Raymond McCormick Kennedy (1891–1976) was the guiding light and architect of the

Grauman's Chinese Theater Grauman's Chinese Theatre (branded as TCL Chinese Theatre for naming rights reasons) is a movie palace on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States. The original Chinese T ...

that opened in May 1927.

Early life

Raymond McCormick Kennedy was born in

New Brighton, Pennsylvania New Brighton is a borough in north-central Beaver County, Pennsylvania, United States, located along the Beaver River northwest of Pittsburgh. The population was 5,719 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. Histor ...

in 1891 to Thomas and Geneva Kennedy. He graduated from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

in 1915 at the top of his class with a Bachelor's degree in Architecture for which he 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 General Excellence in Architecture. At this time he was also awarded the John Plaut Fellowship which paid for his return to Cornell for post graduate work. In 1916 Kennedy earned his Master's in Architecture at Cornell. Upon his completion of this degree he was awarded the

Rome Prize The Rome Prize is awarded by the American Academy in Rome, in Rome, Italy. Approximately thirty scholars and artists are selected each year to receive a study fellowship at the academy. Prizes have been awarded annually since 1921, with a hiatus ...

Scholarship in Architecture.Fellows American Academy of Rome (1919)
This coveted prize entitled the recipient to three years of resident study at the Academy in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

and included a stipend to cover expenses. His studies in Italy were interrupted by

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He volunteered to serve for the

American Red Cross The American Red Cross (ARC), also known as the American National Red Cross, is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. It is the desi ...

of Italy. This service delayed his studies in Rome for a year. While in Rome he completed several classically styled projects and in 1920 he was awarded the Diploma as a Fellow of the

American Academy in Rome The American Academy in Rome is a research and arts institution located on the Gianicolo (Janiculum Hill) in Rome. The academy is a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers. History In 1893, a group of American architects, ...

. Kennedy returned from his studies in Italy in 1920. He obtained his first employment with the firm of

York and Sawyer York and Sawyer was an American architectural firm active between 1898 and 1949. The firms' work is exemplary of Beaux-Arts architecture as it was practiced in the United States. The partners Edward York (July 23, 1863– December 30, 1928) and ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. However, the prevailing architectural design philosophy of this firm gave Kennedy no opportunity to express his creative and artistic talents. Subsequently Kennedy had a more rewarding design opportunity with the Greenley firm in New York.

Meyer & Holler

His employment was to be short lived however since in 1920 Kennedy accepted the position of architectural designer within the "design and build" firm of

Meyer & Holler Meyer & Holler was an architecture firm based in Los Angeles, California, noted for its opulent commercial buildings and movie theatres, including Grauman’s Chinese and Egyptian theatres, built during the 1920s. Meyer & Holler was also known as ...

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. In this position he began an expanded activity in his career. While associated with Meyer & Holler, Kennedy was able to leave his mark on the architectural landscape of early modern Los Angeles. In 1929 the firm of Meyer & Holler was greatly impacted by

the Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. The decline in real estate values and dramatically lowered demand for construction in general brought to an end the operations of Meyer & Holler. Ocean Center Building, Long Beach, CA

Selected buildings

*First Church Christian Scientists, Los Angeles *First Church Christian Scientists, Glendale * Fox Theatre (Fullerton), Fullerton *

, Hollywood *Hollywood National Building, Hollywood *International Mart Building, Los Angeles *

Ocean Center Building The Ocean Center Building is a 14-story, 197-foot-tall residential building in downtown Long Beach, California. It was built in 1929 and designed by Raymond M. Kennedy under the Los Angeles architecture firm Meyer & Holler. Description and ar ...

, Long Beach *Petroleum Securities Building, Los Angeles *Quinby Office Building, Los Angeles *Twenty Sixth Church of Christian Scientists, Los Angeles

Grauman's Chinese Theater

The

Chinese Theater Theatre of China has a long and complex history. Traditional Chinese theatre, generally in the form of Chinese opera, is musical in nature. Chinese theatre can trace its origin back a few millennia to ancient China, but the Chinese opera started ...

has taken a significant place in world architectural history and an iconic part of Hollywood. Kennedy was responsible for 99% of all sketches made of the architectural features for the theater that was developed by his employer,

Meyer and Holler Meyer & Holler was an architecture firm based in Los Angeles, California, noted for its opulent commercial buildings and movie theatres, including Grauman’s Chinese and Egyptian theatres, built during the 1920s. Meyer & Holler was also known as ...

. Meyer and Holler was the design-build firm that had already built

Grauman's Egyptian Theatre Grauman's Egyptian Theatre is a historic movie theater A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall ( Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater ...

for

Sid Grauman Sidney Patrick Grauman (March 17, 1879 – March 5, 1950) was an American showman who created two of Hollywood's most recognizable and visited landmarks, the Chinese Theatre and the Egyptian Theatre. Biography Early years Grauman was the so ...

. The ground breaking for the Chinese took place on January 5, 1926, and the construction was to be completed by December 28, 1926. The grand opening of Grauman's Chinese Theater in

Hollywood, California Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, ...

was on May 18, 1927 and was the most spectacular theater opening in motion picture history. Kennedy's design of the theater displayed his classical, sophisticated training and his exuberant use of color and unique styles. Kennedy, along with fellow architect

Donald Wilkinson Donald John Wilkinson (born 14 February 1955) is a Scottish people, Scottish former first-class cricketer and educator. Wilkinson was born at Irvine, North Ayrshire, Irvine in February 1955. Education He was educated at the Lancaster Royal Gr ...

, arranged the forecourt and facade of the Chinese theater to echo the layout of the

Piazza San Pietro Saint Peter's Square ( la, Forum Sancti Petri, it, Piazza San Pietro ,) is a large plaza located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the papal enclave inside Rome, directly west of the neighborhood (rione) of Borgo. Bot ...

and the massing of

Sant'Andrea al Quirinale The Church of Saint Andrew on the Quirinal ( it, Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, la, S. Andreae in Quirinali) is a Roman Catholic titular church in Rome, Italy, built for the Jesuit seminary on the Quirinal Hill. The church of Sant'Andrea, an important ...

, respectively. He thus managed to subtly associate the function of the movie theater with that of sacred space, thereby helping to legitimize the cinema at a time when its morality was being questioned.

University of Southern California

Kennedy left the defunct firm of Meyer & Holler and secured a teaching position 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 ...

. His major position was professor of architectural design but he also conducted classes in mural painting, free hand sketching, and architectural modeling. His architectural students flourished under his tutelage and subsequently won many design awards. He became one of their favorite professors and was invited to many student reunions as a featured speaker. Teaching assignments for Kennedy were scheduled in the afternoons which left the mornings free for other employment. In the mornings he would design sets for the movie studios of

Metro Goldwyn Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

and

Republic Studios Republic Pictures Corporation (currently held under Melange Pictures, LLC) was an American motion picture production-distribution corporation in operation from 1935 to 1967, that was based in Los Angeles. It had studio facilities in Studio City an ...

Post USC

His teaching work at U.S.C. was interrupted during September and October 1941 when he left to be a Consulting Architect on the design of the future

Pentagon In geometry, a pentagon (from the Greek πέντε ''pente'' meaning ''five'' and γωνία ''gonia'' meaning ''angle'') is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simpl ...

in Washington D.C. At the completion of his employment at the University of Southern California in 1942, Kennedy again became active in strictly architectural work. This activity was divided between the offices of Robert E. Bennett of Pasadena and William H. Harrison of Los Angeles. In association with these two firms, Kennedy worked on many other projects including libraries, schools, a city hall, and a chapel. Kennedy retired at the age of 69 in 1960. During his retirement years Kennedy enthusiastically pursued his many hobbies of model railroads, woodworking, travel, photography, painting and writing. He was an avid reader with a romantic appreciation of poetry and music. At the age of 85, on May 11, 1976, Kennedy died leaving his wife Myrtle, two sons, Raymond Kennedy Jr., Thomas Kennedy, and a multitude of aesthetically pleasing and functional buildings in Southern California.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, Raymond 1891 births 1976 deaths Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning alumni American theatre architects People from New Brighton, Pennsylvania