20th-century American architects

Oscar Nitzchke (August 29, 1900 – February 11, 1991) was an architect, best known for designing the United Nations headquarters in New York and the Los Angeles Opera House.
Nitzchke was born in Altona, Germany, and grew up in Switzerland. In 1920 he moved to Paris to enter the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, but left the school in 1922 to work with Le Corbusier. He came to New York in 1938 to work with the architectural firm Harrison & Abramovitz, and later moved on to Jim Nash Associates, where he was made head of design. He retired in the early 1970s. In his retirement Nitzchke moved back to Paris, and died in the suburb Ivry-sur-Seine.

Avriel Shull (born Avriel Joy Christie; February 9, 1931 – March 6, 1976) was an American architectural designer/builder and interior decorator whose career spanned from the 1950s until her death in 1976. She is best known for her mid-century modern architectural designs, which are especially unusual given the predominantly traditional tastes of mid-century Indiana. Most of Shull's projects were single-family homes around Hamilton and Marion counties in central Indiana, most notably the homes in Christie's Thornhurst Addition in Carmel, Indiana. Shull also designed a number of custom homes in Indianapolis's toniest suburbs, in other Indiana towns, and in other states. In the 1970s Shull began selling house plans in do-it-yourself home building periodicals, which were sold in the United States and Canada. Shull also designed apartment buildings and commercial/industrial properties. Her first major project outside of Indiana was a public library in Elkins, West Virginia. She also did designs for restaurants, including one in California and one in Carmel, Indiana.
Born Avriel Joy Christie in Hamilton County, Indiana, she graduated from Carmel High School and attended Butler University and the John Herron School of Art in Indianapolis, Indiana. She left school before completing her degree in 1948 to launch her own commercial art business. In 1951 she married Richard K. Shull, a well-known Indianapolis journalist who became a syndicated columnist and television critic. The couple had two daughters.
Shull, a self-taught artist without a degree in architecture (in fact with no college degree of any sort), devoted her artistic skills to building projects. A female builder/designer was unique for the time, but even more so was Shull's lack of formal architectural training. By 1954 Shull had designed and supervised the construction of her first project, the "Golden Unicorn", a modern-style home in Carmel, Indiana, named after the unicorn installed on an exterior wall. In 1955, Shull began her first large-scale construction project, a new suburban development on a large parcel of land just west of what is now downtown Carmel. Named Christie's Thornhurst Addition, the subdivision is unusual for its large concentration of Shull's strikingly-designed homes. In addition to the design work, Shull supervised construction, laying stone on many of the homes' exteriors herself; coordinated interior design; and assisted in furniture selection. Between 1956 and 1971 Shull designed and built twenty-one houses in Thornhurst.Shull died in 1976 of complications from diabetes. Despite her early death, she left behind a raft of Avriel-designed homes. Christie's Thornhurst Addition was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010 for its mid-century modern architecture and as the work of a master builder. Ladywood Estates was subsequently added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2019. The Avriel Shull architectural collection is housed at the Indiana Historical Society. Shull was a member of the National Association of Home Builders and the Builders Association of Greater Indianapolis.

Julius Ralph Davidson or JR Davidson (February 7, 1889-May 2, 1977) was a Mid-century modern American architect known for advancing modern architecture in Los Angeles and participating in Arts & Architecture magazine's Case Study House Program.Davidson was part of a group of Jewish architects who sought refuge in Los Angeles after having to flee Europe due to persecution inflicted by the Nazis including the Holocaust. This group included Richard Neutra, Rudolph Schindler, Kem Weber, and Paul László who furthered modern architecture in Los Angeles in the 1930s and 40s. Architectural historians and critics have described Davidson as being conversant in and talented at bridging both Art Deco, International, and Modernist styles. His modern interiors have been noted for their warmth, fluidity, and well-planned storage space. Writer Thomas Mann, who had an aversion to glass-box styles, selected Davidson as the architect of his Pacific Palisades home for his moderate modernism.

Richard Ernest Schmidt (14.11.1865–17.10.1958) was an American architect, a member of the so-called first Chicago School and a near-contemporary of Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan.

Paul Hayden Kirk (18 November 1914 – 22 May 1995) was a Pacific Northwest architect. Paul Kirk's designs contributed to development of a regionally appropriate version of Modern architecture. Many of his buildings are as much appreciated today as they were at the time they were built.
Born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1914, Paul Hayden Kirk arrived in Seattle at the age of eight, graduating from Roosevelt High School in 1932. During his childhood Kirk suffered from polio which left him permanently disabled. His use of one of his arms was limited, he walked with a limp, and he sometimes used a crutch.
After receiving his architecture degree from the University of Washington in 1937, Kirk worked for a variety of architects including Floyd Naramore, A.M. Young, B. Dudley Stuart, and Henry Bittman. Kirk then started his own practice in 1939 and began designing homes for his older brother, Blair Kirk, a building contractor.
Early tendencies toward simplified forms and details emerged in Kirk's early design for a speculative housing development on Columbia Ridge where limited materials and budget necessitated a more functional solution. During World War II, Kirk joined with other architects to take advantage of war contracts, partnering with former employer B. Dudley Stuart and Robert L. Durham. After the war, Kirk established a partnership with architect James J. Chiarelli in 1944. The firm of Chiarelli & Kirk produced a variety of Modernist structures such as the Crown Hill Medical-Dental Clinic in Seattle (1947), the Hammack House in North Edmonds (1946), the Dr. Schueler House (1947) in Port Angeles, a variety of buildings at Camp Nor’wester (1946–62) on Lopez Island, the Lakewood Community Church (1949), and homes in Bellevue’s Norwood Village (1951).
From 1950 to 1957 Kirk worked again as sole practitioner. During this time, his designs for single-family residences displayed characteristics of the International style with flat roofs, bands of windows, and simple cubic shapes. Noteworthy examples include the Lewis Dowell House (1954) in Seattle, the George Tavernites House (1952) in Seattle, and the Lake City Clinic (1952). Eventually, Kirk dismissed the International style “as an architecture which has been imposed on the land by man.”
During the 1950s Kirk's projects displayed an increasing tendency towards complex structural detailing, often with exposed layers of wood framing. This is visible in his designs for the Group Heath Cooperative Northgate Clinic (1958), the Blakeley Clinic (1957), and the University Unitarian Church (1959). Many of Kirk’s residential work during this time gained national attention. Among them was the Frank Gilbert House (1957) in the Highlands, the Bowman House (1956) in Kirkland and the Evans House (1956) on Mercer Island. In 1957, several of his projects were selected by a jury for House and Garden magazine to receive four of five national design awards. Other work was featured in Sunset Magazine and McCall’s Book of Modern Houses.
As accolades came in, business increased for the firm. In 1957, he established Paul Hayden Kirk & Associates. Three years later, after promoting Donald S. Wallace, and David A. McKinley to partnership level, the firm was reorganized as Kirk, Wallace, McKinley & Associates. In 1960, in association with Victor Steinbrueck, he designed the University of Washington Faculty Center (later known as the UW Faculty Club), honored with design awards from AIA Washington and the American Institute of Steel Construction and published in Progressive Architecture and Steel Construction Digest. Projects from this period also include the Magnolia Branch, Seattle Public Library (1963), the Japanese Presbyterian Church (1963), the French Administration Building at Washington State University (1967), Edmond Meany Hall at University of Washington (1974), the IBM Office Building (1965) in Spokane, and the Alexander Graham Bell Elementary School (1967) in Kirkland.
Kirk’s work was widely published. Between 1945 and 1970, his designs were included in over sixty articles in various national architectural publications. His work was respected both locally and nationally, which led to Kirk’s election as a Fellow of the AIA in 1959. In 1976 he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member and became a full Academician in 1994.
Kirk was also active in civic affairs in Seattle. Throughout his career he served as a frequent juror of professional design competitions. He was appointed to the City of Seattle Housing Board; served as president of the Seattle Art Museum's Contemporary Arts Council; served as president of the Seattle Chapter of the AIA; and was a trustee on the boards of the Arboretum Foundation and the Bloedel Reserve. With architect John Morse, he authored a plan to purchase and rehabilitate buildings in the Pike Place Market as a city facility in 1969, a step that led to the Market's eventual preservation.
Paul Hayden Kirk retired from practice and transferred his firm to partner David McKinley in 1979. He died in Kirkland on May 22, 1995.

Gene R. Summers (July 31, 1928 – December 12, 2011) was an American modernist architect. Considered to have been Mies van der Rohe's "right-hand man", he assisted his famed employer in the design of the iconic Seagram Building on Park Avenue on the island of Manhattan in New York City. Later, in private practice, he designed the huge McCormick Place convention center in Chicago, Illinois.

Kemper Goodwin (April 28, 1906 – December 24, 1997) was a noted architect from Tempe, Arizona. He specialized in educational buildings. Some of his buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Arizona.