Enjoy browsing, but unless otherwise noted, these houses are private property and closed to the public.
So don't go tromping around uninvited! CTRL-F to search within the page.
GORDON KENDALL WALKER, FAIA (1939-)
Walker was born in Des Moines IA. Walker grew up at Talache ID, an abandoned mining company town on Lake Pend Oreille that his parents turned into a fishing resort, and later in Sandpoint ID. He took the five-year architecture program at the University of Idaho, graduating in 1962, and came to Seattle with his wife Roberta (Bobbie) Tonn in 1962. Walker worked briefly for Ralph Decker, then from 1963 for Ralph Anderson. In 1970 he formed Walker-Martin with Charles L. Martin on Orcas Island. In 1970 he co-founded Olson/Walker with Jim Olson. Olson/Walker did much of the rehabilitation of Pioneer Square, including the Maynard Building and the Grand Central Bakery, and built the Pike and Virginia Building and Hillclimb Court at Pike Place Market. He left in 1985 for NBBJ. He founded Walker Architecture in San Francisco in 1990, moved it back to Seattle in 1992, and closed it in 2004 at the age of 65. From 2002 to 2017 he was a consulting principal at Mithun. He taught design studios at the University of Idaho and, for decades, at the University of Washington. Walker designed more than thirty residences and built six of them. The defining book is Grant Hildebrand's 2019 Gordon Walker: A Poetic Architecture.
"You don't build a continuity of a practice and build it up. You build a life, and I've been much more interested in life than in having a magnificent practice." -- Gordon Walker
Circa 1959 - The Harlan and Margaret Louise Walker Residence, Syringa Heights, Sandpoint ID. Walker's parents sold the Talache resort and bought a hillside property overlooking Lake Pend Oreille. They had plans and clippings for an Early American house and asked their son to help them build it. Katie Egland Cox's Larch house, below, is about two blocks away.
Circa 1960 - aka Neighbor's House, Sandpoint ID. Designed from the ground up the following summer, inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's drawing of the John Pew House in Madison WI. Walker spent the summer helping frame it. Status unknown.
1965 - The Smith Residence, Ellensburg WA. Commissioned 1963. Done while Walker was working with Ralph Anderson. Status unknown.
1965 - The Jane and Pat Rogers House, aka the Rogers-Morris House, Juanita Beach, Kirkland WA. The first of three houses Walker did for the Rogers family, and one of the few of his designs to emulate Ralph Anderson. Sold to Abbie and Scott Morris. Photos by Andrew van Leeuwen.
1965 - The Mount Baker Speculative House, Seattle WA. Designed with Jim Olson and built by Walker. Status unknown.
1967 - The Gordon and Bobbie Walker Residence, aka The House in the Trees, Champagne Point, Kirkland WA. Commissioned 1965. He cut his hours with Ralph Anderson. Addition for children In 1967. Addition 1976-1978. Radically remodeled.
1969 - The Katherine (Kathie) and Douglass Raff House, aka Raff House I, 411 West Comstock Street, Seattle WA. Walker's first independent house, designed in 1966, three stories, 1670 square feet on a 5300 square foot lot, inspired by Louis Kahn's Trenton bath houses/ Walker built it himself, finding an experienced mason and carrying the hod. Jim Olson signed the drawings. Won an AIA-Sunset Magazine Western Home Awards Citation and was published in Sunset in October 1971. Sold in 2019 by Pure Vita LLC. Photos by Andrew van Leeuwen.
1970 - The William Waddington House, Mercer Island WA. Commissioned 1968. Status unknown.
1970 - The Lowery Residence I, Denny Blaine, Seattle WA. Commissioned 1968. Status unknown.
1970 - Aka Friday Harbor Residence, San Juan Island WA. Commissioned 1968. Status unknown.
Circa 1970 - The Peter Kunstadter House, Evergreen Point, Bellevue WA. Kunstadter had seen the Raff house and wanted a bunker of concrete and steel. His parents commissioned Keck and Keck for an AIA award-winning steel and glass house in Highland Park IL in 1953. Built by Walker, his last build. The clients lived in Hawaii during construction, returned to a house that was not what they expected, and sued; the parties settled and Walker was hospitalized with ulcers. Destroyed.
1971 - The Oscar C. and Lois Sandberg Residence, 7428 SE 71st Street, Mercer Island WA. Sold in 2016. Destroyed in 2017.
1972 - The Hofer Residence, Yakima WA. Commissioned 1970. Status unknown.
1973 - House, 187 37th Avenue East, Seattle WA. May be the Lowery Residence listed above.
1974 - The Tonn Residence, Spokane WA. Commissioned 1972. Client related to his wife's family. Status unknown.
1974 - The Livengood Residence, Seattle WA. Commissioned 1972. Status unknown.
1974 - The Bates Residence, Seattle WA. Commissioned 1972. Status unknown.
1976 - The Coons Residence, Bellevue WA. Commissioned 1974. Status unknown.
1976 - The Potter Residence, Bellevue WA. Commissioned 1974. Status unknown.
1980 - The Boyce Residence, Whidbey Island WA. Commissioned 1978. Status unknown.
1982 - The Lowry Residence II, Lake Sammamish WA. Commissioned 1980. Status unknown.
1988 - The Katherine and Douglass Raff House II, Whidbey Island WA. Commissioned 1986. Commissioned while he was with NBBJ. Assisted by T. William Booth. Photos by Andrew van Leeuwen.
1992 - Two Residences, California. Commissioned 1990.
1992 - The Ross Residence, Seattle WA. Commissioned 1990. Status unknown.
1995 - The Jensen Meleliot Residence, Madrona, Seattle WA. Four-story tower. Two houses by Wendell Lovett, one of them Lovett's own, sit just across the street. Photo by Andrew van Leeuwen.
1998 - The Jane and Pat Rogers Cabin, Lopez Island WA. Photos by Andrew van Leeuwen.
1998 - The Michael and Annie Conte Residence I, Seattle WA. Status unknown.
1999 - The Michael and Annie Conte House II, Lopez Island WA. Featured in Seattle Homes and Lifestyles, August 2002.
2000 - The Kent Stowell and Francia Russell House, Whidbey Island WA. Built for the founding artistic directors of Pacific Northwest Ballet, for whom Walker also designed the Francia Russell Center in Bellevue. Photos by Andrew van Leeuwen.
2001 - The Williams Residence, Seattle WA. . Status unknown.
2001 - The Judah Residence, Mercer Island WA. Status unknown.
2006 - The Gordon Walker and Sandie Pope Cabin, Orcas Island WA. 10 acres. Published in the Seattle Times Pacific NW magazine, October 2011. Photos by Andrew van Leeuwen, Grant Hildebrand, and Michael Burns.
2014 - aka Larch, the Katie Egland Cox House, Sandpoint ID. Commissioned 2013. The site is about two blocks from the house Walker built for his parents while in college. Photos by Andrew van Leeuwen.
2019 - The Jim Youngren Residence, Orcas Island WA. Status unknown.