Louis Naidorf, the visionary architect behind the iconic Capitol Records Building, died Wednesday night of natural causes. He was 96. His death was confirmed by his longtime friend Mike Harkins. Naidorf\u2019s distinctive approach to architectural design, blending logic with creativity and function with feeling, helped define the Los Angeles cityscape.<\/p>\n
Though best known for the enduring Los Angeles landmark, which opened its doors in 1956 and was officially designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 2006, Naidorf\u2019s legacy spans far beyond the legendary circular tower, which was the world\u2019s first round office building.<\/p>\n
His notable body of work includes the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, the now-demolished L.A. Memorial Sports Arena, the Beverly Center, the Beverly Hilton hotel, and the Ronald Reagan State Building. Beyond Los Angeles, he led the six-year restoration of the California State Capitol in Sacramento, and designed the Rancho Mirage residence of former President Gerald Ford and First Lady Betty Ford.<\/p>\n
Naidorf\u2019s architectural oeuvre also extends outside California\u2019s borders. He designed Phoenix\u2019s Valley National Bank building (now Chase Tower), the tallest structure in Arizona; and the Hyatt Regency Dallas and its adjacent Reunion Tower, a defining feature of the city\u2019s skyline.<\/p>\n
Born Louis Murray Naidorf on Aug. 15, 1928, in Los Angeles, he shaped his future with the same purposefulness and tenacity he brought to his buildings. His parents, Jack and Meriam Naidorf, both worked in the women\u2019s clothing industry and often struggled financially. But young Naidorf, who was already sketching towns by age 8, was too busy dreaming about architecture to notice.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lou Naidorf in front of the Capitol Records building, one of several Los Angeles landmarks he designed, to illustrate story on his retirement after 10 years as dean of architecture at Woodbury University.<\/p>\n
(Al Seib\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
At 12, he began collecting architecture books, paying for them with his part-time job earnings. After receiving drafting tools for his 13th birthday, he approached local architect Sanford Kent and asked for a job. Impressed by his initiative, Kent mentored Naidorf, paying him out of pocket.<\/p>\n
Naidorf later studied architecture at UC Berkeley. In his 1950 master\u2019s thesis, Naidorf imagined a future in which computers would proliferate and become compact, eliminating the need for sprawling offices. To optimize space, he proposed a bold new concept \u2014 circular office buildings \u2014 unwittingly foreshadowing what would later become his most iconic project.<\/p>\n
After graduating at the top of his class, and earning his master of architecture degree a year early, Naidorf skipped his commencement ceremony to interview at powerhouse architecture firm Welton Becket and Associates. He was hired on the spot.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Aerial drone view of the iconic and historic Capitol Records Building in Hollywood. <\/p>\n
(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
Three years later, at 24, he was entrusted with his first major assignment, the mysterious \u201cProject X.\u201d Shrouded in secrecy, Naidorf was given scant information other than the building\u2019s dimensions and location. He had no idea that it would become the headquarters of Capitol Records. Yet struck by parallels between his thesis and the project\u2019s relatively modest size, he applied the round shape to the building. He also aimed to design a \u201chappy building,\u201d both for its inhabitants and passersby.<\/p>\n
Throughout his life, Naidorf often refuted the myth that the building was designed to resemble a stack of records. Even so, guided by his core principle of bringing joy to people, he would say, \u201cIf it makes people happy to think that, so be it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Known for his humor and humility, he would joke that Capitol Records-shaped birthday cakes inevitably collapsed because of a \u201cstructural flaw,\u201d playfully suggesting a weakness in the building\u2019s design, and he was endlessly amused by the building\u2019s repeated destruction in disaster movies.<\/p>\n
Devoted to mentoring the next generation of architects, Naidorf served as a guest professor at UCLA, USC, Cal Poly Pomona and SCI-Arc. In 1990, he became a full-time academic, starting as chair and later becoming dean of Woodbury University\u2019s School of Architecture, where he earned multiple distinctions, including teacher and faculty member of the year honors.<\/p>\n
He encouraged students to be well-rounded and curious about the world so they could connect with future clients on a human level, and to develop unique perspectives that would inform their designs.<\/p>\n
Even as he rose to vice president, director of research, and director of design at his firm \u2014 and earned numerous honors including the AIA California Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009 \u2014 he remained grounded, often saying real life happens outside buildings: sitting at caf\u00e9s with friends or enjoying a day at the park.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
An early photograph of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, another iconic building designed by Naidorf.<\/p>\n
(Christina House \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
Naidorf\u2019s deep humanity, reflected in the title of his now out-of-print 2018 memoir, \u201cMore Humane: An Architectural Memoir,\u201d extended to all living things, including doting on his 13-year-old cat, Ziggy Starburst, with whom he shared a birthday \u2014 and even small creatures in distress, like a dying bee that he found on his kitchen floor that he carried outside to die, as he put it, \u201cwith dignity in nature,\u201d and a snail with a broken shell in his yard that he gently tended to.<\/p>\n
A voracious reader, Naidorf was especially fond of science magazines and pondering the cosmos. He also enjoyed classical music. A lifelong traveler, he visited Canada, Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan, and made more than two dozen trips to Europe.<\/p>\n
In 2000, drawn by Northern California\u2019s beauty, Naidorf relocated to Santa Rosa, where he worked as a campus architect for Woodbury University and collaborated with City Vision Santa Rosa to enhance the downtown.<\/p>\n
Though he retired at 87, he kept his architecture license active, taking his renewal exams every year. Holding the oldest active license in California, issued in 1952, he vowed to be buried as a licensed architect \u2014 and so he shall be.<\/p>\n
Twice divorced and twice widowed, Naidorf was married four times, and overcame cancer twice. He is survived by his daughter, Victoria, from his first marriage; four stepchildren from his fourth marriage, all of whom called him Dad; 11 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Louis Naidorf, the visionary architect behind the iconic Capitol Records Building, died Wednesday night of natural causes. He…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":145614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[52529,61815,2513,9102,1582,276,19728,19835,86217,2961,2252,224,2444,5337,86216,86215,86218,86219,1628],"class_list":{"0":"post-145613","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-architect","9":"tag-architectural-design","10":"tag-architecture","11":"tag-building","12":"tag-ca","13":"tag-california","14":"tag-director","15":"tag-future","16":"tag-iconic-capitol-records-building","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-life","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-los-angeles-times","21":"tag-losangeles","22":"tag-louis-naidorf","23":"tag-naidorf","24":"tag-thesis","25":"tag-woodbury-university","26":"tag-year"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115028271103310061","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}