Last Saturday I had the pleasure of presenting a lecture at Boise’s fourth annual Modern Masters series, sponsored by Preservation Idaho and Idaho Modern. The subject? The late Spokane architect Kenneth W. Brooks, part of our region’s stellar mid-century modern architecture movement that spanned two decades beginning in the early 1950s.
Brooks received three national awards from the American Institute of Architects in three different decades: Washington Water Power Central Service Facility (Spokane, 1959—the first national AIA award in the state of Washington), Intermountain Gas Company Headquarters (Boise, 1966—where Saturday’s event was held), and Columbia Basin College’s Art-Drama-Music Complex (Pasco, 1978).
Though I never had the privilege of meeting Mr. Brooks, his determination and love of his craft were unparalleled.
