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GORDON KENDALL WALKER, FAIA (1939-2026)
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. He was introduced to Doug and Kathie Raff, who, after meeting at a party, hired him to design a house for them on the southern slope of Queen Anne Hill. Inspired in part by Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple, the Raff house — "Fort Queen Anne," the neighbors called it — secured his reputation. He said that when he stopped enjoying the work, he found a way to fix it: what you build isn't a practice. "You build a life." Walker's favorite adage was that life is a three-legged stool balanced on talent, discipline, and dumb luck.
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
Around 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, who was in college, to help them build it. Status unknown.
Around 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.
1963 - The Jeffery and Nina Bertram House, 5 Lindley Road, Mercer Island WA. Owned by Gail Shimooka and Dan Dean, who sold it in 2010 to Jeffrey and Nima Bertram. Sold in 2020 to Stephanie Heliker and Robert Caldwell. For sale in 2026.
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, 11184 Champagne Point Road NE, Kirkland WA. The first of three houses Walker did for the Rogers family. Sold to Abbie and Scott Morris in 1996. Photos by Andrew van Leeuwen.
1967 - The Gordon
and Bobbie Walker House,
11144
Champagne Point, Kirkland WA. Commissioned 1965.
Later owned by Glen and Celeste Stuhring, who sold it in
1995 to Carol Ann Collier and Kent Iverson. Sold in 1998 to
Edmund and Jacquelyne Von Allmen. Sold in 2021 to Michael
North and Yuchih Huang-North. 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. Jim Olson signed the drawings. Won an AIA-Sunset Magazine Western Home Awards Citation and published in Sunset in October 1971. Sold in 2015 to Pura Vita LLC. Sold in 2020. 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.
Around 1970 - The Peter Kunstadter House, 3438 Evergreen Point Road, Medina WA. Kunstadter had seen the Raff house and wanted a bunker of concrete and steel. He grew up in a Keck and Keck house his parents owned 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. Sold in 1999. Since destroyed; a new house was completed on the site in 2012.
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 - 187 37th Avenue East, Seattle WA. At E John Street; credited to Olson/Walker in Woodbridge and Montgomery's A Guide to Architecture in Washington State (1980). 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, 5563 Winterwood Road, Langley, Whidbey Island WA. Commissioned 1986. Commissioned while he was with NBBJ. Assisted by T. William Booth. Photos by Andrew van Leeuwen. As of 2020 still owned by the Raffs.
1992 - Two Residences in California. Commissioned 1990. Status unknown.
1992 - The Ross Residence, Seattle WA. Commissioned 1990. Status unknown.
1995 - The Jensen Meleliot Residence, 501 34th Avenue, 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. Still owned by the clients.
1998 - The Jane and Pat Rogers Cabin, 1349 Lopez Sound Road, Lopez Island WA. Photos by Andrew van Leeuwen. Sold in 2023 to Alden Garrett and Charles Eriksen.
1998 - The Michael and Annie Conte Residence I, Seattle WA. Status unknown.
1999 - The Michael and Annie Conte House II, 270 Salmon Point Road, Lopez Island WA. Featured in Seattle Homes and Lifestyles, August 2002. Site purchased in 1998; still owned by the clients as of 2020.
2000 - The Kent Stowell and Francia Russell House, 2436 Soundview Drive, Langley, 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. Transferred to Useless Soundview Properties LLC in 2021.
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, 271 Blanc Road, 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. Sold in 2020 to Scott and Allison Nagy. Sold in 2026.
2014 - The Katie Egland Cox House, aka Larch House, Sandpoint ID. Commissioned 2013. The site is about two blocks from the house Walker built for his parents. Photos by Andrew van Leeuwen. Status unknown.
2019 - The Jim Youngren Residence, Orcas Island WA. Status unknown.
Research by Catherine Cramer. Additional research by Bobbie Morris .