#Architect September 18

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This month the #Coach4adayChallenge for September is to profile a biography of someone. Today will focus on a leader who was an ARCHITECT and greatly influenced that discipline in North Carolina.

Henry Leveke Kamphoefner just might be the most influential ARCHITECT that the State of North Carolina ever had. Researching the Richter House in Raleigh NC I learned about Henry’s impact on design and architecture. Ritcher House is perhaps the best North Carolina example of the Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian mode of design. 

Kamphoefner didn’t design the Richer House that honor goes to a man he hired named George Matsumoto.

Bio on Henry Leveke Kamphoefner

Sometimes a legacy is all about how you influence culture. Kamphoefner was a champion of Modernist architecture and is most well known for bringing that design to the south particularly North Carolina.

He received his undergraduate degree from Illinois in 1930 and his masters degree from Columbia in 1931. From 1932 until 1936, Kamphoefner practiced architecture privately. During that period, his notable work included the design of a municipal bandshell in Grandview Park, Sioux City, Iowa, which was commissioned in 1934 under the Depression-era Civilian Works Administration as CWA Project.

In 1948, Kamphoefner became the first dean of the North Carolina State College School of Design. When he moved to North Carolina State College, he brought several colleagues and students from the University of Oklahoma with him, including George Matsumoto. He created strict admissions policies and instituted a distinguished visitors program, which brought in ARCHITECTS such as Frank Lloyd Wright.

If you go to Raleigh NC you can not only see the Richter House but the Kamphoefner House. Matsumoto and Kamphoefner were the ARCHITECTS for that home which Henry lived in. Henry L. Kamphoefner House is located at 3060 Granville Dr. It is a private residence and is not open to the public.

Here is a list of homes Matsumoto designed.

Here is a list of homes Kamphoefner designed.

Probably safe to say that North Carolina ARCHITECTS owe a lot to Kamphoefner.