David H. Fukui

1939 - 2019

David H. Fukui

Architect

November 13, 1939 ~ March 31, 2019

By Mary Bruno

David H. Fukui, the award-winning Seattle architect and champion of diversity, died on Sunday, March 31, 2019. He was 79. The cause was complications from Parkinson's disease, which he had been battling for nearly two decades.

Fukui put his stamp on dozens of Northwest buildings. The collection of papers that he donated to the University of Washington Library includes more than 8,000 architectural drawings for more than 200 projects. Each project-from many private homes to community centers, banks, and hospitals-bears his elegant, subversive touch. Fukui's sly attempt, if not to break the rules, then to bend them is evident in such award-winning buildings as Seattle Fire Station #34 (in Madison Park), the Seattle-First National Bank (3rd Avenue and Marion Street), and the Port of Seattle Information and Observational Center (Pier 48). His playful, 1979 work with Seattle artists Andrew Keating, Sherry Markovitz and Buster Simpson on the Viewland/Hoffman Electrical Substation in the

Greenwood neighborhood was one of the earliest examples of an artist-architect public art collaboration.

Fukui liked to start with a clean contemporary design, then introduce some imaginative tilt or twist that sent things slightly off kilter. One three-story private residence he designed in 1991 is a perfect example. The stucco townhouse looked out over Lake Washington from a steep, secluded Madrona hillside. "Since a strict east-west orientation would have slighted the spectacular view of Mount Rainier to the South," wrote critic Fred Albert in The Seattle Times, "Fukui swiveled the second floor of the house at an angle, like a Rubik's Cube whose middle has been rotated half a turn."

Architect Gordon Walker first met Fukui in 1963, when Fukui was an intern at Seattle's Ralph Anderson architecture firm. "David immediately struck me as being hip on current culture-art and music particularly," recalls Walker, who became a lifelong friend. "His work reflected that. It was more upbeat and modern. More of a jazz spirit." Fukui was known as a talented, detail-oriented designer. He pioneered an architectural style that his former partner Richard Hobbs calls, "Northwest contemporary with an edge. Very angular. We were throwing angles into the rectangles." The Hobbs/Fukui firm won eight American Institute of Architects (AIA) Seattle Design awards. The Fukui-designed McConkey House won The Seattle Times/AIA Home of the Year award in 1987.

But Fukui's talents went beyond style. "He strove to integrate the architecture, the interiors and the environment," says Hobbs. "And he was always big on a strong concept: What is the meaning of this house or

building?" The combination of his holistic focus and design flare, says Hobbs, "Made a lasting impact on local architecture."

Fukui was part of an avant garde Northwest scene that pushed and blurred boundaries in architecture and in the civic sphere. In the early 1980s, Hobbs / Fukui was among a hot group of local firms dubbed the "Gang of Five" by Seattle Weekly. Other Gang members included Olson/Walker, Hewitt / Daly, Calvin/Gorasht and Schorr / Miller. At the behest of Weekly Editor / Publisher David Brewster, the five firms reimagined "a downtown Seattle worth living in." Their what-if concepts and designs ran as a series in the Weekly -and influenced the city's design team and cultural conversation.

As a member of Seattle's chapter of the AIA, Fukui advocated for more diversity. As far back as 1985, "David and I began conversations about why so few women and minority folks belonged to the AIA and worked as architects," says AIA's former CEO Marga Rose Hancock. Those informal talks spawned the AIA Seattle Diversity Roundtable, so-named because the group would gather at a round table at Lowell's in the Market. The Roundtable, says Hancock, "remains active to this day." In 2005, in honor of his parents, Fukui created the Mitsu and William O. Fukui Memorial Endowed Diversity Scholarship at the UW to support minority graduate students of architecture.

David Hiroshi Fukui was born in Seattle. His parents, William O. and Mitsu, owned and operated a dry cleaning business in the city's Montlake neighborhood. The family was forcibly relocated to Idaho's Minidoka Internment Camp in 1942 when David was still a toddler. After their release from Minidoka in 1944, the family spent a year in Detroit, living with sponsors. Upon their return to Seattle in 1945, William and

Mitsu opened another dry cleaning business. David went to school: Horace Mann Elementary, Washington Junior High, and Garfield High School. He played basketball with the Comets, his church's team in the Nisei Veterans League. In his second season, outfitted with smart new uniforms, the Comets won the league championship. David also played drums for The Skyliners, an all Japanese-American ensemble with a Big Band repertoire. The band, explained one member, "Started for the purpose of keeping Japanese kids

out of trouble." Fukui remained a jazz and sports fan for life.

Fukui earned a degree in architecture from the University of Washington in 1964. He served in the Army Reserve. In 1965, he married Seattle teacher Judy H. Mukai; they would later divorce, but remained friends. Following graduation from the UW Fukui worked as a draftsperson for two of the city's most elite firms-led by distinguished architects, Ralph Anderson and Albert O. Bumgardner-before becoming a partner in Hobbs/Fukui Architects (in 1968), and then in Decker/Fukui Architects (in 1978). During the 1970s

he taught studio architecture classes at the UW. He opened his own firm, Fukui Architecture, in 1991.

David Fukui loved Miles Davis and cool cars and Bombay martinis (up with two olives). He was handsome and stylish, dashing even. A man of good taste, who collected art and people. He cherished his family, colleagues and friends, whom he tended carefully with small kindnesses. David liked to cook, and was good at it. He loved to eat and was slow at it, forever the last to finish. He was quiet, but always present and attentive. His smile was disarming. He enjoyed a little gossip now and then. He had beautiful handwriting; a note or card from David was a work of art. He never lost his hipness, or his sense of humor. Quick, mischievous and at times enigmatic, that sense of humor carried him through his best and worst days.

"David lived gracefully with Parkinson's Disease and numerous other medical disorders," says his cousin, Robert Fukano. "He did it with humor, living without complaint, and treating others well."

David Fukui will be laid to rest in the Fukui family plot at Sunset Hills Memorial Park in Bellevue. He is survived by his uncle Henry and aunt Rose Fukano, and by his aunt Michi Fukano and several cousins. The family requests that any donations be

made to the Mitsu and William O. Fukui Memorial Endowed Diversity Scholarship in the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington, to the Northwest Parkinson's Foundation, or to Keiro

Northwest.

A celebration of life will take place later in the spring.