Edward Killingsworth

FAIA Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA) is a postnominal title or membership, designating an individual who has been named a fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Fellowship is bestowed by the institute on AIA-member ...

(1917–2004) was an American

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

. He is best known as a participant in Arts & Architecture's Case Study program in the mid-1950s. He designed and built Case Study House #25, "The Frank House," in Naples, California. He also designed numerous luxury hotels all over the world and a large part of the

California State University, Long Beach California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) is a public research university in Long Beach, California. The 322-acre campus is the second largest of the 23-school California State University system (CSU) and one of the largest universities i ...

campus. In the architecture world, his name is associated with

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

Post-and-Beam Mid-Century Modern.

Biography

Killingsworth was born in Taft on Nov. 4, 1917. Following the discovery of oil on Signal Hill in 1921, his oilman father moved the family south to

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

. During Killingsworth's years at

Woodrow Wilson Classical High School Woodrow Wilson High School (colloquially known as Long Beach Wilson) is an American public high school located in Long Beach, California. This two-block campus is located approximately 1.5 miles from the Pacific Ocean, across from the Recreation ...

, his original ambition was to become a painter, but he decided to major in something more practical at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

. Killingsworth earned his bachelor of architecture degree in 1940 and received the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...

Medal for having the highest academic record in his class. The start of Killingsworth's professional career was delayed by his service in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. As an operations officer attached to the 654th Engineer Topographic Battalion, Killingsworth earned a

Bronze Star The Bronze Star Medal (BSM) is a United States Armed Forces decoration awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious achievement, or meritorious service in a combat zone. Wh ...

for supervising the production of more than 8 million photo-maps in preparation for the Allied invasion of Europe. After returning from the war, Killingsworth went to work as an associate for Long Beach architect Kenneth S. Wing from in 1946-1953. Killingsworth was discovered in 1950 as

John Entenza John Entenza (December 4, 1905 – April 27, 1984) was one of the pivotal figures in the growth of American modernism: in the fields of environmental, architectural, landscape, and product design; and fine arts, and artisan crafts; in post-w ...

, creator of the Case Study Program, drove by Killingsworth's in-laws' recently built house in

Los Alamitos, California Los Alamitos () is a city in Orange County, California. The city was incorporated in March 1960. The population was 11,780 at the 2020 census, up from 11,449 at the 2010 census. The adjacent unincorporated community of Rossmoor uses the same 90 ...

. When Entenza found out Killingsworth was the architect, he invited him to participate in the program. This house was Killingsworth's first solo project and was one of Southern California's first post and beam structures. Edward Killingsworth partnered with Jules Brady (born 1908) and Waugh Smith (1917-2010) in 1953 and together they designed 4 Case Study Houses in 1960 (3 were built and are still standing, though one has been drastically altered), along with the Opdahl house and several other large projects. Waugh Smith left he partnership in 1963. From 1984 until his retirement in the early 2000s, Killingsworth became a partner in Killingsworth, Stricker, Lindgren, Wilson and Associate. He went on to design many highly acclaimed projects in Long Beach. One of them, the ''Opdahl House'', also in Naples and just blocks away from Case Study House #25, stands as a monument to Mid-Century architecture. By the early-1960s, Killingsworth also went on to design civic and commercial buildings in Long Beach. Killingsworth designed a home for his own family in the Los Cerritos neighborhood of Long Beach. For more than 40 years from 1962, he established and implemented the masterplan for the

CSULB California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) is a public research university in Long Beach, California. The 322-acre campus is the second largest of the 23-school California State University system (CSU) and one of the largest universities i ...

campus. Killingsworth designed the main architecture building of his alma mater, the

USC School of Architecture The USC School of Architecture is the architecture school at the University of Southern California. Located in Los Angeles, California, it is one of the university's twenty-two professional schools, offering both undergraduate and graduate degree ...

's Watt Hall (1974) where he served as adjunct professor.Allison Engel
In memoriam: Samuel Hurst, 94
USC News, April 28, 2015, accessed February 7, 2017. As the years passed and the honors piled up, Killingsworth's architectural projects grew in size and scale, from residential buildings in Southern California to luxury hotels in such exotic locales as

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. Philosophically, like many of his contemporaries, Killingsworth believed in open spaces and floor plans. He preferred high ceilings and glass walls that invited nature in. Edward A. Killingsworth died on July 6, 2004, at the age of 86. He is entombed at the Forest Lawn Mortuary in Long Beach, California, in the pendulum room of the mausoleum.Finding Aid for the Edward A. Killingsworth papers, circa 1940-circa 2004
/ref>

References

External links

* Killingsworth a
Modern San Diego
website
Obituary

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

, July 14, 2004 {{DEFAULTSORT:Killingsworth, Edward Modernist architects from the United States 1917 births 2004 deaths Architects from California Modernist architects Fellows of the American Institute of Architects USC School of Architecture alumni 20th-century American architects People from Taft, California Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Long Beach)

Biography

References

Further reading

External links