Profile

KDG
kennard design group
architecture and planning

Robert A. Kennard, Architect 1920 - 1995


	Robert Kennard began his architectural practice in a former dressmaker’s shop on Washington Boulevard in Los Angeles. It was 1957. He began by designing residences for clients he met through church and civic organizations. This circle soon broadened. In the mid-1960s, he was commissioned by a Jewish synagogue in Culver City to design its new temple; the word spread, and three other synagogue projects followed. After a public battle to win the right of African-American architects to serve as prime on projects for the Los Angeles Unified School District, Kennard was selected for the Hyde Park School and later the 102^nd Street School. Then following the 1971 Sylmar earthquake, the firm was hired to team with another architect to rebuild the city’s oldest high school---Los Angeles High—after it was severely damaged in the quake. The firm received several national and statewide awards for its school designs. After the 1965 Watts uprising, Kennard was retained to prepare a redevelopment study for the rebuilding of that community. This led to planning work for the cities of Inglewood, Compton, Long Beach, Santa Ana and other cities in the San Francisco Bay Area, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C. Soon the firm expanded to provide resort planning for projects in Mexico, Nicaragua and Brazil. In 1972, the then-new mayor of Los Angeles, Tom Bradley, made a commitment to bring rapid transit to Los Angeles. Kennard worked on the first transit planning study to examine the possibility of a transit system down Wilshire Boulevard. This work began a 20-year involvement in transportation and the design of Metro Rail stations in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Kennard also drew great personal satisfaction from his involvement in building community organizations. He was active in founding such groups as the Central City Community Mental Health Center, Frederick Douglass Child Development Centers, Inner City Cultural Center, and the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. The Southern California landscape is dotted with more than 600 projects Kennard’s firm completed during his lifetime. Today Kennard Design Group continues the legacy of its founder by striving to carry out his philosophy of design and contribution to all communities.

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