Archives West Finding Aid

(From the guide to the Kenneth W. Brooks papers, Cage 685)

Architect Kenneth W. Brooks was born in Cedarvale, Kansas in 1917. He received his undergraduate degree in Architectural Engineering in 1941 and a master's degree in Architecture in 1948, both from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He served in the Caribbean with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (1941-1943) and the U.S. Marine Corps (1944-1946).

In 1948 Brooks traveled to Europe on a University of Illinois Francis Plym Fellowship, spending most of his seven-month trip in Sweden working with Sven Markelius, a Swedish city planner and architect.

He moved to Spokane in 1948 and established his architectural practice there in 1951 (Kenneth Brooks, Architect; later Brooks, Hensley, Creager). He became an award-winning urban designer and city planner; one of his most ambitious and noteworthy projects was "A Place in the Sun," an urban design plan for downtown Spokane. He participated very actively in the planning process for Expo '74, the World's Fair held in Spokane in 1974. He designed several major commercial buildings, including the headquarters for Washington Water Power in Spokane, the Rogers-Orton Dining Hall at Washington State University, the Intermountain Gas Company Central Service Facility in Boise, and the art-music-drama complex at Columbia Basin Community College in Pasco, Washington.

Brooks was very active in his profession, frequently presenting papers to local, regional, and national groups on topics in architecture, urban design, transportation planning, and environmental policy.