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Wing, Kenneth (audio interview #1 of 2)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - Wing was interviewed in his home. His wife and a friend of the Wings and the interviewer, Nancy Latimer, was also present and contributed to the discussion. 12/7/1983
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- 2020-10-27
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- *** File: cbkwing1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-3:21)... Introduction. Originally Wing's family came from Maine. They moved to Colorado where he was born and in 1917 they came to Long Beach while Wing was in high school. When he first arrived, he attended Manual Arts high school and Inglewood High School before coming to Long Beach to attend Poly high. Clare Hammon and Art Green attended at the same time. His family came to Long Beach to seek work in the shipyards. His family helped to build warships. (3:21-9:31)... In Long Beach, Wing go a job as an office boy for Austin, an architect in the First National Bank Building. Austin was well known in Long Beach. The experience he gained in Austin's office was useful when he enrolled in the architecture program at USC. He took many interesting classes at USC including modeling, color, maps English and engineering. He stayed out of college for a year to save money so he could go back and finish. After Wing graduated from college, Wing went to work for Meyer and Holler in Los Angeles and he worked with Raymond Kennedy who had won the Rome Prize. Wing commuted on the Red Car from Long Beach to USC and to his first job at Meyer and Holler. (9:31-11:54)... When work was slow at Meyer and Holler, they let him work at other Los Angeles architecural firms. Meyer and Holler designed several building in Long Beach such as the Ocean Center Building and the United Artists theater. (11:54-14:24)... Wing started his own architectural practice in Long Beach during the Depression, following the 1933 earthquake. He designed Burbank school in Long Beach. A draftsman named Bill Shewan who had not been able to find work during the Depression. After the earthquake, there was lots of rebuilding work and he found jobs. Wing and Shewan used to ride the Red Car to Los Angeles together. (14:24-16:33)... Wing's first office was on 5th and Termino. Later he built an office on Linden and another on Atlantic. Wing's son was running the office at the time of the interview, and he was no longer working. (16:33-22:40)... Before the Long Beach earthquake, Wing designed residences. Later he designed or participated in designing, the Edison building, the Long Beach City Hall, the First Interstate Bank building and the Terrace Theater. Earlier he designed the Harriman Jones Clinic. Wing was responsible for the design of the outside of the building, which was done in an Italian style including the cartouches. Dr. Harriman Jones was not sure if the clinic would be successful, so the plan included a design suitable for apartments if the hospital didn't succeed. The design included 2 large patios. Wing remembers that Wing was very involved in the design of the inside of the building. (22:40-24:38)... Wing designed the Long Beach Airport Administration building and he was commissioned by the city. The building was designed right before WWII. Although the WPA didn't finance the airport building, it did finance the tile mural on the old Municipal Auditorium building. (24:38-26:59)... Wing designed about 2 dozen school including Burroughs elementary, Stephens Junior High and Jordan High School. The first church he designed the the First Baptist Church in Long Beach. Since then, he has designed close to 100 churches. His business grew through word of mouth. (26:59-30:12)... Preliminary planning for building the Long Beach Arena began in 1953 and it was completed in 1960. The design of the Arena was eliptical and it was located near the old Municipal Auditorium. The design was assigned to Wing and it was a supposed to be a 5 million dollars job. It actually cost about 6 million dollars. The Arena has hosted rodeos, ice skating and circuses. Wing was asked to work on the Municipal Auditorium before it was built, but he didn't want to do it because it was designed in New York and he'd have to go there to work on it. At that time, he wanted to go to Europe to continue his studies. End of tape *** File: cbkwing2.mp3 (0:00-2:50)... Subsidence was a problem in Long Beach, but when he worked on the design of the Arena, it was not a problem. Water was already being pumped back underground to stop the sinking. Wing was not aware of any controversy over using tidelands funds for the Arena. He was always paid on time. (2:50-5:58)... Wing was involved in designing the Carmelitos housing project and the War Mother's Home. Wing worked with the architectural firm of Schilling and Schilling on Carmelitos. The building were all concrete, but he believes the buildings were not treated well by their tenants. It was built with the Federal Housing Commission in Long Beach. It was a housing project for low income people. It was built on Los Angeles County land that had previously been hay fields. (5:58-7:42)... Wing designed the Long Beach Day Nursery building while he was still in college. His wife, Mildred, has served on the Nursery board of directors. (7:42-9:40)... Wing met his wife, Mildred, at Grace Methodist Church when he was a senior in high school. They were married in 1926 and lived in an apartment on New York Street. Mrs. Wing never worked outside her home. They had one son who worked with Wing and later became a principle in the office. Later, he took over the office. (9:40-13:30)... Wing's family lived in a home in Bixby Knolls that he designed. When Wing was in college, he drew house plans for the Sunday newspaper, earning 10 dollars a week which seemed like a lot of money. Wing designed office for Hancock Oil Company in Signal Hill. Mrs. Hancock brought him one of his drawings from the newspaper and asked him to build that house for her, not knowing he had drawn it or that it was the same design as the house he built for his family in Bixby Knolls. Hancock's home also had a swimming pool, since it was on a larger lot than his home, (13:30-18:27)... Bixby Knolls was newly developed at the time he built his home there in 1936. The area had an architectural board that had to approve plans for homes before they were built. There were similar boards in Palos Verdes, Laguna Beach, Park Estates and Los Cerritos. And the city required things like minimum set backs from the street. In 1955 he built a home in Park Estates. Later he moved to a condominium that was designed by Hugh Gibbs. (18:27-21:26)... Wing designed the restoration of Rancho Los Cerritos before the 1933 earthquake. He was well acquainted with members of the Bixby family. The oil boom had an impact on the neighborhood of Los Cerritos. Some houses were moved from Signal Hill. Wing remembers the day oil was struck on Signal Hill. He remember going to see the well and seeing oil shooting up into the air. (21:26-25:00)... When Wing first came to Long Beach, there was lots of vacant land, but few people had the money to buy it. Wing designed some of the homes in Los Cerritos. Frank Regan, however, copied his drawing for his home and didn't pay him. Regan stole his design. Wing has designed improvements for the homes of Ruth Rawn and Don Wallace in that neighborhood. Wing also built the home of Phil Swaffield on Country Club Drive. (25:00-30:37)... Many of the homes on Country Club Drive were built after the Virginia Country Club sold some of its land in that area. He designed several homes in the area and all of the homeowners wanted their house to be different. Wing and his wife moved to Bixby Knolls because the lots were relatively inexpensive and it was their first home. They later moved to Park Estates, which was developed by Lloyd Whaley. They purchased the land from Susanna Bryant, Fred Bixby's sister. They lived off of Bryant Road and the land around there had all been farm land. Bryant also owned part of the land where California State University, Long Beach was later built. That college was started in apartment building nearby. End of tape *** File: cbkwing3.mp3 (0:00-2:10)... Wing designed the men's gymnasium and a mechanical art building at California State University, Long Beach. He also designed the Physics and Chemistry building at the University of California at Irvine. At Irvine, the property was all ranch land and the master plan architect was William Pierreira. (2:10-7:46)... Wing designed many buildings throughtout California, some in the mountains. His wife has scrapbooks full of his work. There was a bar in the house he designed for Phil Swaffield. Architecture is complicated. It involved selecting colors, materials and arguing with contractors. In most of his practice, Wing refused to take jobs unless he also was going to supervise construction. If he didn't supervise, he was afraid he'd end up with a different building. (7:46-14:44)... When Wing designed and supervised construction of a building at the University of California at Irvine, they had meetings every week with tradesmen and floor men. Wing worked directly with the General Contractor and they directed the subcontractors. On other jobs, Wing with with C. T. McGrew and Sons, a local contractor. He has heard that they had problems building the Pacific Coast Club. Wing recalls watching the club begin built when he was in college and he went there before WWII. Later he visited the building with investors who wanted to reuse it, but always found it too expensive to use for anything but a club. (14:44-18:22)... The Jergins Trust building was orginally called the Markwell building. He remembers it stood unfinished for years with its steel frame exposed. And the frame rusted. Architects used to draw on linen paper. He recalls the plans for the Chinese Theater in Los Angeles were drawn on such paper with high quality ink. He recalls this when he worked for Meyer and Holler in Los Angeles. (18:22-24:10)... The Security Bank building in Long Beach was not damaged very much by the 1933 earthquake. Other buildings were damaged. On the Ocean Center building, a vent cover that had been designed by Raymond Kennedy was ruined during the earthquake. The Heartwell building went through the earthquake pretty well. The First National Bank building did, too. Some of its walls were 3 feet thick and made of brick. The Jergins Trust building, however, stood so long with job paint on it. End of tape
- SUBJECT BIO - Kenneth Wing was an architect who designed public buildings such the Long Beach City Hall and Arena as well as many private homes and other buildings. He was the first architect in Long Beach to become a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and the first graduate of the USC school of architecture to be so honored. Wing's family moved from Colorado to Long Beach in 1917 and he finished high school here while working as an "office boy" for local architect Horace Austin. After graduating from USC, he began a private practice in Long Beach, primarily designing private homes. Soon, however, he was also designing schools, churches and other public buildings. In these 2 interviews, Wing talks about designing buildings as well as serving on the Long Beach Planning Commission and the Board of Examiners and Appeals. TOPICS - Topics on this side of tape include: family background; education; architecture; Horace Austin; Mayer and Holler and Long Beach AirportTopics on this side of tape include: subsidence; Carmelitos Housing Project; Hancock Oil Company offices; Rancho Los Cerritos and Country Club DriveTopics on this side of tape include: CSULB building; UC Irvine building; Pacific Coast Club; Ocean Center building and Security Bank building
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