By Christa Vragel

David Rinehart, an architect well-known locally, was a former professor in the Schools of Architecture at both the University of Oregon and the University of Southern California.

David grew up on a farm in Ohio near the Indiana border and from the age of 10 his family assumed he’d become an artist. He entered the School of Fine Arts at Indiana University when he was 17. He graduated, served his time in the U.S. Army in post-World War II Germany and came home to get an advanced degree not in art, but architecture. Given an interview at the famed School of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, he talked himself in, entering as an upperclassman though he lacked the usual academic credentials. At Penn in 1957, Rinehart won the Arthur Spayd Brooke Memorial Prize for distinguished work in architectural design.

His teacher and mentor at the University of Pennsylvania was Louis I. Kahn, and upon graduation he worked in Kahn’s studio for several years. Rinehart collaborated with Kahn on the Salk Institute in La Jolla (1960), and in 1993 was chosen by Jonas Salk to design the Salk Institute’s East Building.

In 1964 Rinehart moved to Montreal where, in concert with architect Moshe Safdie, the concept-breaking residential project Habitat ’67 was designed for the Montreal World’s Fair. In 1967 he moved west to teach at the University of Oregon in Eugene, encouraging other Kahn-inspired architects to become members of the faculty.

Desiring to practice as well as teach, in 1970 Rinehart joined his longtime friend and architectural partner John E. “Jack” MacAllister, FAIA, to establish a firm in La Jolla, which later moved to Rancho Santa Fe. In 1973 this partnership created the master plan for the Telluride Ski Resort in Colorado. Other noted work by Rinehart includes Bourns Hall at UC Riverside, which received a national design award from the American Institute of Architects in 1996, the Molecular Sciences Building at UCLA, the Mingei International Folk Art Museum in Balboa Park, and the Shiley Eye Institute in San Diego.

David had a reputation as a well-respected teacher and mentor, at Oregon from 1967-1970 and USC during 1975-1979. He was passionate and accessible, helping shape two generations of architects who were informed by his example and the legacy of his buildings. They were taught to see light as a basic material in revealing form and structure. “I see space,” he said, “as a receptacle of light and light as the spent force that creates presence.”

At his passing, several former students expressed their thoughts about David Rinehart:

“We were very fortunate to have him as a friend, architect, teacher and colleague. He was part of the graduate school and added warmth, rigor and humanity to our work. We were fortunate he joined us, attracted exceptional students to our practice and led design projects. I learned more about architecture by working with him than with most anyone.”

“David was the Design Principal for a remarkable generation of buildings at Anshen + Allen. He had a strong impact on younger designers in the office. He was thoughtful, consistent and kind. I believe that his most important contribution, and one which taxed him to the utmost, was the East Building addition to the Salk Institute in La Jolla. I cannot think of anyone better suited for this iconic challenge, I get thrilled every time I go there and remember David’s gentle spirit.

“I met David at USC in 1978 during my first year architecture training (along with architect John McAlister [sic]). I remember how his gentle spirit led us through those tough times of architectural ignorance. He was always willing, approachable and had a beautiful smile. He is one of main persons responsible for me having a career as an architect.”

Light, honesty, and elegance defined David as a person. He never lost touch with his roots in Ohio or the honesty of a plowed field, and was powerfully affected by certain beauties. Few would have written, “My seminal architectural experience occurred in 1998 at the age of 70.” This realization came after traveling with friends in Tuscany to the rural Romanesque church of Sant’Antimo. He was deeply moved when he experienced, in its interior, “the complete brilliance and union of sunlight, stone, space, and being, each the other, all – one.”

David Rinehart died peacefully at his home in La Jolla, California on June 15, 2016, after a six-year struggle with aphasia, dementia, and Parkinson’s. He was 88 years old.

Resources:

AIA San Diego A&D News and Events, July 2016.

Palos Verde Art Center News

Photo credit:

www.aiasandiego.org