Robert Stacy-Judd (1884-1975)

Robert Stacy-Judd was born in London, England on June 21, 1884. He attended Acton College, Regent Street Polytechnic Institute, and the South Kensington Science and Art Institute in London, graduating in 1905.
Stacy-Judd apprenticed under architect James Thompson for four years. From 1906-1907, he was an architect with the surveying department for the Great Northern Railway Company in London. From 1907-1908, he was the architect in charge of ground office construction for the Franco-British Expedition in London. Between 1911 and 1922, Stacy-Judd traveled and worked in Minot, North Dakota as well as the Canadian province of Alberta. In 1922, he made an exploratory trip to California and before the end of the year had moved and started an architecture practice in Los Angeles.
In 1923, he encountered the pre-Columbian architecture of Mexico and Central America through the 1841 book Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan by John L. Stephens, which significantly influenced his architectural work. A year later, in 1924, Stacy-Judd designed the Aztec Hotel in Monrovia, near Los Angeles, which was his first design in pre-Columbian revival. Other notable built projects include: the First Baptist Church in Ventura, California; the Philosophical Research Society Building in Hollywood California; the Krotona Institute of Theosophy in the Ojai Valley; and the Masonic Temple in North Hollywood California. Stacy-Judd wrote and lectured on Mayan architecture, and during the depression embarked on a book project concerning the lost City of Atlantis. Robert Stacy-Judd died in 1975.

Robert Stacy-Judd, architect

Robert Stacy-Judd papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara

circa 1917 - circa 1950

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