Henry Klumb

Heinrich Klumb (1905 in Cologne, Germany – 1984 in San Juan, Puerto Rico) was a German architect who worked in Puerto Rico during the mid 20th Century.

Klumb was born in Cologne, Germany, in 1905.

An honors graduate of the Staatliche Bauschule School of Architecture in Cologne in 1926, his design education in Germany was influenced by the Deutsche Werkbund school, a fine arts program developed by German architect Herman Muthesius.

The Architecture and Construction Archives at the University of Puerto Rico (AACUPR) holds the Henry Klumb Collection (1926–1984).

Approximately 365 cuft in size, the collection contains architectural drawings, photographs, models, artifacts, audiovisual material, and various textual documents.

Klumb emigrated to the United States in 1927, at the age of 22.

He served as one of Frank Lloyd Wright's first apprentices (1929–1933) at Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin.

Having met New Deal brain trust planner Rexford Tugwell in the late 1930s, he was invited to move to Puerto Rico in 1944 and collaborate in the design of post-war modern Puerto Rico.

While under Wright's apprenticeship, Klumb worked on the design of the Ocotillo Desert Camp near Phoenix, and led the exhibition of Wright's work in Europe in 1931.

In August, 1931, while coordinating a Frank Lloyd Wright travelling exhibit, Klumb married Else Schmidt, returning to the United States in November of that year.

Klumb left Taliesin in 1933.

They had two children, Peter (born 1936), and Richard (born 1940).

Klumb became a US citizen in 1937.

In 1937 he established, along with Louis I. Kahn and Louis Metzinger, the Cooperative Planners firm in Philadelphia concentrating in the design of low-cost pre-fabricated houses.

He also designed a major exhibition of Native American Art for the Golden Gate International Exposition of 1939 in San Francisco, where he lived before relocating to Los Angeles in 1941.

In Los Angeles, he helped develop the city's master plan.

He was responsible for the design of the Battaglia, Coty and Meador houses in Burbank, CA, as well as the Plumb house in Los Angeles during that period.

Also in 1941, Klumb designed residential properties in the planned community of Greenbelt, Maryland, although the war prevented construction.

He left Los Angeles on February 24, 1944, and settled in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where devoted most of the rest of his life designing many buildings there.

Shortly after his arrival in Puerto Rico, Klumb worked in the Public Works Design Committee, where he was responsible for the design of multiple government structures in Puerto Rico.

He also founded, along with Stephen Arneson, the ARKLU furniture factory, which produced distinctive tropical furniture utilizing native woods, leather and cord.

The Architectural Drawing Series holds 578 projects intellectually organized in two sub-groups: work in the United States and in Puerto Rico before 1945 and documents from The Office of Henry Klumb.

His most important work on the island was the campus master plan for the University of Puerto Rico from 1946 to 1966, as well as the design of many of its buildings.

Among these is the Facundo Bueso Building, an esteemed historic edifice situated at the University of Puerto Rico's Río Piedras campus, which houses the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Río Piedras Faculty Residences in 1946, the Río Piedras Agricultural Experimental Station, the UPR Museum of Anthropology, History and Art, the UPR General Library, the UPR Student Center in Río Piedras, the Agricultural Sciences Building in Mayagüez, an expansion of the UPR School of Tropical Medicine building in Puerta de Tierra and the UPR Law School building, among others.

His public sector work attracted many private commissions, including private residences, churches and commercial buildings.

His private design commissions, include the design of the campus and church of the Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola School, the San Ignacio of Loyola Parish, the La Rada Hotel, and the landmark churches Iglesia del Carmen and San Martin de Porres in Cataño.

Later in life, his design work concentrated in work for several emerging pharmaceutical firms, including Eli Lilly, Parke-Davis, Baxter, Roche, Searle and Travenol.

Klumb also incorporated this tropical style of architecture in the design of his own home, Casa Klumb, which he began building in 1947.

In 1968, he established the Klumb Foundation.

In 1979, Klumb was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects.

In 1981, the Colegio de Arquitectos de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico College of Architects) established the Henry Klumb Award, the College's highest honor (and Puerto Rico's main architecture prize).

The list of recipients for the Henry Klumb Award includes architects Jesús Eduardo Amaral, Segundo Cardona, Jorge Rigau, and Andrés Mignucci.

On November 20, 1984, he and his wife Else died in an automobile accident in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Throughout his life, Klumb mentored young Puerto Rican architects as well as talented young architects from the US mainland.

These include Salvador Soltero, Segundo Cardona FAIA, Beatriz del Cueto FAIA and George McClintock.

Henry Klumb's projects included:

The University of Puerto Rico acquired the Klumb archives in 1986, following the architect's death in 1984, and then they were transferred to the School of Architecture.