Roger Lee

Roger Lee (1920–1981) was a Chinese-American modernist architect who designed more than 100 houses and other projects in Northern California, Nevada, and Hawaii. Most of his work was done during the 1950s and 1960s, and mainly in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has been referred to as an architect who "designed high style for the middle class," and is today considered one of "the forgotten mid-century modernist" architects. Lee was also one of the few Chinese American architects in the nation when he first received his license in 1947.He was regarded as one of the most brainy architect of his times because of his unconventional modernist way of designs. Lee's residential designs were noted for their grace and clarity, often designed in a modern style with extensive use of walls of glass and redwood panels. In 1957 the London Architectural Review recognized him as one of forty U.S. architects who have "made personal contributions to American Architecture." Along with residences, he designed apartments, housing projects, recreational facilities, and churches. In 1964 he moved his practice to Hawaii. He grew up with the ideals of European modernism, writes architecture author Dave Weinstein, "that architecture should be functional, unadorned and elegant and make a difference in the lives of everyday people,"