Stephen Kanner, 1955-2010

Though he lost his battle with pancreatic cancer on July 2, at 55 years old, a curtailed life span didn't prevent Kanner from making a substantial, beneficial impact on the design world.

Annie Block -- Interior Design, 11/1/2010 2:10:28 PM

Son. Brother. Husband. Father. Architect. Sustainability advocate. 

Stephen Kanner was all of these. Though he lost his battle with pancreatic cancer on July 2, at 55 years old, a curtailed life span didn't prevent him from making a substantial, beneficial impact on the design world. That's particularly true in his native Los Angeles, where Kanner Architects was responsible for more than 150 projects under his watch-he took over the firm from his father, Charles Kanner, in 1998, but it was founded by his grandfather Herman Kanner in 1946.

In 2008 and 2009 respectively, the youngest Kanner's Santa Monica affordable-housing project and United Oil gas station captured an award from the AIA Los Angeles, of which he'd previously served as president. His Malibu passive house is the epitome of contemporary sustainability. But perhaps his biggest contribution was to cofound the itinerant A+D Architecture and Design Museum, Los Angeles, and later to help find it a permanent home on Wilshire Boulevard.

"Stephen H. Kanner FAIA: A Retrospective 1955-2010" is appearing at the museum from November 4 to January 16. The exhibition presents Kanner Architects models, drawings, and photographs accompanied by Kanner's own art, textiles, and furniture.