Architect Stephen H. Kanner, principal of Los Angeles-based Kanner Architects, died of pancreatic cancer on July 2. Kanner, 54, was founder and president of the Architecture + Design Museum in Los Angeles.
I. Herman Kanner, his grandfather, established Kanner Architects in 1946. Stephen's father, Charles "Chuck" Kanner, led the firm until his death in 1998. A Westwood, Calif., In-N-Out Burger and a gas station inspired by the curves of a freeway epitomized Kanner's approach. "Both projects were quintessential L.A. because they respond to our car culture," Kanner told Curbed LA in 2006.
Kanner received both undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of California-Berkeley in 1980 and joined the family firm three years later.
His A+D Museum recently ended a nomadic existence when it moved to a permanent facility in April near the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "He was the spirit and the force behind the museum and really kept the vision strong," says the museum's executive director, Tibbie Dunbar. "It is an enormous loss."
