S. Charles Lee (September 5, 1899 - January 27, 1990) was an American architect recognized as one of the most prolific and distinguished motion picture theater designers on the West Coast.
[3] While in high school in 1915, he worked after school in the office of Chicago architect Henry Newhouse, a family friend who specialized in theater design: small motion picture houses, nickelodeons and remodeling storefronts into theaters.
After his discharge in 1920, he entered the Armour Institute of Technology to study architecture, where he was exposed to the principles of the École des Beaux-Arts which are reflected in his later work.
[2] Lee was an early proponent of Art Deco and Moderne style theaters, including Fresno's Tower Theatre.
[2] After World War II, Lee recognized that the grand theater building had become a thing of the past, and began to focus on new technologies in industrial architecture.