Harold James Bissner Jr.

Posted here by Harold James Bissner III March 22, 2020 My Dad, Harold James Bissner Jr., was born on October 20, 1925 on the dining room table in the family home on North Pasadena Avenue in Pasadena, CA while his father Harold Sr. scoured the Gin Mills in town looking for the family doctor while Dad's Aunt, his mother's twin sister Lorraine, served as Midwife. Harold was an only child though later his father remarried to Dorothy Ferguson and he then had a Stepbrother Kermit Ferguson who was an accomplished Engineer later on following WW II. In his early life, and with his parents having divorced when he was age 5, he lived many places throughout the Western United States with either parent as well as with his extended family including Waikiki Beach on Oahu, Vancouver, and Seattle Washington, Portland Oregon, Balboa Peninsula, San Bernardino and many other regions of California. This "nomadic" early life, along with his Architect father, gave him exposure to myriad styles of homes, cultures, and buildings as well as the climates and topography that dictated the needs for differing type structures and the appropriate siting of a home or building on a piece of land to take full advantage of views, climatology and all elements critical to comfort and value. In his travels as a young boy he rode the Red Car alone to stay with relatives somewhat local in San Berdoo or at the beach, he was put on Tramp Steamer ships headed for San Fran, Portland, and Hawaii all alone at age 8 or 10. All was great as to all of that. It was a different era. Bissner joined the Navy the day following his 17th birthday in October, 1942 with his Mom, Corrine, signing the adult waver and then spent 4 years as a Yeoman 1st Class serving 3 plus years on the Destroyer USS Buchanan in the South Pacific which is the eighth most highly decorated ship in all of World War II. The cramped confines onboard lent to his appreciation of maximizing space usage. After Japan capitulated ceasing all hostilities and before the Surrender was signed Harold was among a handful of US sailors who made landfall in the Port of Yokohama and rode a jeep to Tokyo. His viewing of what remained of buildings and structures on that 20 mile drive to Tokyo before the signing of the armistice imbued an appreciation for Japanese architectural details and simple lines with open design while also lending to his desires as an architect to salvage and re-purpose buildings as opposed to taking a "scorched earth" tear it all down approach so popular over the past 30 or so years in America and elsewhere.. Post war, Harold apprenticed with his father Harold Senior, also a renowned Pasadena Architect who began his practice in 1922. In working with his Dad he encountered such notables as Harold Zook and John Galbraith, both of whom had collaborated with Senior on projects. There were many others. While working for his father in about 1950 he interviewed one John Nyberg who had recently graduated from Berkeley as an Architect. They hit it off and soon formed a partnership and symbiosis that lasted more than 29 years with work that ranged from beautiful custom single family homes, residential tracts & condominiums, commercial developments, apartment buildings, hotels, and then commercial endeavors including food production facilities, corporate offices and restaurants for Van De Kamp's Holland Dutch Bakers & Restaurants, Baskin Robbins Ice Cream company worldwide, JBL/Harman International Speakers, Royal Industries and many other notable worldwide companies. Harold conducted work that spanned 3 continents, England and Japan as well as Hong Kong, Beirut, Malibu, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, San Juan Capistrano and other coastal climbs. No beach was out of reach! His partner, John Nyberg ,was the consummate pragmatic engineer type while Harold cultivated business relationships and, for the most part, was the creative partner. They were a remarkable paring! Together they were a bold, innovative and creative force. Beginning in the mid-60's they revolutionized frozen food production and bakery processes and related material handling procedures. Bissner's imaginative residential work is highly praised by many and was performed by he and John both together and independently throughout Southern California and the Central Coast but not confined to just those regions. There's that house in South Beirut in the hills overlooking a bay. His keynote style emanating from the late 40's was Post and Beam Modern AKA MCM which were carefully sighted and designed to take full advantage of view, climate and environment. Variations included his "Pole House" home designs which were placed on a foundation of very large diameter telephone poles and were well suited to heavily sloped, previously unbuildable parcels. The innovation lent itself to minimally impacting hillside environments. He built such a home for He and Lela in 1982 and that is where he passed away. Then there are the more imaginative structures which include the Cinder Cone house (aka Volcano House) built in 1968 near Newberry Springs, and once owned by the late Huell Howser which capped an extinct cindercone in the Mohave Desert and contained an adiabatic pool of cooling water around the exterior of the home and was to have an aperture atop it which opened to permit telescopic planetary viewing in the dark desert nights. The Van De Kamp's Windmill Coffee Shops which were a hexadecagon (16 sided) structure with a folded plate roof and a 40 foot windmill over the top spinning both horizontally and vertically and was lighted at night to draw patrons. . The Royal Industries International Headquarters built in the mid 60's that floated over the submerged parking area and was an advanced design poured in place acoustical concrete slab affair with walls of glass and an audio video presentation room uniquely designed and installed by noted local photographer Lin Cariffe that was way ahead of its time. The preceding narrative of my father's works is but a handful of his many hundreds of creations, accomplishments and innovations in Architecture and construction. Harold married Lucille Kaufman in 1947 and they had four children, who survive his passing: Carol Ann (Gary) McNamara of Malibu, CA, Susann Bissner of Kalispell, MT, Teresa (Justy) Garcin of Santa Maria, CA and Jamie (Colleen) Bissner in Altadena, CA, as well as several grandchildren and great grandchildren. The Matriarch of the family, Lucille Bissner, passed in 2006. Harold met Lela Owen in 1976 in South Pasadena and they married in 1979 in Tokyo Japan. Together they built a beautiful home in South Pasadena in 1982 where they resided together and where Harold passed peacefully at 10:48am on March 20, 2020 surrounded by family, close friends and his loving wife Lela. He will be missed by all of us and by many more.