CityScape: Remembering Kendrick Bangs Kellogg, San Diego Champion of Organic Architecture

Kendrick Bangs Kellogg, architect of distinctive buildings drawn from nature, died in San Diego on Feb. 16. He was 89.

While his work was never broadly recognized, it was published internationally and he is revered by architects and architecture devotees. Kellogg leaves a legacy of structures, including several in San Diego and southern California, that are one-of-a-kind works of art.

Most of Kellogg’s buildings are residential, ranging from modest additions and remodels to spectacular custom homes made possible by unlimited budgets. His designs also include several Chart House restaurants and a wedding chapel in Hoshino, Japan.

In his signature cargo shorts and jacket — plenty of pockets for tools, notes, pencils — Kellogg was a hands-on architect who would drive a bulldozer, swing a hammer, hoist a beam or mortar stones by hand.

Considered an “organic” architect whose San Diego counterparts include Sim Bruce Richards, James Hubbell and Wallace Cunningham, Kellogg was 23 and working for Richards when he designed his first project: the 1950s Babcock House in Mission Beach, with sharp triangular forms reminiscent of the work of his early inspiration Frank Lloyd Wright.

But his own signature approach soon emerged and evolved through his career. One of his designs stands out as the epitome: the Doolittle estate, on an expansive desert site in Joshua Tree. It is a finely detailed masterpiece of concrete, stone, wood, copper and glass, where Alicia Keys sang last New Year’s Eve at the private unveiling of a new luxury cognac.

Constructed between 1988 and 2014, the estate exemplifies Kellogg’s painstaking creative process. Sited around more than a dozen boulders that remain in their natural positions, from above it resembles an exotic crustacean crawling across the barren landscape, like something out of “Dune.”

A 550-foot stone path snakes up the slope to the entrance and right through the building as its floor. Interiors consist of gently flowing spaces, comforting amid the harsh desert landscape. Inside, natural light filters in through gaps between the roof’s shell-like segments, which carve out slices of blue sky.

The Yen (a.k.a. Lotus) house in La Jolla, visible on a hillside east of Torrey Pines Road near La Jolla Shores, is an earlier example of Kellogg’s special artistry. It blossoms like a giant exotic flower with petals supported by curved laminated wood beams.

Beyond architecture, Kellogg proudly considered himself an activist, he told me years ago. He fired off countless letters to media and elected officials on behalf of better architecture and planning. At the time, many San Diego neighborhoods were (they still are) dominated by shoeboxy “dingbat” apartments from the 1950s and 1960s and their goofy successors. Kellogg lobbied for less restrictive city design guidelines and more architectural freedom. 

Decades later, San Diego still has plenty of dingbats, but hopefully they will become an endangered species. Unfortunately, Kellogg’s fabulous designs rarely came to urban neighborhoods — he did a mixed-use building in Pacific Beach that no longer features a burger joint, but at any rate, it was not one of his best buildings. Most blocks in our city are still starved for a shot of Kellogg’s spirit. 

Kellogg grew up in Mission Beach and rural Lakeside. He recalled long summer days spent running around Mission Beach in his bathing suit, a “free spirit living in the playground of the Southwest.”

His father was a doctor, his mother, a nurse and artist who introduced the family to the Theosophical Society in Point Loma. Their eventual architect played French horn in Grossmont High School’s marching band and marched in the 1953 Rose Parade. His interests also included Arabian horses and model trains.

In the 1950s, Kellogg met Wright at his Taliesin West studio in Arizona and considered apprenticing there, but he was determined to find his own aesthetic. He also attended San Diego State University, the University of Southern California and the University of California, Berkeley, focused on math and engineering. He later served as engineer, draftsman, contractor and carpenter on his projects.

Kellogg had long hoped to start an architecture school on Palomar Mountain. While that dream was unrealized, he was generous in sharing his ideas.

“When I came to San Diego to build my first house, I sought out original voices, past and present. There was only one. His name was Kendrick Bangs Kellogg,” recalled Cunningham, who went on to design several spectacular homes of his own (including one in La Jolla purchased by Keys and Swizz Beatz for $28.8 million 2019).

Cunningham was part of the 2014-2015 “Three on the Edge” exhibit at the Mingei International Museum, which also included Kellogg and Hubbell. If you’re really curious about organic architecture, the out-of-print catalog is listed for $2,470 on Amazon.

“I was a little hesitant to approach him, such great talents have very little time to share,” Cunningham said. “But he invited me up to his laboratory on Palomar Mountain where he worked on experimental structures with his own hands, assisted by a band of young artists and craftsmen. He was inspiring, kind and inclusive and everyone was in awe of his tremendous abilities.”

Word is that Kellogg’s models, drawings, papers and photos will go to the Art, Design & Architecture Museum at the University of California, Santa Barbara, but arrangements have not been finalized. Among the materials are unbuilt designs for a sports stadium in San Diego and a skyscraper in Manhattan. The museum also includes archives for Charles and Ray Eames, Bernard Maybeck,  Richard Neutra, R.M. Schindler, Frank Lloyd Wright and San Diego’s Irving Gill and Richard Requa. 

Kellogg is survived by his wife, Franeva Kellogg; three children from his former marriage, Shanna Kellogg, Klay Kellogg and Bryn Kellogg Hamson (and her husband, Ben Hamson) and their mother Marilyn Kellogg; and five grandchildren. 

Dirk Sutro has written extensively about architecture and design in Southern California. His column appears monthly in Times of San Diego.

CityScape is supported by the San Diego Architectural Foundation, promoting outstanding architecture, landscape, interior and urban design to improve the quality of life for all San Diegans.