Rowland Henry Crawford (1902–1973) was an American architect and artist. Most of his buildings are located in the

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

metro area.

Biography

Rowland Crawford was born October 28, 1902, in

Deadwood, South Dakota Deadwood (Lakota: ''Owáyasuta''; "To approve or confirm things") is a city that serves as county seat of Lawrence County, South Dakota, United States. It was named by early settlers after the dead trees found in its gulch. The city had it ...

. He attended the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

from 1920 to 1923, and was a member of its first architecture class. From 1924 to 1925, he attended the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

.Online Archive of California: Rowland Henry Crawford papers
/ref> Following a two-year scholarship at 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, ...

, where he studied painting, he returned to Los Angeles to join the architectural firm of Webber & Spaulding, designers of the Avalon Casino on Santa Catalina and the

Harold Lloyd Estate The Harold Lloyd Estate, also known as Greenacres, is a large mansion and landscaped estate located in the Benedict Canyon section of Beverly Hills, California. Built in the late 1920s by silent film star Harold Lloyd, it remained Lloyd's home ...

.Pacific Coast Architecture Database
/ref> In 1930, he moved to the firm of Gordon B. Kaufmann. While there, he served as the chief architect for two well-known projects; the

Los Angeles Times Building Times Mirror Square is a complex of buildings on the block bounded by Spring, Broadway, First and Second streets in the Civic Center district of Downtown Los Angeles. It was headquarters of the ''Los Angeles Times'' until 2018. It is curren ...

and the

Santa Anita Race Track Santa Anita Park is a Thoroughbred racetrack in Arcadia, California, United States. It offers some of the prominent horse racing events in the United States during early fall, winter and in spring. The track is home to numerous prestigious races ...

. He established his own firm in

Beverly Hills 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. ...

in 1938. His better-known projects include the

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

Department Store in

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to i ...

(1947), The Beverly Hills Law Building (1947), The Brentwood Country Mart (1948), the El Rancho Shopping Center in

Arcadia Arcadia may refer to: Places Australia * Arcadia, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney * Arcadia, Queensland * Arcadia, Victoria Greece * Arcadia (region), a region in the central Peloponnese * Arcadia (regional unit), a modern administrative un ...

(1955), remodeling the Hollywood Brown Derby (1960s) and major additions to

Beverly Hills High School Beverly Hills High School (usually abbreviated as Beverly or as BHHS) is the only major public high school in Beverly Hills, California. The other public high school in Beverly Hills, Moreno High School, is a small alternative school located on B ...

(1967–1970). One of his last projects was

Crenshaw High School Crenshaw High School is a four-year public secondary school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, located on 11th Avenue in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The school first opened in 1968 and currently enrolls arou ...

(1968).

American Architects Directory The ''American Architects Directory'' is a directory of American architects registered with the American Institute of Architects. It was published by R. R. Bowker LLC. The first edition was published in 1956, second edition in 1962, and third edit ...

, Second edition 1962 In addition to his design work, he was in charge of master planning for the Beverly Hills Board of Education, served on the Bel-air Architectural Supervisory Committee (with over ten years as chairman), the Westwood Architectural Supervisory Committee and the

Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce is Southern California's largest not-for-profit business federation, representing the interests of more than 235,000 businesses in L.A. County, more than 1,400 member companies and more than 722,430 employ ...

Construction Industries Committee. He also was the founder and first president of the University of Southern California’s Architectural Guild.

References

External links

Santa Monica Landmark Properties: Sears Department Store

The Beverly Hills Law Building

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crawford, Rowland 20th-century American architects Architects from California 1902 births 1973 deaths