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John Graham & Company began with the work of John Graham, Sr., who established himself as an architect in Seattle during the early 1900s. He formed a number of partnerships before establishing himself as Graham & Painter. His son, John Graham, Jr. also studied architecture and eventually joined his father's practice. Graham & Painter became John Graham & Company during the 1940s and continued until John Graham, Jr. retired from practice in 1986. After his retirement in 1986, John Graham & Company architect Rodney Kirkwood merged the company with the DLR Group to form DLR/John Graham Associates.

John Graham, Sr. (1873-1955)

John Graham, Sr. was born in Liverpool, England. He acquired his professional architectural skills in England through apprenticeship training. He moved to Seattle to establish himself as an architect in 1901, following a period of extensive travels that included a visit to the Puget Sound region. He briefly partnered with Alfred Bodley in 1904, before forming a partnership with David J. Myers in 1905. The partnership, Graham & Myers lasted from 1905 until 1910. Graham & Myers designed several apartment buildings, the Kenney Presbyterian Home, and several pavilions for the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.

After separating from Myers, Graham started his own practice in 1910. His earliest works from this era include the Joshua Green Building (1913); and the Ford Assembly Plant in Lake Union (1913). He worked as a supervising architect for many of Ford's buildings, opening an office in Detroit from 1914 to 1918. His works over the next decade were mainly commercial buildings characterized by classical elements and terracotta ornamentation, including the Frederick & Nelson department store building (1916-1918); the Dexter Horton Building (1921-1924); and an early branch of the Bank of California, (1923-1924).

Graham became very adept in the Art Deco style, designing several Art Deco buildings in Seattle, including the Roosevelt Hotel (1928-1929); the Exchange Building (1929-1931); the Bon Marche store (1928-1929); and, together with Bebb & Gould, the U. S. Marine Hospital campus (1931-1934). Graham formed a partnership with William L. Painter as Graham & Painter from 1936 until 1942. At the same time, John Graham's son, John Graham, Jr., joined the firm's office in New York. Once his son returned to Seattle in 1946, Graham began to transfer his practice to his son until his death in Hong Kong in 1955.

John Graham, Jr. (1908-1991)

John Graham, Jr. began his architectural training at the University of Washington in 1926 before transferring to Yale University where he received his B.F.A. in 1931. After a brief time in statistical merchandising for retail establishments, Graham joined his father's successful architectural practice in 1937, opening a branch office in New York City with William Painter as partner. The office, Graham & Painter, New York, lasted from 1936 until 1942, and focused on department store design. After World War II began, business declined and Graham closed the branch and began to design war housing and Federal Housing Administration (FHA) housing that included Washington DC's Suburban Heights (1944); and Sunny Brook (1942); as well as Edgewater Park in Seattle (1939).

Graham returned to Seattle in 1946, eventually taking over his father's architectural practice. Under John Graham, Jr., the firm designed over 1,000 commercial projects that included the Washington Natural Gas Headquarters (1964), and the Westin Towers in Seattle (1969). Perhaps most famously, John Graham and Company specialized in the design of large shopping malls, designing over seventy multi-million dollar shopping centers that included Northgate Shopping Center in Seattle (1950); and Capitol Court in Milwaukee (1957); Lloyd Center in Portland (1960); and the Ala Moana in Honolulu (1960). These regional shopping centers were the first of their kind in the country and Graham is widely credited with the design of the modern shopping mall.

Graham was licensed to practice architecture in ten states. After partnering with Roderick Kirkwood in 1974, the firm went on to complete the Bank of California Building in Seattle (1974); the Wells Fargo building in San Francisco (1966); the Alaska State Office Building in Juneau (1975-1975); and the Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma (1984-1986). His most well-known project, however, is the design and execution of the Space Needle he developed with Victor Steinbrueck and John Ridley for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. Graham retired in 1986, five years before his death in 1991.