By Daily Press staff
Wade Killefer, founding partner of Santa Monica-based Killefer Flammang Architects — the firm that has designed about one-quarter of the 20,000 residential units currently planned or under construction in downtown Los Angeles — has been elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.
A key element in Killefer’s election, said the AIA, was his pioneering in the adaptive reuse of historic buildings downtown and the trail-blazing pro bono survey his firm conducted of some 200 buildings in the historic core which revealed that about 50 of them would be economically viable for conversion to residential use. He also was saluted for his leadership in re-writing the city’s adaptive reuse ordinance, which played a major role in attracting developers to undertake downtown projects.
Among the landmark structures Killefer’s firm has transformed into multi-family housing are the Pacific Electric, Eastern Columbia and Mercantile Arcade Buildings, Gas Company Lofts and the Old Bank District.
Killefer also has been active in the design of non-profit and low-income housing, including Havenhurst Apartments, which was voted “2005 Project of the Year” by the Southern California Association for Non-Profit Housing.
A graduate of Stanford University, the 57-year-old architect also holds a Master of Architecture degree from U.C.L.A. Web site founder up for ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 2, 2006. Read the original PDF.