Stephen Kanner, Los Angeles Modernist architect and co-founder of A+D Museum, dies at 54

Stephen Kanner, a third-generation Los Angeles architect known for his playful modern designs, died Friday of cancer.  He was 54.

In 2001, Kanner  co-founded the A+D Museum  -- read  “architecture plus design” – that recently opened in a permanent location across from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

One Kanner design that earned popular acclaim was the In-N-Out Burger on Gayley Avenue in Westwood  that took its shape from the company’s logo, according to Frances Anderton, Los Angeles editor for Dwell magazine.

Other notable recent Kanner designs include a Space Age-gas station with a freeway-inspired roof, at Slauson and La Brea avenues; and the conversion of a defunct commercial tower into Sunset Vine Tower, a luxury apartment building in Hollywood.

He followed his grandfather, I. Herman Kanner, and father, Charles Kanner, in running the family firm founded in Los Angeles in 1946. Kanner Architects has completed more than 150 projects citywide, according to its website.

Architecture magazine once complimented Kanner projects for combining “solidly functional design with visual wit.”

A complete obituary will follow at latimes.com/obituaries.

-- Valerie J. Nelson

Photo: Stephen Kanner, shown in 2005, in the corner of a backyard office he built for a Westside psychologist. The structure was inspired by a nearby tree house. Credit: Dominique Vorillon

 

Comments

[Andres Lara]

My MOM was stephen kanner's girlfriend and stephen came to my house with his masserati beautyfull car he had. And a great man.