Stephen Kanner

Stephen H. Kanner (July 30, 1955 – July 2, 2010) was an American modern architect who co-founded the A+D Museum of Los Angeles in 2000.^[1]

Kanner was born in 1955 in Chandler, Arizona, but raised in the Mandeville Canyon neighborhood in Los Angeles.^[1] His grandfather, I. Herman Kanner, founded the family's business, Kanner Architects, in 1946.^[1] Kanner's father, Charles Kanner, an architect who served in the United States Air Force, became head of Kanner Architects in 1953 following Herman Kanner's death.^[1] Kanner received both his bachelor's degree and master's degree in architecture from a combined program at the University of California, Berkeley in 1980.^[1]

Kanner joined Kanner Architects in 1983 after the family business was commissioned to design the courthouse in East Los Angeles.^[1] The firm was headed by Kanner's father, modernist architect Charles Kanner, until his death in 1998, when Stephen Kanner became head of the company.^[1]

Kanner designed his own home in Pacific Palisades.^[1] His most recent projects included the Metro Hollywood Transit Village on Hollywood Boulevard, a lower income housing complex located at 26th Street and Santa Monica Boulevard; and the conversion of a commercial building into a luxury apartment building in Hollywood called Sunset Vine Tower.^[1]

The Los Angeles Times described Kanner as "something of an outlier among architects of his generation for the sheer volume and range of his output."^[2] Later projects were influenced by postmodernism and Pop art, including a 2009 United Oil station at La Brea and Slauson evoking a stack interchange and an In-N-Out restaurant in Westwood, Los Angeles, California.^[2]

Kanner died from cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on July 2, 2010, at the age of 54.^[1]

An exhibit featuring Kanner's designs was featured at the Architecture and Design Museum, Los Angeles in 2010 and 2011.^[2]

References