Richard John Lareau, AIA

Richard "Dick" Lareau (pronounced Luh-Roh as in Henry David Thoreau) was born in Bremerton, Washington. After his father was stationed at a number of Naval facilities, the Lareau family settled in Chula Vista. Richard graduated from Sweetwater High School as the war ended in 1945.

While still in school, the young Lareau would visit his older brother on the Cal Berkeley campus. To this day he recalls the impression his brother's friend Jack Herman's (Bay Area architect) architectural coursework impressed him. Seeing the renderings of a young Cal architecture student caused Richard to tell his brother how badly he wanted to draw that well. Returning to Chula Vista, Richard's junior high teacher asked the class to design a home -- he took the assignment very seriously and began gathering a sense of what a house design meant to his fellow students (seeing them as clients early on).

After the war, Richard sold bottled water door-to-door for five months before following his father's footsteps in the military. Immediately after his 3.5-year stint with the US Navy's V-5 Flight program (in 1949), Mr. Lareau attended San Diego State College. Under the tutelage of sculptor John Dirks (being particularly influenced in his perspective drawing class) and painter Jean Swiggett, Richard built his GPA and transferred to Cal. In Berkeley Lareau would earn a BA and MA in architecture and would act as president of the campus Architectural Association (as did J. Herbert Brownell years earlier).

Richard Lareau left the San Francisco area returning to San Diego where he felt more opportunity would arise in a city with too few licensed architects. Mr. Lareau started his professional career in the office of Kitchen and Hunt and later for Paderewski, Mitchell and Dean until he opened his own midtown office on 6th Avenue in 1957. Through the late '50s and early '60s, Dick would practice from his small office, including a move northward to another office on 6th Avenue and then onto 5055 Harbor Drive. By 1968 the Lareau office drew up plans for the office at 2845 Nimitz, where he continued to practice for nearly four decades.

Growing to a staff of 15 at its peak, the Lareau office acted as a training ground for a number of the region's architects such as Al Macy, Paul McKim, George Hartley, Bill Richards and Paul Thorke. The offices on Nimitz would also house interior designers and landscape architects like Seifert and Wyckoff. In addition to working with local landscape architects, the Lareau office also engaged local artists James Hubbell, Ira Spector and Mike Madson to integrate their sculptural work into some of the firm's proejcts.

Before building a successful practice, including a concurrent position as Cal Western's (later Point Loma Nazarene) campus architect, the Lareau offices took on a number of residential commissions. Not taking his first Sunday off until two years into self-employment, Lareau worked constantly grabbing any house design he could (including a house for himself) to make a name for himself. Losing the Lareau Residence #1 design to divorce early on, the office began to grow past the early "lean" years. Past the early designs for (his first client he found while still in Paderewski's office) Howard Brubeck (Dave Brubeck's brother) and Jean McCommins (who was a student in Richard's UC Extension Home Design course), the firm specialized in religious structures, commercial buildings, public schools and university work.

With an early respect for Harwell Hamilton Harris (exemplified in the Brubeck Residence), Richard Lareau's design philosophy was built around expressing the structure of a building. Seeing structure as a building's decorative program, Richard's fondness for circular buildings has been profound. From circular churches, Cal Western's Little Theater (his first project for Campus President Rust) to Mission Bay Park Visitor Information Center and the Wycoff Residence (both helixes), he recalled recently "the circle is a beautiful thing."

Partial Project List 1957 - 1970

Bachelors Officers Quarters
NAS Imperial Beach

Bachelor Enlisted Quarters
Camp Pendelton

Benjamin Library (sculpture by Ira Spector)
5188 Zion Avenue, Allied Gardens

Berger, Eugene Residence
Garden Lane, Point Loma
Here Lareau installed his own design for a shower/bath spout which he failed to secure mass production)

Boehm, Dwight Residence (1966)
Vista
Published in Masonry Industry (9/60)

Bone, Jack Residence (1960)
Mission Hills

Boney Hall (1967)
on campus of Pt Loma Nazarene University (formerly CalWestern)

Brown, Mike Residence (1968)
5645 Taft, La Jolla

Brubeck, Howard Residence
La Mesa

Cal Western Dining Hall (1962)
on campus of Pt Loma Nazarene University (formerly CalWestern)

Cal Western Fine Arts & Music Buildings (1969)
on campus of Pt Loma Nazarene University (formerly CalWestern)

Cal Western Gymnasium (1962)
on campus of Pt Loma Nazarene University (formerly CalWestern)

Cal Western Science Building (1967)
on campus of Pt Loma Nazarene University (formerly CalWestern)

California Western remodel of Old San Diego Club (1966)
6th & Ash Street

Center West - Richard Lareau Office Building (1969)
2845 Nimitz Boulevard, Point Loma

Copp Hall
32nd Street Naval Station

Cranston, John Residence (1972)
337 Pacific Avenue

Davis Apartments
National City

Henry, Fred Residence

Kensington Library Remodel (1961)
4121 Adams Avenue

Lareau, Richard Residence #1 (1964)
Point Loma

Lareau, Richard Residence #2 (1970)
2922 McCall, Point Loma

McCommins, Jean and Robert Residence (1959)
Taltec, Mt Helix

Men's Dormitory (1960)
on campus of Pt Loma Nazarene University (formerly CalWestern)

Mission Bay Visitors Information Center (1969)

Navy Exchange Addition (1962)
NAS Miramar

Navy Exchange Cafeteria (1972)
Miramar

Newman, Ruth Residence (1963)
1310 Alta Vista Way, Vista

Ocean Beach Kindergarten (1964)

Pacific Beach Community Congregational Church (1966)
Beryl Street, Pacific Beach
Photo by George Lyons

Resurrection Lutheran Church of Coronado
5th & Orange Avenue, Coronado

Ryan Library (1962)
on campus of Pt Loma Nazarene University (formerly CalWestern)
Interior light fixtures by James Hubbell

Saint John’s Evangelical Lutheran Classrooms (1964)
El Cajon – Robert Des Lauriers did 2nd phase (church)

Sheldon, Gale W. Residence (1961)
Wakefield Court, El Cajon

Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity (1967)
5076 College Place, College Area

United States International University (1970)
Master Plan, Administrative Buildings, Library and Learning Resource Center, Science Building and lecture hall, Academic Classroom Cluster.

University City United Church (1970)
Corner of Governor and Streseman

White, Jack Residence (1964)
690 Rimini, Del Mar
This designed earned Lareau his first AIA Award of Merit

Women's Dormitory (1962)
on campus of Pt Loma Nazarene University (formerly CalWestern)

Wycoff Residence (1968)
Helix-shaped home in Del Mar (Off Del Mar Heights Road near Pine Needles)
Designed by Wheeler employee Ronald Wiseman, built by Herb Turner