Hall of fame: Ray Kappe, FAIA: Ray Kappe reinvented the house on the hill and architecture education as we know it.

Ray Kappe, FAIA, is an enormously accomplished architect with a vast folio of diverse achievements. But after 50 years of enviable professional successes, there's one task he hasn't yet pulled off: He can't seem to fully retire. Well, you see, people keep knocking at his door with interesting projects in their pockets. There's a prefab community in the California desert and a Modern house in Mexico. And there's a client whose house merits a 25-Year Award because she's kept Kappe working on it for nearly that long. The house is so gorgeous, it's in constant demand as a backdrop for television commercials. Still, it's a work in perpetual progress. So, too, is Ray Kappe.

The Los Angeles-based architect has never been one to rest on laurels, even though his collection is ample. Among them are lifetime achievement awards for himself and 25-Year Awards for his house from both the American Institute of Architects California Council and AIA's Los Angeles Chapter. AIA National and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture honored him with their Topaz Medallion for his work founding and directing the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). And the walls of his house are chockablock with design awards. He certainly deserves to sit back and enjoy the accolades, and he fully intends to after he finishes these few projects on the boards. Yes, indeed.

against type

Kappe started experimenting with housing in the early 1950s, the height of mid-century Modernism. Some architects of the time zeroed in on a style and proceeded to hone it over a lifetime, but Kappe has continued to experiment, always excited to try something new. That's why he eschews the label of Modernist. He doesn't wish to be pigeonholed by a word that now represents in the public mind a fixed period on the architectural timeline. He doesn't mind being called a modern architect, however, with that lower case "m" signifying an ongoing desire to try innovative ideas, technologies, and materials.

With his disdain for typecasting, Kappe hasn't attracted as much attention for his design work as some other Los Angeles-based architects have enjoyed. He's also designed largely in wood and has done a few pitched roofs, no-no's for some Modern purists. "Some of my clients wanted pitched roofs, so I experimented with long, low gables. And most of my clients didn't want steel," he says. Despite the trespasses, his houses are just as beautiful as those Case Study tours de force, perhaps even more so because they're far more livable. They marry Modernism's love of open floor plans, indoor-outdoor connections, and manipulations of space for dramatic effect with a deep respect for the site and the intimate relationship between human beings and their built environments. "You know, architecture doesn't have to do it all. The natural layer should show through too," he says.