Résumé

Draftsman, Schack, Young and Myers, Architects, Seattle, WA, 1925-1929.

Designer, Naramore, Brady, Bain and Johanson (NBBJ), Architects, Seattle, WA, c. 1947.

Designer, Durham, Anderson and Freed, Architects, Seattle, WA, c. 1949.

Associate, Richard O. Parker and A.K. Arai, Associated Architects, c. 1950.

Designer, Olympian Stone Company, Seattle, WA.

Designer, Fentron Industries, Seattle, WA, c. 1960-1966.

High School/College

Graduate, Broadway High School, Seattle, WA, 1919.

B.Arch., University of Washington, Seattle (UW), Department of Architecture, Seattle, WA, 1919-1925; in 1925, of the 57 students listed in the UW architecture student organization, Atelier, five students had Japanese surnames. They included: George Shigaki, K.A. Arai, T. Matsumoto, S. Washizuka and O. Noji.

M.Arch., Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, c. 1930.

Relocation

In 1937-1938, the Seattle City Directory listed Arai as working as an architect at 109 12th Avenue, Seattle, WA; Arai was relocated to an internment camp in 1942, and only came back to Seattle, WA, in 02/1947. (See David A. Rash, "Kichio Allen Arai," in Shaping Seattle Architecture, Jeffrey Karl Ochsner, Editor, [Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1994], p. 243.)

Spouse

Arai married Nobu Kawaguchi on 10/09/1932.

Children

Son: Gerald Y. Arai, who also became an architect.

Biographical Notes

Arai was an early Asian-American architect in Seattle, although not the first graduate of the University of Washington program; this distinction belongs to Wing Sam Chinn. In his student days, Arai was known as "K. Allen Arai" (during his second year at the UW) and "A.K. Arai" thereafter. Student presentation drawings done by Arai were reproduced by a friend of the architect's son, Gerald A. Arai, in the 1980s. According to David Rash, 20,000 of these posters were sold. (See David A. Rash, "Kichio Allen Arai," in Shaping Seattle Architecture, Jeffrey Karl Ochsner, Editor, [Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1994], p. 243.)

• Port Blakely, WA (Architect's Birth)
  Port Blakely, WA

  ---

  OpenStreetMap (new tab)

  Google Map (new tab)

  

  ---