Louis Naidorf, the architect behind Los Angeles’ iconic Capitol Data constructing, died on Wednesday night time on the age of 96. His dying, confirmed by longtime pal Mike Harkins, was attributed to pure causes.
Though Naidorf is finest identified for his work on the Capitol Data constructing, which was erected in 1956 and was formally designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 2006, he’s additionally the thoughts behind numerous different LA landmarks. These embrace the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, the now-demolished L.A. Memorial Sports Area, the Beverly Heart, the Beverly Hilton resort, and the Ronald Reagan State Constructing. His structure license, which he obtained in 1952, is the oldest energetic license in California
His work and affect additionally prolonged far past Los Angeles. Naidorf spearheaded the six-year restoration of the California State Capitol in Sacramento, and designed former President Gerald Ford and First Woman Betty Ford’s Rancho Mirage residence. He designed Phoenix’s Chase Tower, FKA Valley Nationwide Financial institution constructing, which is the tallest construction in Arizona, in addition to the Hyatt Regency Dallas and its adjoining Reunion Tower.
Born in Los Angeles on Aug. 15, 1928 to oldsters Jack and Meriam Naidorf, Louis started sketching cities of his personal design as early as age 8, and obtained his first set of drafting instruments for his thirteenth birthday. It was then that he approached the LA-based architect Sanford Kent, who turned his mentor. He graduated from UC Berkley on the prime of his class, acquiring a bachelor’s diploma in structure and incomes his masters only a 12 months later. For his grasp’s thesis, he precisely predicted a future whereby computer systems would change into extra compact and large-scale workplace buildings can be much less mandatory. The answer he proposed for optimizing area was creating round workplace buildings, a touch on the tower that might change into his definitive challenge.
At age 21, he was employed contemporary out of faculty on the esteemed agency Welton Becket and Associates. Three years later, the agency introduced him onto a secretive “Project X,” which turned out to be the event of the Capitol Data constructing. Drawing off his thesis, he proposed a spherical constructing, additional asserting that he hoped to design a “happy building” for each its inhabitants and citizen onlookers. His profession with Welton Becket and Associates—the place he served as vp, director of analysis, and director of design through the years—noticed him earn a number of honors, together with the AIA California Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009
Lengthy after he established himself as a key determine in structure, Naidorf continued to mentor the subsequent technology, serving as a visitor professor at UCLA, USC, Cal Poly Pomona and SCI-Arc. In 1990 he joined Woodbury College’s College Of Structure, beginning as chair earlier than ultimately changing into dean. He was named trainer and school member of the 12 months by the varsity a number of instances.
A voracious reader, cat proprietor, world traveler, father and two-time most cancers survivor, Naidorf launched a memoir, Extra Humane: An Architectural Memoir, in 2018. In 2000, he moved from Los Angeles to Santa Rosa in Northern California, the place he labored as a campus architect for Woodbury and in addition collaborated with Metropolis Imaginative and prescient Santa Rosa on enhancements to the town’s downtown.
Naidorf is survived by his daughter, Victoria; 4 stepchildren; 11 grandchildren; and 6 great-grandchildren.
