Peter Kamnitzer
Peter Kamnitzer was born in Germany, he emigrated first to Israel and secondly to the United States, where he settled in Los Angeles, California. He was a professor of architecture at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He was a proponent of adding greenery and leisurely facilities to apartment complexes.
Peter Kamnitzer
- Name
- Peter Kamnitzer
- Born
- May 13, 1921
- Birthplace
- Berlin, Germany
- Died
- June 25, 1998
- Place of death
- Los Angeles, California, U.S.
- Education
- Columbia University Harvard University
- Occupation
- Architect
- Spouse
- Marietta Kamnitzer
- Nationality
- Germany · United States
- Languages
- German
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Peter Kamnitzer was born in Germany, he emigrated first to Israel and secondly to the United States, where he settled in Los Angeles, California. He was a professor of architecture at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He was a proponent of adding greenery and leisurely facilities to apartment complexes.
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Peter Kamnitzer (1921–1998) was a German and American architect. Born in Berlin, the architect died in Los Angeles.
Peter Kamnitzer studied at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Harvard Graduate School of Design and Harvard University. The architect worked for University of California, Los Angeles and University of Southern California. Languages used include German.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
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wikidata · Q25028538 · wikipedia · Peter Kamnitzer
In this article
Biography
Biography
He designed many residential buildings in Downtown Los Angeles, including public housing.
Peter Kamnitzer studied at Harvard University, Harvard Graduate School of Design and Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. The recorded working language is German. Employment is recorded with University of California, Los Angeles and University of Southern California.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Peter Kamnitzer • Born — May 13, 1921 • Birthplace — Berlin, Germany • Died — June 25, 1998 • Place of death — Los Angeles, California, U.S. • Education — Columbia University Harvard University • Occupation — Architect • Spouse — Marietta Kamnitzer • Children — 2 sons
Early life
Early life
Hans Peter Kamnitzer was born on May 13, 1921, in Berlin, Germany. He emigrated to Israel. By 1949, he emigrated to the United States. He received a master's degree in planning and housing from Columbia University in 1951, followed by a master's degree in architecture from Harvard University in 1955.
Career
Career
Kamnitzer started his career at the National Planning Department for the Government of Israel. He subsequently worked for El Salvador's National Medical Center, followed by the United Nations Housing Section. • Illustration — Promenade Towers in Bunker Hill, Los Angeles, California. Kamnitzer became an architect in Los Angeles, California, where he first worked for Gruen Associates. During that time, he designed Wilshire Terrace, a residential building on Wilshire Boulevardin Westwood. Shortly after, he co-founded the architectural firm Kamnitzer, Marks & Partners, later known as Kamnitzer & Cotton, and Kamnitzer Cotton Vreeland. He designed many high-rise residential buildings in Downtown Los Angeles, including housing projects. He designed Promenade Towers in Bunker Hill, Los Angeles(1985). He also designed the Keck Theater on the campus of Occidental College(1989). His other projects included the Esplanade Apartments, located in Sherman Oaks, California. (1967), Mariners Village Apartments, in the Marina Del Rey (1968), The Meadows Apartments in Culver City (1969), The Promenade Plaza in Bunker Hill Los Angeles, (1981), the Promenade West in Bunker Hill, Los Angeles. (1982) Barnard Park Senior Housing, in Santa Monica (1984), Vista Montoya in Pico Union (1984), and the Grand Promenade in Bunker Hill Los Angeles (1986), In a speech he gave to the National Association of Home Builders International Conference of Apartment Developers in 1970, Kamnitzer called for the development of full living environments, by building apartment complexes with retail facilities, tennis courts, swimming pools, childcare centers, and even park-like features like "rushing waterfalls, secluded walkways, meandering streams and lush greenery". Additionally, Kamnitzer was a professor of architecture at the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture, then the Perloff Hall School of Architecture and Urban Planning, from 1965 to his death. He was also a visiting professor at the University of Southern California. He also worked for NASA in the later 1960s. which resulted in the experiential film "Cityscape" (1968). By 1970, with NASA and General Electric, he had developed a graphic design tool to anticipate the effects of planned buildings. This resulted in the experimental film "Intuval" (1970). In 1987, a garage in a project under construction in La Jolla, collapsed, which resulted in a lawsuit against Kamnitzer's firm, which lost a huge sum of money in the process, resulting in Kamnitzer closing down his firm. He struggled, working for different architectural firms without much success.
Personal life and death
Personal life and death
Kamnitzer's brother Heinz,(1917-2001), was a marxist politician living in Berlin. Kamnitzer had a wife, Marietta, whom he was married from 1951 till his passing. They had two sons, David and Jordan. He died on June 25, 1998, resulting from a massive heart attack. His ashes are interred at the urn garden of Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City, next to the Heather Condominiums project (1970), and the Meadows Apartments, which were both designed by Kamnitzer, Marks, and Partners.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Berlin.
Birth place
Los Angeles.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Peter Kamnitzer”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q25028538: Peter Kamnitzer
General reference · Wikidata
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Oliver, Myrna. Peter Kamnitzer; Architect of High-Rises and Housing Projects. The Los Angeles Times. June 30, 1998.
- 2.California Digital Library. Peter Kamnitzer, Urban Planning: Los Angeles. Calisphere.
- 3.Beauty Awards Speaker Set. Pasadena Independent. 24. January 24, 1966.
- 4.De Wolfe, Evelyn. Promenade Aims to Set Urban Life Style : Downtown Gets Its First Privately Developed Apartments in 16 Years. The Los Angeles Times. July 28, 1985.
- 5.Apartment Must Meet Environment Demands. Progress Bulletin. 21. October 25, 1970.
- 6.Groves, Martha. Seeing is Believing. UCLA Magazine. April 1, 2016.
- 7.Brail, Richard K. Planning Support Systems: Integrating Geographic Information Systems, Models, and Visualization Tools. ESRI Press. 388. 2001. 9781589480117.
- 8.De Monchaux, Nicholas. Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo. MIT Press. 300. 2011. 9780262015202.
References
Citations
References
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reference work
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General reference
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