John Carl "Jack" Warnecke (February 24, 1919 – April 17, 2010)[1][2][3] was an architect based in who designed numerous monuments and structures in the Modernist,[4][5][6][7][8] Bauhaus,[9] and other similar styles.

[2][3][5][8][11][14][15] A shoulder injury incurred while playing football prevented him from being drafted or serving in the U.S. military during World War II.

[1][2][11][13][14][15][19] Warnecke received his master's degree in architecture from Harvard University in 1942, completing the three-year course in a single year.

[1][5][8] After graduating from Harvard University, Warnecke worked as a building inspector for the public housing authority in Richmond, California.

[4] He was influenced by the work of architects Bernard Maybeck and William Wurster,[4][11] leading proponents and practitioners of the "Bay Area school" of architecture.

[27] Warnecke won national recognition in 1951 for the Mira Vista Elementary School in East Richmond Heights, California (a small residential community which overlooks the northern part of San Francisco Bay).

The Asilomar Conference Grounds Warnecke Historic District consists of 22 buildings and related landscape features after the State of California acquired the property in 1956.

[34] Warnecke's reputation as an architect received a substantial boost when he was asked by the administration of President John F. Kennedy to save the historic buildings surrounding Lafayette Square.

[1][3][14] The controversy over Lafayette Square can be traced back to 1900, when the United States Congress passed a resolution establishing the U.S. Senate Park Commission.

[37][38] Opposition to the demolition of the Cutts-Madison House and other buildings on Lafayette Square began forming shortly after the decision to raze the structures was announced.

[39] The newly elected Kennedy administration indicated in February 1961 that it was anxious to retain the existing historic homes on Lafayette Square.

[40] In February 1962, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy lobbied the General Services Administration to stop the demolition and adopt a different design plan.

[42] Jacqueline Kennedy enlisted architect Warnecke, who happened to be in town that weekend,[43] to create a design which would incorporate the new buildings with the old.

[48] Warnecke's design for the Markey National Courts Building was to create tall, flat structures in red brick which would serve as relatively unobtrusive backgrounds to the lighter-colored residential homes like the Cutts-Madison House.

[54][61] A few days later, Warnecke agreed that, although it was not required, he would submit the design for the permanent Kennedy grave site to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts.

[44][62] Noguchi counseled Warnecke to add a large sculptural cross to the site and to eliminate the eternal flame (which he felt was kitschy).

[66] In the course of the research and conceptualization effort, Warnecke considered the appropriateness of structures or memorials at the site (such as crosses, shafts, pavilions, etc.

First, Warnecke intended the grave itself to reflect the early New England tradition of a simple headstone set flat in the ground surrounded by grass.

[55] As initially envisioned by Warnecke, the site would be accessed by a circular granite walkway which led to an elliptical marble plaza.

[66][67][69] The eternal flame would be placed in the center of the grassy plot in a flat, triangular bronze sculpture intended to resemble a votive candle or brazier.

Instead, a 5 feet (1.5 m) wide beige circular fieldstone (found on Cape Cod in 1965) was set nearly flush with the earth and used as a bracket for the flame.

[75][77] Warnecke's term on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts ended in July 1967, and he was not reappointed after President Johnson expressed his desire to have his own preferred architects on the board.

[15] He also received the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize from the AIA in 1958, as well as the Urban Land Institute Award for Excellence in Architecture.