Ray Kappe, FAIA is an internationally recognized and published architect-planner-educator who has practiced architecture in Los Angeles since 1953. His much awarded and published work is considered to be an extension of the early Southern California master architects, Wright, Schindler and Neutra. He is well known for his work in the 60’s and 70’s published in GA Houses 1 and the monograph on his work in Toshi Jutaku 8203. His work of the 1980’s and ‘90’s has been featured in many of the subsequent GA Houses books, as well as many other national and international journals and books. In 1998 Images published a book written by Michael Webb on his houses entitled Themes & Variations. In 2003, a monograph entitled Ray Kappe 1953-2003, was published by the Architecture + Design Museum in conjunction with the Ray Kappe Retrospective Exhibit, celebrating his 50 years in architecture, which traveled around southern California for 4 months.

He was the first chairman of Architecture at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He is founder of SCI-ARC, the Southern California Institute of Architecture in LA, as well as its European Program in Vico Morcote, Switzerland, and was SCI-ARC’s Director for 15 years from 1972 to 1987. He has been Chairman of the Board and is currently a Board member.

He is the recipient of numerous design awards since the beginning of his practice and is the only architect to receive all of the following major awards:

1. The Neutra Award for excellence in architecture.
2. The AIA/ACSA Topaz Medal, the highest award for architectural education in the United States.
3. The Maybeck Award from the American Institute of Architects/California Council, the highest state award recognizing lifelong individual achievement in architectural design.
4. The LA/AIA Gold Medal for “Lifetime achievements as an innovative designer, enlightened planner and inspired educator who has influenced generations of students and practitioners.”
5. In 1998 he was the recipient of the first Distinguished Alumnus Medal in Architecture awarded from the College of Environmental Design, University of California, Berkeley.
6. At the 1996 Pacific Design Center Westweek, he was honored by being named a Star of Design for Lifetime Achievement in Architectural Design.
7. In 1996 his own house was named a Cultural Heritage Landmark of the City of Los Angeles and in 1997 it received the AIA/California Council 25-year Award. In 2000 it received the 25-year Award from AIALos Angeles.
8. In 2003 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the AIACC in “Recognition of his lifetime of selfless contribution of time and energy to the professional growth of young people, dedication to the American Institute of Architects and the betterment of the profession.
9. In 2004, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and the “Hall of Fame” Award from Residential Architect’s Leadership Awards Program.
10. In 2006, he received the President’s Lifetime Achievement in Education Award at the National AIA Convention in Los Angeles, recognizing his 40 some years in education and the thousands of students whose lives have been touched by that involvement.

Ray Kappe, FAIA has been in architectural practice since 1953. Besides design, his career has included social and community advocacy, urban design and planning, and education. He has authored publications on environmental planning and urban design. He has completed energy and advanced technology research. He is an internationally known architect who has designed buildings which have been recognized with numerous awards and publication. His involvement with education has produced one the nation’s most innovative and progressive schools, the Southern California Institute of Architecture, SCI-ARC. He was the founding Director in 1972, and in 1976 was awarded the CCAIA Excellence in Education Award. In 1990 he was the recipient of the Topaz Medallion, the highest award for excellence in architecture education in the United States presented by the American Institute of Architects and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.

Ray Kappe began his architectural practice in the early 50’s committed to the ideals of the California lifestyle, which afforded the potential to live with nature. The design expression of the existing Southern California work beginning with Greene and Greene, Wright, Neutra and Schindler, and followed by Ain, Soriano, and Harris formed the basis for his own work. Architect Hayahiko Takase wrote in the Ray Kappe monograph by the Japanese magazine Toshi-Jutaku in March 1982 that, “Ray Kappe is one of the few successors of the ‘Great Tradition of California Housing’. His work has similar characteristics to the preceding California masters such as open-mindedness, harmony with nature, clear systems, unostentatiousness and Japanese influence.”

Design Since graduating from the University of California, with Honors in Architecture, in 1951, Kappe has been the recipient of numerous design awards. These include 6 National AIA House & Home Awards, 10 Southern California Chapter AIA Honor and Merit Awards, a CCAIA Merit Award, an AIA Sunset Honor Award, a National AIA Homes for Better Living Award, a Steel Institute Award, a Grand Prix Award from the City of Los Angeles, and the State of California Governor’s Mansion Competition Award, among others. His work has had wide publication locally, nationally and internationally. In 1976, a retrospective of his residential work from 1966-1976 was published in GA Houses 1. This work was an exploration, through the custom house, of the potential for developing individualized and differentiated space using a single modular base for use in multiple housing. His work from 1976 to 1985 explored solutions responsive to energy concerns, both passive and active. His most recent work attempts to combine all of these concerns when applicable. In 1987, he received the Neutra Award for Professional Excellence, and in 1995 he received the Maybeck Award for his 42 years of outstanding architectural design. This is the highest state design award given by the American Institute of Architects California Council, and he was the first recipient from southern California. In 1996 he was awarded the Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects/Los Angeles Chapter honoring him for his “Lifetime Achievements, as an innovative designer, enlightened planner and inspired educator who has influenced generations of students and practitioners.” In1996, he was also awarded a Star in the Court of the Pacific Design Center for a Lifetime of Outstanding Design, and his own house was named a Cultural Heritage Landmark of the City of Los Angeles. In 1997, the Kappe residence was the recipient of the AIA/CC Twenty-five Year Award. In 1998, he was the recipient of the first Distinguished Alumnus Medal in Architecture awarded from the College of Environmental Design and the CED Alumni Association, University of California, Berkeley. In 2000, the Kappe residence received the 25-year Award Award from the AIA/Los Angeles Chapter. In 2003, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the AIA/CC in “Recognition of his lifetime of selfless contribution of time and energy to the professional growth of young people, dedication to the American Institute of Architects and the betterment of the profession.” In 2004, he received the Hall of Fame Leadership Award from Residential Architect and the 2004 Life Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.

His overriding design attitude defines total architecture as the achievement of equality among the elements of user needs, the relationship of site and surrounding environment, the development of space through visual perception and the ordering of movement, the incorporation and recognition of natural and environmental factors, the exploration of construction techniques, and the ordering of structure and materials. He attempts to counteract the impact upon the senses and the general lack of the obvious in his work by making the construction system and structure understandable. The structure and plan is measured, but the spaces are not usually totally understood. He chooses not to ignore any aspect of architecture in order to make a single point. Inclusive complexity within order is his attempt to reach the highest level of architectural experience.

Advocacy & Practice Kappe has been a member of AIA since 1953. He was elected to the College of Fellows in 1969. He was Chairman of the Urban Design Committee of the Southern California chapter AIA for 3 years, during which time he published Land Development Control in Hillside and Mountain Areas, Grey Areas, A Townscape Study, and Rapid Transit 197?. Responding to the need of the architect/planner to fulfill responsibility to the community, beyond the normal professional role, Kappe has contributed much time to advocacy planning work. Some of the projects undertaken by his firm include helping to save Watts Towers, masterplanning the Watts Community Arts Center, and the design of the recreational facilities for Ramona Gardens, a public housing neighborhood in East Los Angeles. Ray Kappe was also instrumental in establishing the Barrio Planners, which began with a group of his students from Cal Poly, Pomona.

From 1953 to 1968, Ray Kappe was in private practice. During this period he completed 40 residential, 9 multiple-unit and 8 commercial projects. He then formed the partnership of Kahn Kappe Lotery Boccato. The partners came together through their work on the AIA Urban Design Committee and their sharing concerns for improving the environment through good planning and urban design. The planning work of the partnership includes masterplanning for a new town in Valencia; downtown rehabilitation plans for the cities of Inglewood, Compton, Santa Monica and Watts-Willowbrook; open space and park planning for Charmlee Park, in the Santa Monica Mountains; a conservation and land use plan for the City of San Clemente; a low-income 255-unit development in Pasadena; and a Downtown People Mover Study for the City of Los Angeles. The partnership also produced civic and commercial buildings for Inglewood, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, as well as residential work which was always prevalent in the practice. Since 1981, the practice has continued under the name of Kappe Architects Planners.

Professional Service Kappe served as Director of the Southern California Chapter AIA for 3 years, and chaired the Urban Design Committee, the Awards Committee twice, and the International Relations Committee of AIA/LA. He also served on the Fellowship Committee and the 1994 National AIA Convention Task Force. He spent several years serving on the Goals Council for the City of Los Angeles, and chaired the Housing Committee of the Goals Council. At the California Council AIA level, he served as Chairman of the Environmental Committee, was a member of the Education Committee and was Chairman of the first CCAIA Design Conference in 1978. He was also Chairman of the CCAIA Convention Program Committee on Architectural Education in 1984. At the National AIA level, he was a member of the Continuing Education Committee and a member of the Jury of Fellows for three years. He also served as a member of the Advisory Committee for the Board of Architectural Examiners. He has participated on design juries for numerous AIA chapters, has spoken at design conferences throughout the state, and has lectured at universities in and out of the state. In 1977, he gave the keynote address at the National AIA Convention on the future of architectural education. In 1994, he was the keynote speaker for the Alaska Chapter AIA, and in 1998, he represented the U.S. as a keynote speaker for Forum II, Architectural Education for the 3rd Millennium, in Cyprus. In 2003, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the AIACC. In 2003-04 he was honored with a Retrospective Exhibit of 50 years of his work at the Los Angeles Architecture + Design Museum.

Educational Service In 1968, Ray Kappe was selected to be founding chairman of the new Department of Architecture at California State Polytechnic University at Pomona. After three and a half years of successful operation and support from the profession, a situation arose which culminated in Kappe and most of his faculty resigning, and at the urging of his students, founding a private, tuition-funded school, which became known as SCI-ARC, the Southern California Institute of Architecture. He directed the school from 1972 to 1987. He also founded SCI-ARC’s European Program in Vico Morcote Switzerland in 1983. Professional approval has come to Ray Kappe and SCI-ARC in the form of the first CCAIA Excellence in Education Award in 1976, the Southern California Chapter AIA Award of Honor in 1976, and the Topaz Award from The National AIA & The National Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture in 1990.

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