++Douglas L. Cuykendall, 1920-2008: Architect designed and built structures everybody knew++

By CASEY MCNERTHNEY, P-I REPORTER Updated 10:00 pm PDT, Wednesday, April 9, 2008

The buildings Douglas L. Cuykendall designed and built weren't the headline-grabbing, Frank Gehry type that everybody would read about.

But they were buildings everybody knew, even if they didn't know one of the men behind them.

Family said Cuykendall helped with renovations at Ballard and Lincoln high schools in Seattle, and, in 1972, designed and built two expansion buildings at Coe Elementary School on Queen Anne.

He built a UPS warehouse in South Seattle, a Navy ammunitions bunker and other schools around the Northwest, family members say.

One of his favorite jobs was the renovation of the Old Capitol Building in Olympia, for which he and others received a 1983 merit award from the American Institute of Architects' Seattle chapter.

When planning for his memorial, Cuykendall's son said, he found a list of buildings and homes he built -- beautifully and on budget -- that was hundreds long.

Cuykendall died March 25 [2008] in Poulsbo after contracting pneumonia, said his son, Stanley. He was 88.

Cuykendall loved historical architecture and took satisfaction in knowing that he could restore buildings to be appreciated by future generations, Stanley Cuykendall said.

"He loved the sense of continuity from the old up to the present," his son said.

Cuykendall, the second of four boys, was born Feb. 24, 1920, in Sioux Falls, S.D. Family members said he was raised in the wide-open spaces of Moccasin, Mont., until he was 13, when his family moved to a Kent raspberry farm.

He always had a knack for drawing, and his brothers suggested that he become an architecture major at the University of Washington. He did, and also made the Huskies' junior varsity crew team.

But shortly after Pearl Harbor was attacked, he left school to join the Marines and became a B-25 pilot.

He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in October 1943 and flew missions in the South Pacific.

Back at the UW, he met Virginia Ann Nelson on a blind date and married her a year before his 1949 graduation.

Cuykendall is survived by his wife, their four children and seven grandchildren.

Stanley said his dad started as a draftsman and beginning in the 1950s had a business partnership with friend Marvin Iles.

"He did a lot of work for the school district," Stanley said. "He was always one of the architects they turned to."

Cuykendall took his young family to Sunday dinners at his parents' house and enjoyed taking his children on outdoor trips around the Northwest -- to Mount Rainier, Snoqualmie Pass and Eastern Washington.

"He was a family man," Stanley said, "and he loved the outdoors."

Friends plan to share how much they loved him April 27, when a family service is planned in Port Ludlow.

Douglas Loren Cuykendall (1920)