Los Angeles architect Ray Kappe is one of Southern California's preeminent designers of modern residential architecture and a long-time educator who founded the influential Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). Consisting of drawings, documents, photographs, client correspondence, and writings, the archive is an important resource for the study of postwar California modernism, and in particular the development of prefabrication and sustainability in modern housing. The archive is also a valuable resource for studying the recent history of architectural education.

The son of Romanian immigrants, Raymond Kappe was born on August 4, 1927 in Minneapolis. After his family relocated to Los Angeles, Kappe attended Emerson Junior High School in West Los Angeles, which had been designed by Richard Neutra in the late 1930s. The two-story steel-framed building with sliding glass doors for outdoor classrooms and rooftop terraces made a valuable impression on him, as did Neutra's apartments in Westwood. These early experiences with modern architecture, combined with his love of drawing and talent in mathematics and science, helped shape his career path while he was still a teenager. He spent a single semester at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1945 before he was drafted into the postwar U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, where he served for two years as a topographical surveying instructor. After his discharge, Kappe attended the University of California, Berkeley, earning his B.Arch in 1951.

371.8 linear feet (104 boxes, 368 flatfiles, 28 rolls)

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Open for use by qualified researchers, with the exception of the student records in Box 56A which will remain sealed until 2062. Contact the repository for information regarding access to the architectural models.