John Carl Warnecke
John Carl Warnecke (February 24, 1919 – April 17, 2010)[1][2][3] was an architect based in who designed numerous monuments and structures in the Modernist,[4][5][6][7][8] Bauhaus,[9] and other similar styles. He was an early proponent of contextual architecture.[8][10] Among his more notable buildings and projects are the Hawaii State Capitol building,[11][12] the John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame memorial gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery,[1][11][13] and the master plan for Lafayette Square (which includes his designs for the Howard T. Markey National Courts Building and the New Executive Office Building).[5][8][11]
John Carl Warnecke
February 24, 1919
April 17, 2010 (aged 91)
Architect
John Carl Warnecke & Associates[1]
Early life[edit]
Warnecke was born on February 24, 1919, in Oakland, California.[1][2][3][8][14][15] His father, Carl I. Warnecke, was a prominent architect in Oakland and San Francisco.[2][3][8][16] His mother, Margaret Warnecke, née Esterling, was a descendant of Dutch settlers who came to Sonoma County, California, in the 1870s.[3][17]
He received his bachelor's degree (cum laude) from Stanford University in 1941.[1][2][15][18] He played American football at Stanford, and was a member of the undefeated 1940 Stanford Indians football team (nicknamed the "Wow Boys") that won the 1941 Rose Bowl.[2][3][5][8][11][14][15] A shoulder injury incurred while playing football prevented him from being drafted or serving in the U.S. military during World War II.[2][5][11][15] While studying at Stanford, Warnecke made the acquaintance of John F. Kennedy, who was auditing courses at the university.[1][2][11][13][14][15][19] Warnecke received his master's degree in architecture from Harvard University in 1942, completing the three-year course in a single year.[5][8][14][15][18][20][21] While attending Harvard, he studied with the highly influential architect Walter Gropius.[5][6][7][22]
Warnecke married Grace Cushing in 1945, with whom he had three sons and a daughter.[1][14][15] His oldest son, John C. Warnecke, Jr., died in 2003.[8][23] The marriage ended in divorce in 1961. Warnecke married Grace Kennan (daughter of George F. Kennan) in 1969,[1][5][14][24] which also ended in divorce.[1][5][8]
Early architectural career[edit]
After graduating from Harvard University, Warnecke worked as a building inspector for the public housing authority in Richmond, California.[1][17][20] In 1943, he began work as a draftsman for his father's architectural firm[1][2][17] (which specialized in the Beaux-Arts architectural style).[4] He was influenced by the work of architects Bernard Maybeck and William Wurster,[4][11] leading proponents and practitioners of the "Bay Area school" of architecture.[25]
He established a solo practice in 1950,[14][18][26] and incorporated as a firm in 1956.[18] At first, he set a goal of applying Modernist architectural principles to major types of building.[4] His work soon reflected a desire to harmonize building designs with the environment in which they were set as well as their cultural and historical setting,[3][4] an architectural theory known as contextualism.[27] Warnecke won national recognition in 1951 for the Mira Vista Elementary School in East Richmond Heights, California (a small residential community which overlooks the northern part of San Francisco Bay).[4][5][8][18][28] Other schools in the San Francisco Bay followed, earning him much praise.[11][15][29] Warnecke became an internationally recognized architect after submitting a design for a new U.S. embassy in Thailand in 1956, which was never built.[1][3][4][11][15][18][30] He reorganized his firm in 1958 under the name John Carl Warnecke & Associates, the name it would be best known by.[31] He was named an Associate of the National Academy of Design the same year.[32] He won additional notice[2] for buildings at Stanford University (built in the 1960s)[10] and the University of California, Berkeley (built in the 1960s and early 1970s).[33]
Warnecke designed seven of the buildings at the 107 acres (43 ha) Asilomar Conference Grounds located in Pacific Grove, California, adjacent to Asilomar State Beach. The Asilomar Conference Grounds Warnecke Historic District consists of 22 buildings and related landscape features after the State of California acquired the property in 1956. The Warnecke buildings include, Surf and Sand Complex (1959); Corporation Yard (1959); Crocker Dining Hall Additions (1961); Sea Galaxy Complex (1964); Housekeeping (1965); Long View Complex (1966); and View Crescent Complex (1968).[34]
Later career, retirement, and death[edit]
Warnecke opened an office in New York City in 1967, hiring architects Eugene Kohn in 1967 and Sheldon Fox in 1972,.[5][79] By 1977, his company, John Carl Warnecke & Associates, was the largest architectural firm in the United States.[1][2][5] In 1976, Kohn left the firm after Warnecke refused him partnership,[80] taking vice-president and designer William Pedersen, manager Sheldon Fox, and a large number of clients with him and founding Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF). Several Warnecke associates subsequently joined KPF,[81] and when Warnecke's company subsequently languished, he began reducing his active involvement in his architectural practice.[5] Warnecke purposely downsized his firm as he approached retirement, not wishing for his firm to continue after his death.[4]
Warnecke retired in the 1980s and began growing grapes at a vineyard in California's Alexander Valley.[1][2] He reportedly spent some time writing about architecture.[4] He devoted efforts to establishing the Warnecke Institute of Design, Art and Architecture, a think tank which looked at the effect worldwide trends (such as global warming and resource scarcity) will have on architecture.[5] Warnecke worked on his memoirs, which he completed shortly before he died.[1][2][3][4][8]
Warnecke died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 91 at his home in Healdsburg, California, on April 17, 2010.[1][2][3][8] He was survived by his second wife, his daughter, and his two sons.[2][5][8]
Warnecke and his firm worked on and designed hundreds of buildings and projects. Among those on which Warnecke himself was sole or lead architect and which have drawn the notice of experts are the following: