
transoms doors, and decorative tile work in the bathroom and kitchen. More white
residents are moving into the neighborhoods and establishing communal areas. As they
move in it seems that more shopping centers and townhouses are under construction. A
former president of a Housing Association near the West Adams district stated that “We
have been trying to get the city to fix busted streets lights in this area for twenty years.
Since they [white residents] have moved in, not only have they gotten the city to fix all the
lights; but someone from the police department attends our monthly meetings.”
214

Perhaps the new residents moving into Watts might establish better
communication between law enforcement and the community. Still, Watts residents fear
that gentrification means displacement. If property values rise, can they afford to stay in
their houses? A Watts resident confessed, "What if people want to buy up houses at
cheap prices and fix them up. Is Watts going to be another East L.A.?”
215
Maybe
Kennard’s vision of Watts as a viable commercial, residential, and leisure neighborhood
with state of the art amenities might become a reality after all.


214
Sallie Pratt interviewed by Jerome Robinson, Los Angeles, California, September 3, 2015.
215
Joraja Leap, The supposed ‘rebirth’ of Watts makes Jordan Downs residents uneasy, Los Angeles
Times, December 4, 2016, http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-leap-jordan-downs-20161204-
story.html (accessed April 4, 2018).

139

CONCLUSION
Bob was my mentor. He was a great example of how to succeed as a black designer.
He had integrity and a reputation for absolute reliability. To put it simply, he set the
standard and showed us how it could be done.
Roland Wiley, principal of RAW Architects

Perceptions
My contributions to the life and artistry of Robert Alexander Kennard are mere
droplets in torrential rain. His work product is staggering. Every area of his life can be
examined to create additional thesis topics. From his friendship with Elbert Hudson [son-
in-law of architect Paul Williams] to his joint venture with Maguire Partners on their 1981
overall plan for the redevelopment of Bunker Hill. It featured a mirrored office tower that
rested upon an eighty-foot granite base. Unfortunately, Kennard’s proposed office tower
was never built.
At times I found myself wincing because I could not describe his life with better
precision or with a more finessed vocabulary. My thesis is primarily an introduction and
Figure 6.1: Robert Kennard circa 1970’s. Photo courtesy of the Kennard
Estate.

140

visceral montage of Kennard’s life. It highlights pivotal projects that represent a few
momentous achievements, in the hope that the reader’s curiosity propels an
investigation of the architect’s other accomplishments.

Conservation
Additional work on his legacy should include a survey of all schools, colleges, and
instructional buildings he designed, specifically those that received national and
statewide design awards. This survey should also include Kennard’s work on behalf of
USC, UCLA, and his victory over the Los Angeles Unified School district to end
discriminatory hiring practices towards minority architectural firms.
The working relationship between Kennard and Garrett Eckbo should be
researched. Kennard’s redesign of the 77th Street Police-station should be examined.
The facility was considered “one of the most racist police stations in Los Angeles.” For
its redesign, Kennard creates a symmetrical building with classical features. Other public
works to be explored are the trauma center for the Los Angeles County’s Martin Luther
King Jr./Drew Medical Center, Metro Stations in Washington D.C., and a Federal
Aviation Administration center in Hempstead, Long Island.
What was his responsibility as an original board member with the Inner City
Cultural Center and was he responsible for the building’s adaptive reuse design?
Another topic of interest is Kennard’s collaboration with other architectural firms on the
renovation of the Los Angeles Central Library. His work on the first transit study in Los
Angeles, which became the prototype of our Metro rail system. His three parking
structures at Los Angeles International Airport which he designed for the 1984 Olympics.
A survey of his international building designs and master plans in Mexico, Nicaragua,
and Brazil.
Unfortunately, many of Kennard’s school buildings and apartment complexes are
in disrepair and threatened with demolition. Even Temple Akiba has been redesigned,
and only remnants of its original structure remain. A survey beginning in California should
be commissioned, to halt the erosion of his legacy. This survey should evaluate the

141

integrity of each building and structure. If there is an opportunity for an adaptive reuse
strategy on any existing buildings, it should be considered. The survey should begin with
a thorough evaluation of Kennard’s residential house designs in Southern California.

Cultivating an Understanding
At a recent visit to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the docent challenged
us to wander around the gallery and find three pieces of art we would rescue if the
building caught on fire. I narrowed my choices to [Mary] Magdalen with the Smoking
Flame by George de la Tour, The Raising of Lazarus by Rembrandt and a sculpture of
an elderly woman sitting on a stoop as if being ridiculed. It was entitled, She Who Was
Once The Helmet Maker’s Beautiful Wife by Rodin.
For me, a majority of Kennard’s designs are works of art. They represent a place,
a time, and an experience. They are Robert Kennard’s thoughts and expressions
personified into a building or structure. He was a man of color that pursued a career for
which he helped pioneer – before any affirmative action legislation allowed entrance to
qualified applicants. There needs to be a re-education on Kennard and his architectural
contributions. Although some of his white colleagues were progressive and protested the
racial injustices of the time, after the protest or march, they could put down their signs
and speeches and walk unhampered by society. However, Kennard’s protest was a
continuum, because he could not remove the color of his skin. Unconstrained by
societies racial stereotypes, Kennard continued his craft.
When it comes to the preservation of Kennard’s work, I cannot pick three
architectural projects. Therefore, I have narrowed it down to a single category: his
residential house designs. Because Kennard’s intelligence, energy, craftsmanship, and
artistry are embodied in each of his houses – and those houses infuse each community
they inhabit, with history and the architect’s narrative.
The majority of his house designs are in pristine condition and should be listed as
Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments and California landmarks. The initial list of
houses to be considered are the Kelly House [ 9032 Wonderland Avenue, Los Angeles];

142

Hardyman House [2076 Redcliff Street]; Sommers/Leipzig Residence [1143 Coldwater
Canyon]; Abramson Residence [2276 Beachwood Drive], Kennard Residence [3370
Ledgewood Drive] and the Anderson House [446 Redwood Drive, Pasadena]. These
houses exemplify the definition of the Southern California mid-century modern
movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Maybe one day, with the proper education of the
public, a Kennard residential house may be as recognizable as a Neutra or Schindler.
His work proposal to redevelop Watts is meticulously comprehensive. Each
design element and construction issue was defined. Kennard made convenience and
comfort a necessity. Usually, such quality and attention to detail are reserved for the
affluent, not a convalescent and embattled community.
Kennard’s passion and consideration for others only surpassed his work ethic. As
a child, he set out to become an architect. In the 1930s, it was an absurd occupation for
an African-American male to consider. Though the young Kennard had his distractors,
singleness of mind and determination allowed him to become successful in a field that
rarely recognizes people of color. [Paul Williams posthumously received the AIA Gold
Medal.] But, Kennard’s perseverance envisioned a world that would be more inclusive
and accepting of architects of color:
I believe more young blacks should go into architecture because the world
is changing so fast. We are becoming a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic society.
When you have been a minority, there is no question you have more
sensitivity to other people and other races, and you're going to be a better
architect. You don't come with any preconceived idea. And that's one of the
reasons why I moved to Hollywood with my kids because I wanted them to
have that multi-cultural respect for other people. Hollywood High [School]
had seventy nationalities. It's the world. And I'll tell you, people that don't
understand are not going to survive.
215

What Does It Mean
Robert Kennard won prestigious awards. He was inducted into the College of
Fellows of the American Institute of Architects. He received the Whitney M. Young Jr.

215
Wesley H. Henderson, Interview of Robert Kennard, Center for Oral History Research, UCLA Library,
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995, p. 176.

143

citation, which recognizes architects who have made contributions to the nation's social
issues. His body of work, which includes over seven hundred buildings and structures,
makes him without question one of Los Angeles’ master architects. On March 17, 1991,
the Los Angeles Times interviewed Kennard on his upcoming honor as a recipient of the
USC School of Architecture’s 1991 Distinguished Alumni Award. When asked how he
would like to be remembered, Kennard responded:
“I’d like to see more minorities and women go into architecture. But I’d like to be
remembered as someone who did the best he could, created some good architecture
and did something for the minority community, encouraging some young blacks and
others to go into the profession.“
216


216
Ruth Ryon, Architect honored for mentor role. Los Angeles Times, March 17, 1991: K3.
144

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Michaeli, Ethan, and William Hughes. The Defender: How the Legendary Black
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147

Mitchell, Melvin L. The Crisis of the African-American Architect: Conflicting Cultures of
Architecture and Black Power. New York: Writers Advantage, 2003.
Neutra, Dion. The Neutras: Then and Now. Los Angeles: Triton, 2012.
Neutra, Richard Joseph. Richard Neutra on Building: Mystery and Realities of the Site.
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Books, 1999.
Perata, David. Those Pullman Blues: An Oral History of the African-American Railroad
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149

APPENDIX

Kennard Architectural Projects 1956-1994

WORK
ORDER
NO. PROJECT CITY

56-48 Tetitelbaum Apartments Mar Vista
56-49 MacKay Richardson Residence West L.A.
56-50 Kelley Residence Los Angeles
56-51 Zeiger Office Inglewood

57-51a Cimring/Weinshenker Dental Office Beverly Hills
57-52 R/T Apartments Santa Monica
57-53 Tamarind Apartments Los Angeles
57-54 Union Offices (1976) Los Angeles
57-55 Hunt Residence (Remodel) Los Angeles

57-56 Eisenstein Residence Los Angeles
57-57 Ayres/Endo/Frumhoff/Cohen Offices Los Angeles
57-58 Ayres/Endo Lease Space Los Angeles
57-59 Frumhoff/Cohen Lease Space Los Angeles
57-60 Sommers/Greenclay Apartments Los Angeles

57-61 Weinshenker Residence (Interiors) Beverly Hills
57-62 Drummond Residence (Interiors) San Pedro
57-63 Alexander’s “Heel Bar” Los Angeles
57-64 Bryan Residence (Addition) Los Angeles
57-65 R/T House No. 1 Encino

57-66 Zeiger Residence Los Angeles
57-67 Saylan Residence Los Angeles
57-68 The Hoover Company Los Angeles
57-69 Anderson Residence Pasadena

58-70 Brown (Remodel) El Monte
59-71 Missing Data
58-72 T.Y. Lin Office Van Nuys
58-73 Daniel - Melville Los Angeles
58-74 Kulka Residence Sherman Oaks
58-75 King Residence (Alteration) Los Angeles
58-76 Babchuk-Kennard Pasadena
58-77 Barr Residence (Addition) Cheviot Hills

150

WORK
ORDER
NO. PROJECT CITY

58-78 R/T Construction (Heller) Mar Vista
58-79 Bowdoin Residence (Addition) Carlsbad
58-80 Brangman Medical Compton
58-81 Hayes Motel Los Angeles
58-82 Thrifty Building (Analysts – Carport) Beverly Hills
58-83 King Realty La Mesa
58-84 Graham Apartments Los Angeles
58-85 Hidden Trails Youth Camp, Phase 1 Agoura

58-86 Jeanie’s Restaurant Los Angeles
58-87 Frumhoff (Addition) No. Hollywood
58-88 Eisler Residence (Ardmore) Hollywood

59-89 Bryan Residence Remodel Los Angeles
59-90 Teitelbaum-Ross Mar Vista
59-91 Missing Data
59-92 Missing Data
59-93 Sims (Design) Redondo Beach
59-94 Frumhoff Interiors Sherman Oaks
59-95 Ayres-Hayakawa Office Los Angeles

59-96 Flight Electric Supply Inglewood
59-97 Liberty Electronics Inglewood
59-98 Rhoden Nursery School Los Angeles
59-99 Missing Data
59-100 Silvera Residence (PDC) Los Angeles
59-101 Lin Office (Interior) Van Nuys

59-102 Cartwright Residence Los Angeles
59-103 Gavron Residence Sherman Oaks
59-104 Axelrod Residence Downey
59-105 Hidden Trails, New Dorms Agoura
59-106 Hidden Trails, Phase 2 Agoura

59-107 Hidden Trails (Lodge Addition) Agoura
59-108 Furniture Workers Office Los Angeles
59-109 Kovner Fresco Sherman Oaks
59-110 Crenshaw Hearing Aid Los Angeles
59-111 Barr Landscape Los Angeles

59-112 Richards Residence (Addition) Los Angeles

151

WORK
ORDER
NO. PROJECT CITY

59-113 Luxemberg Residence Sherman Oaks
59-114 Pacific Radio Los Angeles
59-115 Von Mel Building L.A. County
59-116 Moore Apartments Los Angeles
59-117 Zeiger Residence (Interior) Los Angeles

59-118 Flight Electric Inglewood
59-119 Willowbrook School District Los Angeles
59-120 Morris Storefront Los Angeles
59-121 Hidden Trails, South Lodge Patio Agoura
59-122 Lin-TeleComputing Pneumatic Lab &
Compressor Building Chatsworth

59-123 Cloner Residence Los Angeles
59-124 TeleComputing Phase 1 Chatsworth
59-125 Alco Plating Los Angeles

60-126 Kennard Residence Los Angeles
60-127 Hunt Residence (Interiors) Los Angeles
60-128 Environmental Laboratory Whittaker Controls Chatsworth
60-129 Lin-TeleComputing Phase 2 Chatsworth
60-130 Tail of the Cock Parking Garage Los Angeles

60-131 Ayres (Remodel) Los Angeles
60-132 Visher Residence Malibu
60-133 First Unitarian Church Los Angeles
60-134 FDR Memorial Commission Washington D.C.
60-135 Chassen Zoning Los Angeles

60-136 V&H Electronics Los Angeles
60-137 Cloner Residence (Alteration) Los Angeles
60-138 Strick Variance Los Angeles
60-139 Woodland Hills Apartment Dev. (BEFK Site) Woodland Hills
60-140 Univ. of Calif. (Parking Garage Presentation) Berkeley

60-141 Axelrod Interiors Downey
60-142 Electric Equipment Company Los Angeles
60-143 Whittaker Gyro White Room Van Nuys
60-144 Gorlick Plot Los Angeles
60-145 Chow Down El Segundo

152

WORK
ORDER
NO. PROJECT CITY

60-146 Tenner Residence (Addition) Los Angeles
60-147 Liberty Electronics (Isis Street) Inglewood
60-148 5
th
and Salmon Development Portland, OR
60-149 Cohen Residence (Interiors) Encino
60-150 Medical Building Study (Lin) Los Angeles
60-151 Hidden Trails Phase 3 Agoura

61-152 Von Mel Building, Phase 1 L.A. County
61-153 Seibers Resort June Lake
61-154 Rotblatt Residence Bel Air
61-155 Whittaker Gyre Storage Extension Van Nuys
61-156 Manaugh Parking Structure Phoenix, AZ

61-157 Mitnick Residence (Remodel) Downey
61-158 Kaplan Residence (Addition) Los Angeles
61-159 Whittaker Gyre Storage Extension Los Angeles
61-160 Kovner Vintage-Lawson Los Angeles
61-161 Turner Apartments Los Angeles

61-162 Tamkin Residence Los Angeles
61-163 Kingsley Apartment Los Angeles
61-164 Urban Transportation & Development Los Angeles
61-165 Sommers-Gazebo Los Angeles
61-166 Salzer Consulting Santa Monica

61-167 Di Cayette Consulting Los Angeles
61-168 Wilpac Plumbing Co. Los Angeles
61-169 Howard Residence Inglewood
61-170 Culver City Unified School District Culver City
61-170-A Culver City Graphic Arts Culver City

61-170-B Culver City Cafeteria Culver City
61-170-C Culver City Maintenance Building Culver City
61-170-D Culver City Gymnasium Building Culver City
61-170-E Culver City Pool Building Culver City
61-171 Uniack (Consultation) Los Angeles

61-172 Fenmore Residence Encino
61-173 Inglewood Parking Structures Inglewood
61-174 Lumel Residence Los Angeles

153

WORK
ORDER
NO. PROJECT CITY

62-175 Jenkins (Consultation) Los Angeles
62-176 Book Fair (UCLA) Westwood
62-177 Eisler-Winona Los Angeles
62-178 Fulton Apartments Los Angeles
62-179 Zimmerman Residence (Consultation) Los Angeles

62-180 Von-Mel Building, Phase 2 Los Angeles
62-181 Canon Residence (Remodel) Los Angeles
62-182 Fitzgerald Residence Los Angeles
62-183 Montclair School Tarzana
62-184 Ayres Residence (Addition) Los Angeles
62-185 Chow Down Caterers Los Angeles

62-186 Kulka Residence (Remodel) San Francisco
62-187 Eisler Residence (Addition) Los Angeles
62-188 Temple Akiba Culver City
62-189 Takaki Building Delano
62-190 Chaiken-Allen Los Angeles

63-191 Smith, John & Betty (Consultation) Los Angeles
63-192 Modeen Apartments Los Angeles
63-193 Hitter Residence (Remodel) Los Angeles
63-194 King (Consultation) Los Angeles
63-195 Hidden Trails, Phase 4 Agoura
63-196 Payne (Consultants) Los Angeles
63-197 Macedo Apartments Hollywood
63-198 Bernard Krasik Construction Corp. Sherman Oaks
63-199 Krakower Residence Calabasas
63-200 Weddington Apartments No. Hollywood

63-201 Rancho Co-op Los Angeles
63-202 S.M. Solton Co. Culver City
63-203 Rim Forest Arrowhead
63-204 Director’s Residence, Hidden Trails Phase 5 Agoura
63-205 Hardyman Residence Silverlake

63-206 Gerhardt-Grebler Student Housing Northridge
63-207 Unitarian Church, Severance Hall Los Angeles
63-208 Holvey Medical Panorama City
63-209 Lawrence Residence West L.A.
63-210 Walnut Lane Apartments (Waller) West L.A.

154

WORK
ORDER
NO. PROJECT CITY

63-211 Royal Oaks Residence (Fenmore) Encino

64-212 Krasik Residence, Phase 2 Sherman Oaks
64-213 Basili Residence (Remodel) Culver City
64-214 Dickerson (Consultation) Los Angeles
64-215 Hardyman Residence (Addition) La Crescenta
64-216 School of Nursery Years (Master Plan) Los Angeles

64-217 Stone Residence (Remodel) Los Angeles
64-218 Menlo Apartments (Revisions) Los Angeles
64-219 Weddington Apartments, Phase 2 No. Hollywood
64-220 Klein Residence (Remodel/Additions) San Gabriel
64-221 Applebaum (Consultation) Arcadia
64-222 Wilner Garage (Alteration) Los Angeles
64-223 State of California Design Jury Los Angeles
64-224 Spacecraft Inc. Inglewood
64-225 Handler Residence Los Angeles

64-226 Rosenthal Residence (Addition) Culver City
64-227 Bellinson Residence (Remodel) Van Nuys
64-228 Oceanfront Apartments (Levy) Marina del Rey
64-229 De Cayette Residence (Remodel) Van Nuys
64-230 Wil-Den Productions (Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth Dennis) Bel Air
64-231 La Cienega Brake Los Angeles
64-232 Copeland Ct. Apartments (Waller) Santa Monica
64-233 Salzer (Construction) Van Nuys
64-234 6
th
Street Apartments (Waller) Santa Monica
64-235 Shapiro Residence (Addition) Encino

64-236-A Pioneer Savings Huntington Pk.
64-236-B Peterfy Building Huntington Pk.

65-237 Goodman (Consultation) San Bernardino
65-238 Valley Child Guidance Clinic: In/Out Patient Services Van Nuys
65-239 Wolf Manufacturing Co. Culver City
65-240 Congregation Emmanuel San Bernardino
65-241 Fox/Bates Apartment (Correction) Van Nuys

65-242 W.S. Klein Building Los Angeles
65-243 Becker Residence (Addition) Santa Monica

155

WORK
ORDER
NO. PROJECT CITY

65-244 Brown (Consultation) Los Angeles
65-245 Kagan Apartments Los Angeles
65-246 Abramson Residence/Apartments Hollywood
65-247 Temple Solael Reform Woodland Hills

65-248 Kramer Residence (Addition) West L.A.
65-249 Brandchaft (Remodel/Additions) West L.A.
65-250 Kulka Residence San Francisco
65-251 Goodman Jewelers San Bernardino

65-252 Lady Markell (Goodman) San Bernardino

66-253 Drabkin Consolidated West L.A.
66-254 Chapman Consolidated Beverly Hills
66-255 Maupin Consolidated Los Angeles
66-256 Wolf Consolidated West L.A.

66-257 Fine Consolidated Burbank
66-258 Hyde Park School (LAUSD) Los Angeles
66-259 Yudkoff Residence Los Angeles
66-260 Westward Ho Foods, Inc Riverside
66-261 Kaplan Residence Los Angeles
66-262 Orel Residence Hollywood

66-263 Sambi Residence Los Angeles
66-264 Electro-Sonic Components Hawthorne
66-265 Anglo-American Aviation Burbank
66-266 Benito Sinclair Residence Los Angeles
66-267 Wilner/Pacini Offices Los Angeles

66-268 Sloan (Consultation) West L.A.
66-269 ACLU Offices or Building Los Angeles
66-270 Center City Community Mental Health Center
(Master Plan) Los Angeles
66-271 Gene Maddox (Bar) Los Angeles
66-272 Hyde Park School (Temporary Bungalow) Los Angeles

67-273 Central City Community Mental Health Center
(Temporary Fac.) Los Angeles
67-274 Ayres Recreation Room Los Angeles

156

WORK
ORDER
NO. PROJECT CITY

67-275 Beverly Hills Hotel (Ayres & Hayakawa) Beverly Hills
67-276 Boulevard Theater Los Angeles
67-277 Drabkin Residence Westwood
67-278 Watts Happening Cultural Ctr. (Westminster) Los Angeles
67-279 Rogers Residence Los Angeles
67-280 Edwards Residence Los Angeles
67-281 Small Residence Los Angeles
67-282 Hyde Park School Cafeteria Los Angeles

67-283 Hertz Residence Los Angeles
67-284 Frederick Douglass Child Development Center Los Angeles
67-285 Hartman Bloomberg Beverly Hills
67-286 Mary Owen (Consultation) Los Angeles
67-287 Bion Residence Brentwood
67-288 Pic N’ Save Downey

68-289 CCCHMC (Jerry Rosen, Owner) Los Angeles
68-290 Western Linen Los Angeles
68-291 Mrs. Phyllis DuBois (Consultation) Los Angeles
68-292 Hyde Park Blvd. School (Additional Services) Los Angeles
68-293 Prince Hall Grand Lodge Apartments San Francisco

68-294 102
nd
Street School Los Angeles
68-295 Dr. & Mrs. Seymour Applebaum (Consultation) Beverly Hills
68-296 Void [No Assignment to this number
68-297 Ujima Corporation Los Angeles
68-298 Karpf Office Whittier
68-299 Vocational Training Consulting – Centennial Compton

68-300 Missing Data
68-301 Fire Station No. 33, City of Los Angeles Compton
68-302 Central City Community Mental Health Center Los Angeles
68-303 Chaiken Residence Remodel Los Angeles

69-304 Hunters Point Shipyard Site 1 San Francisco
69-305 Bank of America, Watts Branch Los Angeles
69-306 Temple Beth David Los Angeles
69-307-A MORE Oakland Res. Housing, Inc Oakland
69-307-B MORE Oakland Res. Housing, Inc Oakland

157

WORK
ORDER
NO. PROJECT CITY

69-308 Dianne Strom Office New York
69-309 Lockheed, Economic Resources Corporation Lynwood
69-310 Neighborhood Center Area San Francisco
69-311 Watts Redevelopment Plan Los Angeles
69-312 Vine City Housing Complex Atlanta, GA
69-313 Hunters Point Child Care Center San Francisco
69-314 Prince Hall – Child Care Center San Francisco
69-315 Center for Civic Initiative Inc. Milwaukee, WI
69-316 St. Mark’s Lutheran Church Los Angeles
69-317 Hoover Elderly Housing (TUMAST) Los Angeles

69-318 Volume Rehabilitation Study (CRA) Los Angeles
69-319 Kaiser System Rehabilitation Los Angeles
69-320 Oak Neighborhood Center Oakland
69-321 Taylor Memorial Housing Oakland
69-322 MORH Commercial Center Oakland

69-323 William Medical – Board and Care Los Angeles
69-324 St. John’s Lutheran Church Los Angeles
69-325 Monterey Hills (Master Plan) Los Angeles

70-326 Compton Feasibility Study Compton
70-327 Inglewood, CPR Inglewood
70-328 2000, Inc Los Angeles
70-329 Johnson Development Site 13 San Francisco
70-330 ERC – CR Committee Los Angeles

70-331 ERC – Office Remodel Los Angeles
70-332 ERC – Watts Manufacturing Company Compton
70-333 Harbor Dental Building Harbor City
70-334 Jedidiah Smith Cultural Center San Francisco
70-335 Taylor Memorial Church Oakland

70-336 The Palisades Lutheran Church Pacific Palisades
70-337 Watts Continuing Consultant Contract Los Angeles
70-338 Crenshaw Probation Building Los Angeles
70-339 Inglewood School CRP Inglewood
70-340 Hardyman Residence (Alterations) Los Angeles

70-341 Chaiken Remodel Sherman Oaks
70-342 EDCO – Pepper Development Pasadena

158

WORK
ORDER
NO. PROJECT CITY

71-343 Barr Residence, Hidden Trails Agoura
71-344 ERC Child Care Center Los Angeles
71-345 Los Angeles Ecumenical Housing Association Los Angeles
71-346 Grove/Berkley Way Commercial Berkeley
71-347 Hunters Point Phase II, Kaiser San Francisco

71-348 Third and Vista School Los Angeles
71-349 Fredrick Douglass Child Care Center Los Angeles
71-350-A GRCDC I (South of Barrett) Richmond
71-350-B GRCDC II (North of Barrett) Richmond
71-351 First Unitarian Church (Alterations) Los Angeles

71-352 Bank of Finance (Rehabilitation) Los Angeles
71-353 Southside Community Center Richmond
71-354 Broadway CCCMHC Rehabilitation Los Angeles
71-355 Marin City Housing Development Marin
71-356 Figueroa Dental Building (Remodel) Los Angeles

71-357 H Street Urban Renewal Washington D.C.
71-358 West Oakland Apartment (Oak Center Towers) Oakland
71-359 Sunset Hall Richmond
71-360 Richmond Child Care Center Richmond

72-361 Try-It Discount Store (Addition and Remodel) Carson
72-362 Los Angeles High School, LAUSD Los Angeles
72-363 EDCO IV Pasadena
72-364 San Fernando Valley Child Guidance Clinic San Fernando
72-365 Group Health Facility Los Angeles

72-366 Berkeley Industrial Park Berkeley
72-367 U.S. Post Office Placentia
72-368 Oak Center “In-Fill” Oakland
72-369 Bais Yaakov School Los Angeles
72-370 Long Beach Polly High NDP Long Beach

73-371 Lutheran High School Association Los Angeles
73-372 SCRTD Los Angeles
73-373 Hidden Trails Sewer Agoura
73-374 Compton CBD Compton
73-375 Compton & Rosecrans Compton

159

WORK
ORDER
NO. PROJECT CITY

72-376 Harbor Dental Extras Harbor City
73-377 Larwin Project Long Island, NY
73-378 Third College – Planning (UCSD) San Diego
73-379 Third College (UCSD) San Diego
73-380 Long Beach Graphics Long Beach

72-381 North Inglewood Planning Study Inglewood

73-382 Harbor Dental Litton Equipment Harbor City
73-383 Carson Civic Center – Planning Carson
73-384 Carson City Hall – Architecture Carson
73-385 Oakland Middle School (OUSD) Oakland
73-386 Richmond Child Care Center – Kitchen Remodel Richmond

73-387 Hermosa Beach – Planning Hermosa Beach
73-388 14
th
Street Corridor Washington D.C.
73-389 Louisville Planning (DRA) Louisville, KY
73-390 Tuskegee Charette Tuskegee, AL
73-391 Kaiser Watts Learning Center Los Angeles

73-392 Compton Graphics Compton
73-393 Missing Data
73-394 USC Lecture Series - Paid as a speaker Los Angeles
73-395 Long Beach Continuing Consultant Services Long Beach
73-396 San Fernando Valley Child Guidance Clinic San Fernando
73-397 Missing Data
73-398 Compton Housing Element Compton

73-399 WATA, Braddock Road Station Washington D.C.
73-400 Concession Building, Harvard Park Los Angeles
73-401 Santa Barbara, Population Impact Study Santa Barbara
73-402 CDC Commercial Richmond
73-403 Scott Methodist Church Pasadena

73-404 Straw Flower Center Half Moon Bay
73-405 Northwest Recreation Center (Pepper Area) Pasadena
73-406 Golden State Mutual (Ivan Houston) Los Angeles
73-407 Pasadena Impact Study Pasadena
73-408 San Diego County [Building No Data San Diego

160

WORK
ORDER
NO. PROJECT CITY

73-409 SCRTD (WMRT/KS) Phase II Compton
73-410 Compton Housing Element Phase II Compton
73-411 Wilsey & Ham (Subcontract) Cypress
73-412 Rancho Palos Verdes Impact Study Palos Verdes
73-413 Tennis Condominium I Half Moon Bay
73-414 Roosevelt Jr. High School Oakland
73-414A Roosevelt Media Building Oakland

74-415 Miramar Naval Air Station Santa Ana
74-416 Santa Ana Downtown Santa Ana
74-417 Long Beach Redevelopment Agency Graphics Long Beach
74-418 San Luis Obispo General Plan San Luis Obispo
74-419 Compton Conference Compton

74-420 Fed. Aviation Admin Bldg. (FAA) – Rose Halpern New York
74-421 Child Care Facilities Remodel San Fernando
74-422 Missing Data
74-423 Downtown Site Feasibility Study Los Angeles
74-424 Hidden Trails (Extra) Agoura
74-425 White Residence Remodel Pasadena

74-426 SCRTD Phase IV Los Angeles
74-427 Association of Bay Area Governments Bldg. (ABAG) Oakland
74-428 San Fernando Valley Child Guidance Clinic-Extra San Fernando
74-429 Surbana No. 1 Managua, Nic.
74-430 General Somoza Managua, Nic.
74-431 Sacasa/Gomez Costa Rica
74-432 Sacasa/Gomez Costa Rica
74-433 Surbana No. 2 Managua, Nic.

75-434 United States Post Office (USPO) Airport Oakland
75-435 Long Beach Housing Long Beach
75-436 Puerto Vallarta Marina Mexico
75-437 Adamson Foundation Los Angeles
75-438 Rockwell International Palmdale

75-439 UCLA Storehouse Building Los Angeles
75-440 Maintenance & Operation Facility San Ramon
75-441 Cancun (Master Plan) Mexico

161

WORK
ORDER
NO. PROJECT CITY

76-442 Bixby Ranch Los Angeles
76-443 Carson Community Building Carson
76-444 Leonard Dubin Law Offices Los Angeles
76-445 Golf de Vallarta Land Analysis (Mexico) Puerto Vallarta
76-446 Cole Storefront Los Angeles

76-447 Los Alamitos Building Project Los Alamitos
76-448 World Airways Building San Paolo
76-449 Carmelitos Housing Project Carmelitos
76-450 Rockwell B-1 Los Angeles
76-451 Garden Grove Building Project Garden Grove

76-452 Bain Properties Los Angeles
76-453 San Bernardino Building Project San Bernardino
76-454 Bank of America(No Data on Branch) Los Angeles
76-455 Gibraltar/Slayton Offices Los Angeles
76-456 Lee Haley Medical Los Angeles

76-457 Van Nuys EIR Van Nuys
76-458 Hirshberg Residence Sherman Oaks
76-459 WMATA 2 Washington D.C.
76-460 El Toro Naval Facility El Toro
76-461 FAA – Shop Drawing Review New York

76-462 UCSD Third College – Phase 2 San Diego
76-463 Carson Computer Facility Carson
76-464 Carson North Basement – Master Plan Carson
76-465 Community Redevelopment Agency – Compton Office Compton
76-466 Godrich Kest & Assoc. (Scherer Park Apts.) Long Beach

77-467 Mission College Feasibility Study-Site (Som/KDG) North Valley
77-468 Electro-Sonic Building Hawthorne
77-469 City of Palm Springs Palm Springs
77-470 Los Tules Resort Puerto Vallarta
77-471 Carson North Basement, Construction Documents Carson
77-472 City of Baldwin Park (Master Plan) Baldwin Park
77-473 Pleasant Hill (Master Plan) Los Angeles
77-474 Marina (del Rey) Peninsula Los Angeles
77-475 SCRTD Wilshire Corridor Los Angeles
77-476 UCLA Kerchoff Hall (Restoration or Addition) Los Angeles
77-477 Dana Point Environmental (Study) Dana Point

162

WORK
ORDER
NO. PROJECT CITY

77-478 Huntington Beach Condominiums Huntington Bch
77-479 Hermosillo Site Survey Sonora, Mexico
77-480 Rubin, Miller & Egan Offices Los Angeles

77-481 Gault-Plesset Partnership Los Angeles
77-482 Huntington Beach Environmental (Study) Huntington Bch
77-483 Uni-Cal Los Angeles
77-484 Missing Data
77-485 Long Beach Apartments Long Beach
77-486 Dana Point Architectural (Study) Dana Point

77-487 Whizin (Market Square) Agoura
77-488 Condessa Vallarta Mexico
77-489 Dana Point Houses Dana Point
77-490 Gault-Plesset Bel Air Bel Air
77-491 Los Tules Condominiums Puerto Vallarta

77-492 ERC Review Committee Lynwood
77-493 Carson City Hall Maintenance Carson
77-494 Dana Point Condominiums Site 2-A (143 Units) Dana Point

78-495 Construction Administration – North Basement Carson
78-496 Computer Room A/C [No Building Data] Carson
78-497 Community Redevelopment Agency
Interior Revisions Carson
78-498 Central City Miscellaneous Services Los Angeles
78-499 Patton State Hospital San Bernardino

78-500 GJP Administration (GJP Ltd) Los Angeles
78-501 Dana Point Houses Design Development (GJP Ltd) Dana Point
78-502 Bank of America (Paramount-Florence Branch) Downey
78-503 ERC (Economic Resources Corporation), Building Lynwood
78-503-A ERC Tenant Improvements Lynwood

78-503-B ERC Landscape Revision Lynwood
78-503-C ERC Beco Chemical Lynwood
78-504 Ayres Association (Various Jobs) Los Angeles
78-505 Hidden Trails Agoura
78-506 Nobel Motel Los Angeles

163

WORK
ORDER
NO. PROJECT CITY

79-507 OSA Office Building (WPC) Van Nuys
79-507-A OSA Site Suitability Study Van Nuys
79-508 Family Savings & Loan Association Los Angeles
79-508-A John/Schneider Office Los Angeles
79-508-B Johnson/Schneider/Bourne Office (Redesign) Los Angeles

79-509 Alameda-Tweedy Industrial Park Lynwood
79-510 Lynwood H.S. (Lynwood Unified School District) Lynwood
79-511 Marina Manor (KDG/Dillion) Marina del Rey
79-512 Hidden Trails (West Valley Neighborhood School) Agoura
79-513 BLM Office Complex Elko

79-514 Solids Handling Facilities Plant No. 2 Fountain Valley
79-515 Desser Industrial Park Lynwood
79-516 JPL (Add to Combustion Res Fac. Bldg. 129) Pasadena
79-517 Hoover Elementary School (KDG/HWA) Los Angeles
79-518 Mission College – El Cariso Site San Fernando

79-518.1 Mission College – El Cariso (Preliminary) San Fernando
79-518.2 Missing Data
79-518.3 Phase IV (Final Environmental Impact Report San Fernando
79-518.4 Phase V (Secure EIR approvals) San Fernando
79-518.5 Extra Services – Mission College San Fernando
79-519 KFWB (Westinghouse)Transmitter Building near
Capitol Records Bldg. in Hollywood Los Angeles

79-520 Army Reserve Facilities (Corps of Engineers) Los Alamitos
79-521 Southern Pacific Railroad Property (ERC) Lynwood
79-522 Watts Shopping Center Phase 1 Watts
79-522.1 Contract Error – Cal Fed. Watts
79-522.A Cal Fed. Savings & Loan (Watts Shopping Center) Watts

79-522.B Pacific Telephone (Watts Shopping Center) Watts
79-522.C Tenants’ Spaces (Watts Shopping Center) Watts
79-523 Fort McArthur Comprehensive Plan (SAMSO) Ft. MacArthur
79-524 UCLA Memorial Activities Ctr. Bldg. D Expansion Los Angeles

79-524.1 Missing Data
79-524.2 Missing Data
79-524.3 Missing Data
79-524.4 UCLA Transformer Design Los Angeles

164

WORK
ORDER
NO. PROJECT CITY

79-524.5 UCLA Firm Rooms Los Angeles
79-524.6 UCLA Program Revisions Los Angeles
79-524.7 UCLA Water Damage Los Angeles
79-524.8 UCLA Equipment Screen Los Angeles
79-525 Wonderland Studios (Steve Wonder) Los Angeles

80-526 Maguire/CRA (Bunker Hill) Los Angeles
80-527 Carson Community Hall – Pre-Bid Los Angeles
80-528 Carson Community Hall – Bid and Cons. Admin. Los Angeles
80-529 Carson Community Center – Programming Los Angeles
80-530.1 Carson Community Center
[Schematic thru Cons Admin] Los Angeles

80-531 Patri/KDG San Francisco Los Angeles
80-532 Superior Savings Bank Los Angeles
80-533 KDG Development Los Angeles
80-534 Drew School Master Plan Los Angeles
80-535 Drew School Medical Education Center [Proposal] Los Angeles

80-535-A Drew School Medical Education Center Los Angeles
80-535-B Drew School Interior/Space Planning (Coordinator) Los Angeles
80-536 Drew School (Consulting Architect) Los Angeles
80-536.1 Drew Development Program Los Angeles
80-536.2 Admin/Allied Health/Campus Center Presentation Los Angeles

80-537 Congregation B’nai Tzedek Fountain Valley
80-538 Electro-Sonic Offices Los Angeles
80-539 Stevie Wonder Residence Los Angeles
80-540 Watts Shopping Center, Phase II Watts
80-540.1 Tenant Spaces (Watts Shopping Center, Phase II) Watts

80-540.2 Market Basket (Watts Shopping Center, Phase II) Watts
80-540.3 National Dollar St. (Watts Shopping Center, Phase II) Watts
80-540.4 Redesign Watts Shopping Center, Phase II) Watts
80-540.5 Survey Corrections
(Watts Shopping Center, Phase II) Watts
80-541 Water Filtration Plant/DWP Los Angeles

80-541.1 Water Filtration Plant/DWP Redesign Los Angeles
80-542 Van Dorn Station Washington, D.C.
80-542.1 Van Dorn Station (Changes) Washington, D.C.

165

WORK
ORDER
NO. PROJECT CITY

80-542.2 Cameron Run Sub-Station & Farrington Avenue Washington, D.C
80-543 Fort Mac Arthur Housing Facility San Pedro

80-544 Automatic Traffic Surveillance & Control System Los Angeles
80-545 Drew Interiors Los Angeles
80-546 Major Maintenance and Repair Facility MMRF Los Angeles
80-546.1 Model Major Maintenance & Repair Facility MMRF Los Angeles
80-547 Social Ecology Building, UC Irvine Irvine

80-548 ERC – Parcels 3 and 5 Los Angeles
80-549 ERC – Parcels 6 Lynwood
80-549.1 ERC/Business Park Expansion Los Angeles

81-550 6
th
Street Commercial Los Angeles
81-550.1 6
th
Street Demolition of Front Lots Los Angeles
81-551 Park View Condominiums Los Angeles
81-551.1 Missing Data
81-551.2 Missing Data
81-551.3 6
th
Street Demolition of Rear Lots Los Angeles

81-552 Park View Rental Housing (Redesign) Los Angeles

81-552 YMCA Weingart Branch Los Angeles
81-552.1 YMCA Weingart Branch-Extra Services:
Revise 2
nd
Floor Los Angeles

81-553 Compton Parks/Synterra (terminated) Compton
81-554 SCRTD – Ways & Structures DMJM/PBQD Los Angeles
81-555 Henderson-Pasadena Development Corporation Pasadena

81-556 NASA Preliminary Engineering Report Edwards AFB
81-557 LAX Parking Structures 3 & 4 + Heliport Los Angeles
81-557.1 Missing Data
81-557.2 Missing Data
81-557.3 LAX Construction Sequencing Los Angeles
81-558 Vet Admin 60-Bed Nursing Home
(Advance Planning) Loma Linda
81-559 Fort MacArthur – Modification to Building 410 San Pedro

81-560 L.A District Corps of Engineers Open End/HA Los Angeles
81-561 Air Quality Mgmt. Distribution Rehab (Skid Row) Los Angeles
81-561.1 San Pedro St. Light Industrial Bldg. Pkg. Los Angeles

166

WORK
ORDER
NO. PROJECT CITY

81-562 Universal City Florida Tours Orlando, FL
81-562.1 Universal Tours – Collapsing Bridge Orlando, FL

81-562.2 Universal Tours – Jaws (Attraction) Orlando, FL
81-562.3 Universal Tours – Ice Tunnel(Attraction) Orlando, FL
81-562.4 Universal Tour – Earthquake Damaged Floor
(Attraction) Orlando, FL

81-563 KDG Realty Bldg. Los Angeles

82-564 One La Brea Place Inglewood
82-565 RTD Maintenance Facility Div. 5 Van Ness/Slauson Los Angeles
82-566 Kenndown/Teitelbaum Construction Los Angeles
82-567 LAX Parking Structure No. 1 Los Angeles
82-568 L.A. County – Remodel Department of Collections Los Angeles

82-569 Long Beach Rail Transit PBQD/ Kaiser Engineering Long Beach
82-570 Los Angeles County Office – Remodel Los Angeles

83-571 May Company – Crenshaw Store Los Angeles
83-572 Systems Engineering Test Facility Edwards AFB
83-573 Baskin Robbins Los Angeles
83-574 Metro Rail – General Consultant Los Angeles
83-574.1 Metro Rail – Operations Building Los Angeles

83-575 Raymond Kaiser USPS Bulk Facility Bell
83-576 One City Center/Morris-Aubry Los Angeles
83-577 Buenaventura Plaza Los Angeles

84-578 TRW Redondo Beach
84-579 Division One, SCRTD Bus Facility Los Angeles
84-580 Monte Vista Crime Lab Los Angeles
84-581 Zeiger Residence Addition Los Angeles
84-582 UCLA SEAS Los Angeles

84-583 PVP – Tenant Improvements Los Angeles
84-583.1 Entre Computer Los Angeles
84-584 Anheuser-Bush (Construction Administration) Los Angeles
84-585 Specialized Training Facility (Corps of Engineers) Vandenberg AFB

167

WORK
ORDER
NO. PROJECT CITY

84-585.1 Specialized Training Facility
(Corps of Engineers) CID Vandenberg AFB

84-585.2 Partial Floor Plan Los Angeles

85-586.1 Washington High School Los Angeles
85-586.2 Woodcrest Elementary School Los Angeles
85-586.3 Washington High School Gym Los Angeles
85-586.4 Wash. H.S. Recons – 6 Bldgs. –
Agcy Approv/OSA Bkck Los Angeles
85-586.5 Woodcrest E.S. Recons Doc’n Cklist, Proj. Comp Los Angeles

85-586.6 Wash. H.S. Gym: Local Fire Requirements Los Angeles
85-586.7 Wash. H.S. Gym: Color Sch. Alt. (Tracking) Los Angeles
85-586.8 Wash. H.S. Gym: Arch’l Elev. Dwg. Res (Tracking) Los Angeles
85-587 Baskin Robbins, Overseas Foreign
85-588 UCSD – Humanities Bldg. La Jolla

85-589 Vermont/Manchester Metro Stop Los Angeles
85-589.1 Community Area Façade Los Angeles
85-589.2 Street Improvements Los Angeles
85-589.3 Vermont/Manchester Façade Los Angeles
85-589.4 Vermont/Manchester Street Improvement Los Angeles

85-590 Long Beach Lt. Rail Long Beach
85-590.1 Long Beach Lt. Rail Long Beach
85-591 Cal State – Music Building Pomona
85-591.1 Cal State – Relocation of 6” Water Line Pomona
85-591.2 Cal State – Inadequate Soil Condition Pomona

85-591.3 Cal State – Gas Line Revisions Pomona
85-591.4 Ext. of Basic Services beyond 12/14/89 –
Add’l. Svcs. Pomona

86-592 Missing data
86-593 Missing data
86-594 Missing data
86-595 Missing data
86-596 Cal State Los Angeles – Consultant Los Angeles
86-597 77
th
Street Police Station Los Angeles
86-598 UCLA Murphy Hall Los Angeles

168

WORK
ORDER
NO. PROJECT CITY

86-599 Psychiatric Outpatient L.A. County Los Angeles
86-599.1 Add Food Service Area (for Psychiatric Building) Los Angeles

86-599.2 Revision to Food Service Los Angeles
86-599.3 Revision to Mechanical System Los Angeles
86-599.4 2
nd
Revision to Food Service Los Angeles
86-599.5 Casework Revision Los Angeles
86-600 Central Library, Library Commission Los Angeles

86-601 Hyperion Plant Value Engineering Los Angeles
86-602 Summit Ridge Park, Los Angeles County L.A. County

87-603 UCLA Faculty Center Los Angeles
87-603.1 UCLA Faculty Center Air Conditioning Los Angeles
87-603.2 UCLA Faculty Center Roof System Los Angeles
87-603.3 UCLA Faculty Center Roof Calculation Los Angeles
87-604 Belmont High School Complex Los Angeles

87-605 KDG Development/JD Study Los Angeles
87-606 Jefferson New Jr. High School No. 1 (EEF/KDG) Los Angeles
87-606.1 Jefferson New JHS/Extra Services Los Angeles
87-606.2 Jefferson New JHS/Extra Services Los Angeles
87-607 Port of Los Angeles Los Angeles

87-608 Leo A. Daily Reimb. 410287 Los Angeles
87-609 DOA Warehouse 6 – Maintenance. Facility Los Angeles
87-610 Library Square Parking Garage Los Angeles
87-611 Western Nevada Community College Nevada
87-611.1 Western Nevada Community College (Master Plan) Nevada

87-612 Compton Auto Plaza Master Plan Compton
87-613 LAX Conference Center Los Angeles
87-614 LACTC – Norwalk-El Segundo Rail Transit (HY&S) El Segundo
87-615 Santa Ana Corridor/Metro Rail Los Angeles
87-616 Lynwood Detention Facility, L.A. County Lynwood

87-617 Lynwood/USD (Hosler and Wilson Site) Lynwood
87-617.1 Lynwood High School Lynwood

88-618 Poway Dodge Bldg. Poway

169

WORK
ORDER
NO. PROJECT CITY

88-618.1 Poway Dodge Redesign Site Plan Dodge Dealer Poway
88-618.2 Poway Dodge (Redesign) Poway
88-618.3 Poway Plan Dept. Presentation Requirements Poway
88-619 Los Angeles Convention Center (Remodel) Los Angeles

88-620 Silverlake Community Center Building Los Angeles
88-621 Missing data
88-622 Cal State L.A. Dance Studio Los Angeles
88-623 Cal State L.A.: Earthquake Damage Repair Los Angeles
88-623.1 CSLA-Simpson Tower: Earthquake Damage Rep Los Angeles
88-624 Housing Authority of City of L.A. (HACLA) Los Angeles

88-625 Jefferson New Sr. High School Los Angeles
88-625.1 Jefferson New Sr. High School –
Demolition Const. Doc Los Angeles
88-626 Edd Bldg. Kreeves Los Angeles
88-627 Metro Rail (Wilshire – Vermont) Los Angeles
88-628 Friedman Center Los Angeles

88-629 RTD – Unit Shop 2 – Central Maintenance Facility Los Angeles
88-629.1 RTD – Value Engineering Study (Cost Reduction) Los Angeles
88-629.2 RTD – Card Reader FA/PA System Los Angeles
88-629.3 RTD – Construction Admin. (on-call basis) Los Angeles
88-630 Missing data
88-631 Pomona USD Pomona
88-632 Douglas Aircraft – Open End Long Beach
88-633 LUSD – Service Maintenance Building Lynwood
88-633.1 Lynwood USD – Vista Site Relocatable Lynwood
88-633.2 Lynwood USD – Additional Serv. – 1 Hr. Wall Lynwood
88-634 Douglas Aircraft (DAC) Los Angeles

89-635 Missing data
89-636 Drew Earthquake Damage Repair Los Angeles
89-637 King/Drew Medical Ctr. Trauma/Diagnostic Care Ctr. Los Angeles
(See Sublist)
89-638 Missing data
89-639 USC Plaza, Master Plan Los Angeles
89-640 USC Plaza, Phase 1 – Office Building Los Angeles
89-641 USC – Plaza Programming Los Angeles

89-641.1 USC – Computing Services Los Angeles

170

WORK
ORDER
NO. PROJECT CITY

89-641.2 USC – LAS Los Angeles
89-641.3 USC – Credit Union Commercial Banking Los Angeles
89-641.4 USC – Staff and Faculty Counseling Los Angeles

89-642 Ujima Village Los Angeles
89-643 MDAC – Manned Flight Hardware Simulator Facility
McDonnell Douglas Los Angeles

90-644 Roybal Gerontology Center – Cal State Los Angeles
90-645 Los Angeles Senior High School (Ambassador Site) Los Angeles
90-646 Martin Luther King Neonatal ICU Alterations Los Angeles
90-647 Feasibility Study: Remodel Cal State Music Building Los Angeles
90-648 Amtrak/VIP Lounge Los Angeles

90-649 Central Library – Construction Administration Los Angeles
90-650 Department of Water and Power – Granada Hills Los Angeles
90-651 Van Nuys General Mail Facility (Post Office) Van Nuys
90-652 Cal State (CSULA/Master Plan Update) Los Angeles
90-653 South Central L.A. Regional Ctr. For Dev. Los Angeles

90-653.1 SCLARC – Add’l Services. Const. Admin Sup Los Angeles
90-653.2 SCLARC – Relocation of Headquarters Los Angeles
90-654 Drew Detail Project Program (DDPP) Los Angeles
90-655 First AME Education Center Los Angeles
90-656 Cal State L.A. Biological Science Res. Lab Los Angeles

90-657 Westlawn Library – Planning Consultant Los Angeles
90-658 Replacement Fire Station No.16 Los Angeles
90-659 Metro Rail System, Orange Line Los Angeles
90-659.1 Metro Rail System, Orange Line, West Los Angeles
90-659.2 Metro Rail System, Orange Line, East Los Angeles

90-660 Long Beach Atlantic Corridor (533/329) Long Beach
90-661 Wilshire/ Vermont Feasibility Study (533/331) Los Angeles

91-662 Washington Metro Area Transit:
Franconia/Springfield Wash, D.C.
91-663 Hyperion Construction Management Los Angeles
91-664 Dept. of Labor Inland Empire Job Corps Ctr. San Bernardino

171

WORK
ORDER
NO. PROJECT CITY

92-665 HACLA Construction Observation Los Angeles
92-666 NO JOB ASSIGNED TO THIS NUMBER
92-667 Cal State L.A. Parking Lot Access Study Los Angeles
92-668 1987 Feasibility Study/ Physical Science Bldg.
(GPRA) Los Angeles
92-669 Lynwood Service Center (Modification/Site) Lynwood

92-670 Orange Line – Mid City Segment Stations Los Angeles
92-671 Cal State L.A. – ADA Study Los Angeles
92-672 Compatibility Assess for Joint Dev.
Pico San Vicente Stn. Los Angeles
92-673 Computer Feasibility Study (CSULA) Los Angeles
92-674 Resolution Trust Corp – West Six Plaza Los Angeles

92-675 F.A.M.E. AIDS Hospice Residence Los Angeles
92-676 F.A.M.E. Multi-Unit Housing Los Angeles
92-677 Cecil L. Murray Education Center (Master Plan) Los Angeles
92-678 Federal Express LAX AGT&T Facility Upgrade Los Angeles

93-679 Renovation of Cecil L. Murray Edu. Center
(Master Plan) Los Angeles
93-680 Boiler Replacement CSULA Los Angeles
93-681 Swimming Pool Renovation CSULA Los Angeles
93-682 Aliso Village – Reuse/Feasibility Study (KDG Dev) Los Angeles
93-683 Lanzit Industrial Site Econ/Market Analysis and Planning
Study Los Angeles

93-684 Pub Remodel CSULA Los Angeles
93-685 University Club CSULA Los Angeles
93-686 Cox Development (KDG Dev) Los Angeles
93-687 Beijing Membership Club Beijing, China
93-688 Santa Barbara Plaza Los Angeles

94-689 Hollywood Bowl Renovation Los Angeles
94-690 Baldwin Hills Recreation Center Los Angeles
94-691 Statue of Confucius CSULA Los Angeles
94-692 Pasadena Water/Power Microbiology Lab Expansion Pasadena
94-693 Animal Care Facility CSULA Los Angeles

94-694 Upgrade of Photo Lab CSULA Los Angeles

172

WORK
ORDER
NO. PROJECT CITY

94-695 Bungalow “W” Remodel CSULA Los Angeles
94-696 Architectural Barrier Removal, Phase 1 CSULA Los Angeles
94-697 Broadcast Facility – Music Bldg. CSULA Los Angeles
94-698 Lecture Hall Remodel – Bio Sciences Bldg. CSULA Los Angeles

94-699 King Taco Code Review CSULA Los Angeles
94-700 American Place Shanghai, China

THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS ARCHIVES For information or study purposes only. Not to be recopied,
quoted, or published without written permission from the AIA Archives, 1735 New York Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20006
APPENDIX B
Kennard's AIA College of Fellows, Nomination Application
173
THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS ARCHIVES For information or study purposes only. Not to be recopied,
quoted, or published without written permission from the AIA Archives, 1735 New York Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20006
174
THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS ARCHIVES For information or study purposes only. Not to be recopied,
quoted, or published without written permission from the AIA Archives, 1735 New York Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20006
175
THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS ARCHIVES For information or study purposes only. Not to be recopied,
quoted, or published without written permission from the AIA Archives, 1735 New York Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20006
176
THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS ARCHIVES For information or study purposes only. Not to be recopied,
quoted, or published without written permission from the AIA Archives, 1735 New York Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20006
177
THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS ARCHIVES For information or study purposes only. Not to be recopied,
quoted, or published without written permission from the AIA Archives, 1735 New York Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20006
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THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS ARCHIVES For information or study purposes only. Not to be recopied,
quoted, or published without written permission from the AIA Archives, 1735 New York Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20006
179
THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS ARCHIVES For information or study purposes only. Not to be recopied,
quoted, or published without written permission from the AIA Archives, 1735 New York Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20006
180
THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS ARCHIVES For information or study purposes only. Not to be recopied,
quoted, or published without written permission from the AIA Archives, 1735 New York Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20006
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THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS ARCHIVES For information or study purposes only. Not to be recopied,
quoted, or published without written permission from the AIA Archives, 1735 New York Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20006
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THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS ARCHIVES For information or study purposes only. Not to be recopied,
quoted, or published without written permission from the AIA Archives, 1735 New York Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20006
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THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS ARCHIVES For information or study purposes only. Not to be recopied,
quoted, or published without written permission from the AIA Archives, 1735 New York Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20006
184
THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS ARCHIVES For information or study purposes only. Not to be recopied,
quoted, or published without written permission from the AIA Archives, 1735 New York Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20006
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THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS ARCHIVES For information or study purposes only. Not to be recopied,
quoted, or published without written permission from the AIA Archives, 1735 New York Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20006
186

Abstract (if available)

Abstract Although Master Architect Robert A. Kennard received the American Institute of Architects’ [AIA] highest lifetime of achievement honors, his contributions to architecture and the community are relatively unknown to the public. In 1986, Kennard became an inductee into the American Institute of Architects’ College of Fellows. A recognition bestowed upon AIA members who “exemplify architectural excellence,” and made “significant contributions to the profession and society.” According to the AIA, only three percent of its membership has received this distinction. Despite these numerous accolades, Kennard’s legacy is relegated to the collective memories of art historians and a few conscientious architectural students. Kennard's life and artistry need to be rediscovered. ❧ Robert Alexander Kennard [1920 – 1995] was born in Los Angeles and believed that people were more important than the spaces they occupied. It was “the architect’s job to make the environment fit the people,” and not to fit people into the environment. “The goal of the design is the organization of space for people...that is, space that provides a secure, comfortable and healthful environment for work, play and leisure. In addition to their professional responsibility to the client, architects should add a measure of visual delight that makes space an area people want to occupy—and feel good about being there,” said Kennard. In 1957, Robert founded his firm. Today it is the oldest, continuously owned, Afro-American architectural firm west of the Mississippi River. Kennard designed over seven hundred buildings and structures—including forty homes. Robert’s design of the mid-century modern Zeiger House, with landscaping by architect Garrett Eckbo, was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. Kennard led the effort on the redevelopment of Watts after the rebellion in 1965. His plans, for the proposed Watts urban renewal project, included a series of elevated bridges, plazas and walkways that allowed pedestrians to travel uninhibited by traffic. It also included a Disneyland type of monorail that transported residents around the community, with a fixed route that connected elderly housing complexes to shopping establishments and social services. Mentored and inspired by architects Paul Williams, Robert Alexander, Richard Neutra, and American civil liberties activist Frank Wilkinson, Kennard encouraged architects of color to become proficient in the trade and socially conscious.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Robinson, Jerome Anthony (author)

Core Title An odyssey in B-flat: rediscovering the life and times of master architect Robert A. Kennard

School School of Architecture

Degree Master of Heritage Conservation

Degree Program Heritage Conservation

Publication Date 10/09/2018

Defense Date 10/08/2018

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Adolfo Miralles,African American,Afro-American,Afro-Western,AIA,Albert C. Martin,Anderson Residence,Angeline Herbert,architect,architectural,architecture,Arthur Gallion,Arthur Silvers,Arturo Fribourg,Awards,Bauhaus,Beatrice Zeiger,Benjamin McAdoo,building stock,Calvin Straub,Carson,Carson City Hall,Carson Community Center,Case study house,Central Avenue,Charles Matthews,Chavez Ravine,Chief Parker,Chief William H. Parker,Civil rights,Clayton Baldwin,College of Fellows,Community Redevelopment Agency,conservation,Culver City,Curtis Chambers,Daniel Escudero,Daniel, Mann, Johnson,David Zeiger,Dean Gallion,Delahousie,Design Group,disenfranchised,Distinguished Alumni Award,Drake Dillard,Eatontown,Edna Chess,Elysian Park,Ernest Elwood,Ernest P. Howard,Executive Order 11458,FAIA,Federal Housing Act of 1949,Fletcher Bowron,Frank Sata,Frank Wilkinson,Fred Vandermeer,Garrett Eckbo,Gault,gentrification,Great Migration,Hardyman,Harold Williams,Harry S. Truman,Helen King,honors,Housing Act,Housing Authority,housing cooperative,Hugh Macbeth,Huntington Drive Elementary School,Inner City Cultural Center,integrated Baldwin Hills,Irving Zeiger,Jackie Robinson,James Kennard,Jeffrey Gault,Jim Dodd,Kelly Residence,Kennard,Kennard and Silvers,Lambertville,Laurel Canyon,Le Corbusier,Los Angeles,Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument,lymphoma,lynching,Mack Robinson,Marquette Frye,McCone Commission,midcentury modern,mid-century modern,Mingo Jack,minority,Monrovia,Monrovia High School,National Organization of Minority Architects,Negro Problem,New Jersey,Norma Sklarek,OAI-PMH Harvest,O'Dwyer,Orange Avenue Elementary,Pasadena,Pasadena Junior College,Paul Williams,Pollak and Barsocchini,public projects,Pullman,Pullman Car,Pullman Porter,Rabbi Herschel Lymon,redevelopment,restrictive covenants,Rhode Island,Richard Neutra,riot,Robert A. Kennard,Robert Alexander,Robert Alexander Kennard,Robert Kennard,Robert Marks,Roland Wiley,Roy Eller,Samuel Johnson,Scarab,Shirley Adelson Siegel,Skidmore, Owings,Small Business Act,South Central,St. Louis,Stanley Mosk,style,sundown town,Temple Akiba,Twentieth Street Elementary School,University of Southern California,University of Southern California School of Architecture,USC,Van Nuys State Office Building,Victor Gruen,Ward Preston,Watts,Watts Rebellion,Watts Riots,Westerly,Whitney M. Young,Wild Rose Elementary School,Wilfandel Club House,William Stone,Wonderland Park,Zeiger,Zeiger Residence,Zella Taylor

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Sandmeier, Trudi (committee chair), Ethington, Philip (committee member), Kurashige, Lon (committee member)

Creator Email jerome.thewriter@gmail.com,jeromear@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c89-113108

Unique identifier UC11675173

Identifier etd-RobinsonJe-6800.pdf (filename),usctheses-c89-113108 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-RobinsonJe-6800.pdf

Dmrecord 113108

Document Type Thesis

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Robinson, Jerome Anthony

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA