S. Charles Lee (September 5, 1899 - January 27, 1990) 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 ...

recognized as one of the most prolific and distinguished

motion picture A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...

designers on the

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

Life

Early life

Simeon Charles Levi was born in Chicago in 1899 to American-born parents of German-Jewish ancestry, Julius and Hattie (Stiller) Levi. He grew up going to vaudeville theatres, nickelodeons, and early movie houses. A tinkerer interested in mechanical things, Lee built three motorcars as a teenager. His interest in mechanics led him to Lake Technical High School in Chicago, where he graduated in 1916.

Education

While in high school in 1915, he worked after school in the office of Chicago architect Henry Newhouse, a family friend who specialized in theater design: small motion picture houses, nickelodeons and remodeling storefronts into theaters. Lee attended Chicago Technical College, graduating with honors in 1918. His first job was as architect for the South Park Board of the City of Chicago. During World War I he enlisted in the

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

. After his discharge in 1920, he entered the

Armour Institute of Technology Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to 1890, the present name was adopted upon the merger of the Armour Institute and Lewis Institute in 1940. The university has prog ...

to study architecture, where he was exposed to the principles of the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth century ...

which are reflected in his later work. While in Chicago, Lee worked for

Rapp & Rapp C. W. & George L. Rapp, commonly known as Rapp & Rapp, was an American architectural firm famed for the design of movie palaces and other theatres. Active from 1906 to 1965 and based in Chicago, the office designed over 400 theatres, inclu ...

, a highly regarded Chicago architectural firm well known for movie theater design. Lee was also influenced by

Louis Sullivan Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an American architect, and has been called a "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism". He was an influential architect of the Chicago School, a mentor to Frank Lloy ...

's lectures in his architecture classes and Frank Lloyd Wright's work, particularly Midway Gardens and Wright's Oak Park studio. Lee was also impressed by the 1922 Chicago Tribune Tower competition, which juxtaposed historicism with modernism. Lee considered himself a modernist, and his career revealed "both the Beaux Arts discipline and emphasis on planning and the modernist functionalism and freedom of form."

Career

In 1922, Lee moved to Los Angeles. His first major

movie palace A movie palace (or picture palace in the United Kingdom) is any of the large, elaborately decorated movie theaters built between the 1910s and the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opening every year between 192 ...

was the Tower Theatre, a Spanish-Romanesque-Moorish design that launched a career that would make Lee the principal designer of motion picture theaters in Los Angeles during the 1930s and 1940s. He is credited with designing over 400 theaters throughout

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and Mexico. His palatial and Baroque Los Angeles Theatre (1931) is regarded by many architectural historians as the finest theater building in Los Angeles. Lee was an early proponent of

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

and Moderne style theaters, including

Fresno Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...

's Tower Theatre. The

Bruin Theater The Fox Bruin Theater is a 670-seat movie palace located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, near University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). History The Bruin is located in the heart of the Mediterranean-themed Westw ...

(1937) and

Academy Theatre ''Academy Theatre'' is an American drama anthology series that aired on NBC in 1949. It ran for eight weeks as the summer replacement for '' Chevrolet on Broadway''. Format The series utilized a different cast each week who appeared in short w ...

(1939) are among his most characteristic. The latter, located in Inglewood,

, is a prime example of Lee's successful response to the automobile. After World War II, Lee recognized that the grand theater building had become a thing of the past, and began to focus on new technologies in industrial architecture. His work in the field of tilt-up building systems was published in Architectural Record in 1952.

Buildings

* La Puente Valley Woman's Club, La Puente, CA (1923) *

Hollywood Melrose Hotel The Hollywood Melrose Hotel, also known previously as the Melrose Arms and later as the Monte Cristo Island Apartments, is a historic building on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, California. Designed by S. Charles Lee, the structure was built in 1927 ...

(1927) *

Tower Theatre (Los Angeles) The Tower Theatre is a historic movie theater that opened in 1927 in the Broadway Theater District of Downtown Los Angeles. History The Tower Theatre, at South Broadway and West Eighth Street, was commissioned by H.L. Gumbiner. He would also b ...

(1927) *

El Mirador Apartment Building (West Hollywood) EL, El or el may refer to: Religion * El (deity), a Semitic word for "God" People * EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer * El DeBarge, music artist * El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American po ...

(1929) * Fox Wilshire Theatre,

Beverly Hills, California Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. B ...

(1930) *

Fox Theater (Bakersfield, California) The Fox Theater is located at 2001 H Street in Downtown Bakersfield, California. The theater, which opened on Christmas Day, 1930, is a historic performing arts and community events center located in downtown Bakersfield, and hosts a variety of ...

(1930) * Fox Phoenix Theatre (1931) * Los Angeles Theatre, Los Angeles (1931) * Hollywood & Western Building,

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

(1931) * Max Factor Building, Hollywood (1935) – currently

Hollywood Museum The Hollywood Museum is a museum in Hollywood, California, that houses a collection of memorabilia from the history of American motion pictures and television. It is housed in the historic Max Factor Building on Highland AvenueBruin Theater The Fox Bruin Theater is a 670-seat movie palace located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, near University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). History The Bruin is located in the heart of the Mediterranean-themed Westw ...

, Westwood, Los Angeles (1937) * Fox (Alpha) Theater,

Bell A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inter ...

, California (1938) *

Tower Theatre (Fresno, California) The Tower Theatre for the Performing Arts is a historic Streamline Moderne mixed-use theater in Fresno, California. Built in 1939, it opened to the public on December 15, 1939, under the management of Fox West Coast Theater Corporation. The build ...

(1939) *Academy Theatre, Inglewood, California (1939) *

Fremont Theater The Fremont Theater is a historic movie theater in San Luis Obispo, California in the United States of America. It is among the last Streamline Moderne theaters built by architect S. Charles Lee. It opened in 1942 on the eve of U.S. entry to Wo ...

San Luis Obispo, California San Luis Obispo (; Spanish for " St. Louis the Bishop", ; Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, in the U.S. state of California. Located on the Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly halfwa ...

(1942) * Huntridge Theater,

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

(1944) * Star Theater,

La Puente, California La Puente (Spanish for "The Bridge") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city had a population of 39,816 at the 2010 census and is approximately east of downtown Los Angeles. History The original inhabitants of the ...

(1947) * Temple Israel of Hollywood (1948) * Fox Theatre, Inglewood, California (1949)

Awards

*Lee's work on the Los Angeles Tower Theatre was featured in the regional architectural journal ''Architect & Engineer'' in 1928. *In 1934, Lee was honored for architectural excellence by the Royal Institute of British Architects at the International Exhibition of Contemporary Architecture in London, for his 1931 "Spanish American Mission style" design for the Fox Florence Theatre in Los Angeles. *One of Lee's non-theater projects, Temple Israel of Hollywood, a Jewish synagogue designed in the California Mission tradition, was featured in ''Architectural Record'' in 1946. *Lee received the highest recognition of the Society of Registered Architects, the "Synergy Award," in 1975. *The UCLA Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning established an endowed chair honoring Lee in 1986.

References

External links

List of theatres by S. Charles Lee

S. Charles Lee Collection at UCLA
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, S. Charles 1899 births 1990 deaths Architects from Chicago American theatre architects Modernist architects from the United States American people of German-Jewish descent