Architect Ray Kappe

By: Julian Chavez | August 20, 2009 | Design Profile

Ray Kappe is one of the most influential architects of this generation. Born to Romanian immigrants in 1927, Kappe attended the University of California, Berkeley, and began his architecture career at the San Francisco-based firm Anshen + Allen. Soon after, he went solo and started designing homes throughout the San Fernando Valley. In 1968, Kappe designed and built his own home, an award-winning masterpiece in Pacific Palisades that is considered one of the best-designed houses in Southern California to this day. Most of Kappe’s work in the ’60s and ’70s were examples of modular design and his quest for a system of prefabricated construction, which allowed for open plans and spatial fluidity at higher efficiency and lower costs.
In 1972, Kappe founded SCI-Arc, the Southern California Institute of Architecture, conceived to foster a creative learning atmosphere and encourage freethinking within a common vision. SCI-Arc is now considered one of the top architectural schools in the country.
Throughout his career, Kappe has received numerous awards including multiple lifetime achievement awards for both his architecture and commitment to education, the California Council/American Institute of Architecture Bernard Maybeck Award for Design, the Richard Neutra International Medal for Design Excellence, and AIA National and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture honored him with their Topaz Medallion, which is the highest award for an architectural educator. His Pacific Palisades home also has received 25-Year Awards from both the California and Los Angeles chapters of the AIA and was designated a Cultural Heritage Monument by the City of Los Angeles. The president of the Architecture and Design Museum, Stephen Kanner wrote, “Ray’s own home may be the greatest house in all of Southern California.”
Currently, Kappe is busy as ever, especially with the new demand for prefabricated, sustainable homes. Along with actor Brad Pitt, he is working on an expansive project to rebuild the lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, an area that was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. Their objective is to design a community of affordable prefabricated structures for individuals who lost their homes four years ago.

Earlier this month, Malibu Magazine had the honor of speaking with Kappe and his wife, Shelly, in their famous Palisades home.

Who did you admire growing up and how did he/she influence your career?

I did not have heroes. I admired my parents, but they did not influence my career consciously. They gave me art lessons at the Walker and Minneapolis art institutes, and at Chouinard in Los Angeles when I was young, and encouraged my artwork. We traveled a great deal in the United States — from Minneapolis to Los Angeles several times taking a variety of routes — and to New York for the ’39 World’s Fair. These were important driving experiences, and of course I was subconsciously and consciously influenced by what I saw and felt. Also, I grew up in Minneapolis, a city of many lakes and parks and trees, so nature was always very important to me. When we finally settled in Los Angeles, I was 13 and attended Emerson Junior High School in West L.A. The school was designed by Richard Neutra, and I was especially impressed with the two classrooms with large sliding glass doors that opened to form an outdoor classroom. I also became aware of Neutra’s apartments in Westwood when I was in high school. This was my first experience with important modern architecture.

What is the first thing you contemplate when conceiving a new structure, and from where do you draw your inspiration?

I draw my inspiration from the site, with all of its special characteristics, and the client’s program. Through solving the structural problems and the client’s needs and desires, the building begins to take shape. The aesthetic appearance is the end result.

Can you tell us a little bit about the Louisiana project you’re working on with Brad Pitt?

My New Orleans project is one of the several houses designed for the Lower Ninth Ward Make It Right Foundation established by Brad Pitt. This was a difficult project for me because of the constraints of the program: limited glass, pitched roofs, the New Orleans vernacular and the house having to be raised 8 feet above ground level due to the potential for flooding. It was completely different from my California houses and felt foreign to me. I did my best to provide the best living environment that I could in an 1,800-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bath house with an attached one-bedroom unit. I designed it as a prefabricated two-modular house and hinged the roof to form the second floor, thereby saving two modulars and their delivery and erection costs. By creating this innovative, more affordable house, I felt that I was contributing a solution that might help solve the housing crisis. The design was well received by the community because it did respect the vernacular, but also brought an entirely new modern dimension to the New Orleans house.

You’ve spent the better half of your career working on prefabricated structures. Why have you taken such a strong interest in the prefab movement?

Like many modern architects, the desire to solve the mass housing market in new ways was always an important agenda item for me since 1950. I started my architectural career working on Eichler homes in the office of Anshen + Allen in San Francisco. These were very successful, economical modern houses that are still admired today. There were other successful examples in Southern California during those early years, but then the developers, the providers of housing, changed the market and began providing conventional houses. I felt by designing factory-built prefabricated modular modern housing, I could design a product that could be competitive with the builder’s model.

I designed 250 units for student housing at Sonoma State University in 1969 that bid competitively, but the developer did not go ahead with the project. I have tried to interest others for 30 years, but it wasn’t until 2003 when I met Steve Glenn that I have had the opportunity to design prefabs for LivingHomes, Glenn’s company. Unfortunately, we, like others who have been attempting prefabrication over the past six years, have not generated the quantity to make prefab and modular housing affordable, due to the fact that as yet no developers have been interested in large-scale modular prefabricated development. The homes we have completed are 20 percent less expensive than custom homes with which they are comparable, and they are built in three to six months.

If you could have gone into any other profession, what would it have been and why?

I never considered another profession other than architecture because I felt it offered many related options such as urban design, planning and education, which have been part of my total architectural career. I have also been involved in some development and have contracted many of my architectural projects. This is a fairly diverse set of professional options that have been very satisfying for one person’s career.

 

Bookmarks: Page 1 of 2 pages  1 2 >