Lionel Pries

His father worked at the S. & G. Gump store in San Francisco, known for its departments addressing Chinese and Japanese arts and crafts; as a result young Lionel Pries developed early familiarity with the artistic traditions of Asia.

From 1928 to 1958, he was the inspirational teacher of a generation of architecture students at Washington, among them Minoru Yamasaki, A. Quincy Jones, Ken Anderson, Paul H. Kirk, Roland Terry, Fred Bassetti, Victor Steinbrueck, Perry Johanson, Wendell Lovett, and many others.

Beginning in the late 1920s and continuing to 1942, Pries travelled to Mexico every summer and regularly interacted with leaders in Mexican art including William Spratling, Frederick W. Davis, Rene d'Harnoncourt, Juan O'Gorman, and others.

He anticipated teaching at least until he reached retirement age, but was forced to resign his university position in 1958 after he was picked up in a vice sting in Los Angeles.

Pries is also cited in recent monographs on Minoru Yamasaki, A. Quincy Jones, Roland Terry, and Wendell Lovett & Arne Bystrom.

The Andalucia Building in Santa Barbara, California with the brick facade designed by Pries in 1926 (to the right); the white stucco portion (to the left) was a later modification by another architect.