Robert Kennard, Architect: A Mid-Century Biography
GAIL KENNARD
Introduction by Alan Hess
UPCOMING TITLE: Available February 2027
The first-ever architectural publication on Los Angeles-based modernist Robert Kennard!
This untold story of the African American professional deepens our understanding of modernism, specifically in post-war California. Robert Kennard and his many associates played a role in shaping Los Angeles during the city’s rapid growth in the decades after World War II. Author Gail Kennard, the architect’s daughter, unveils a remarkable body of work. She documents the history of one man’s journey within a wider context as she recounts the trajectory of her father’s life—growing up in a segregated town in the outskirts of Los Angeles, serving in WWII, getting his architectural degree at the University of Southern California, starting his career working with Robert Alexander and Richard Neutra on the controversial public housing project in Chavez Ravine, working for DMJM and Victor Gruen, and eventually starting his own firm, which was still thriving in 1995 when Kennard died at the age of seventy-four.
Projected release date: February 1, 2027
Hardcover
Est. 352 pages
Color and black & white illustrations
8.75 x 11.5 inches
$75.00 USD
ISBN: 978-1735600154
Description
Robert Kennard was born in Los Angeles in 1920, a generation after the influential architects Paul R. Williams and James H. Garrott, both African Americans who helped define the architectural landscape of Los Angeles. The success of these earlier Angelenos became a beacon and inspiration to the many African American architects of Kennard’s generation, including Norma Merrick Sklarek, Roy Sealey, Ralph A. Vaughn, and Benjamin F. McAdoo, Kennard’s friend and classmate from the architectural program at Pasadena Junior College.
Author Gail Kennard traces her father’s life and career within the broader context of historical events, including the passing of the Wagner-Steagall Housing Act of 1937. The federal loans provided by that law as well as the determination of local governments across the country to address the population explosion after the Second World War led to a boom in construction of housing and public schools—municipal projects which defined Kennard’s early to middle career.
Gail introduces the substantial body of work that Kennard completed during his lifetime—the forty custom houses he designed in the early 1960s, churches and synagogues, commercial work, and his public projects, including public housing, education, and transit. Among his most well-known projects are the Carson City Hall, UCSD’s Marshall College campus (originally the Third College), and the Watts Neighborhood Center. In the text, Gail explores the important network of architects, landscape architects, and engineers with whom Kennard collaborated, among them Robert Alexander, Richard Neutra, Garrett Eckbo, Arthur Silvers, Frank Sata, and Paul R. Williams. She also describes how her father navigated the social and racial divide in mid-century America.
Before his death, Kennard was appointed a Fellow of the AIA, a rare honor he received not only for the more than 700 buildings his firm built but also for the impact he had as a mentor.
About the Author
Gail Kennard currently serves as Vice-President of the Cultural Heritage Commission of Los Angeles City Planning Department and is President of Kennard Design Group (KDG), her father’s architectural firm, which from its inception has been a multi-ethnic company. She is also among five jurors who were selected by Docomomo US for deciding the 11th annual Modernism in America Awards for 2024. She began her career as a journalist for United Press International and Time Magazine and is a former public information officer for the San Diego Historical Society, as well as a former member of the Board of Advisors of the USC School of Architecture. Aside from her active role in helping to ensure the preservation of historic architectural sites in Los Angeles, she has been documenting the work of female architects in Southern California in a series of oral histories.