Vladimir Ossipoff

The Liljestrand House - makai elevation

Vladimir ‘Val’ Ossipoff (1907–1998) was an American architect best known for his works in Hawaii.

Biography

Vladimir Ossipoff was born November 25, 1907 in Vladivostok, Russia, but grew up in Tokyo, Japan, where his father was a military attaché of the Russian embassy, and emigrated to the United States in 1923. He moved to Honolulu, Hawaii, after graduating from the University of California, Berkeley in 1931 and said in the early 1960s that he carried on a "War on Ugliness," a struggle to counter what he felt was poor architectural design and unrestricted development of Honolulu. Ossipoff was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1956. He was awarded the first medal of honor of the AIA Hawaii chapter. He was a member of The Pacific Club, for which he designed a new building in 1959. He died October 1, 1998 in Honolulu.

Legacy

In 2007, the Honolulu Museum of Art organized the first museum retrospective of his work. "Hawaiian Modern: The Architecture of Vladimir Ossipoff" was on view at the Academy from November 29, 2007, to January 27, 2008. The show was planned to travel next to the German Architecture Museum in Frankfurt, Germany (Summer 2008) and the Yale School of Architecture Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut (Fall 2008).

Ossipoff has been called “the master of Hawaii modern architecture,” “the dean of residential architects in Hawaii,” and “the premier postwar designer of kama'aina-style residences in Honolulu,” perhaps the most famous of which is the Liljestrand House.

An architect has to be a bit of a sociologist, lawyer and psychologist. He has to know human nature.

— Vladimir Ossipoff,

Works by Vladimir Ossipoff
Interior of Aloha Jewish Chapel on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam  View from driveway of Liljestrand House, on National Register of Historic Places  Liljestrand House stairway  Liljestrand House - living room facing door  Boettcher Estate

The Ossipoff Documents Restoration Project

A collection of sixty-six boxes of Vladimirs Ossipoff's drawings and papers was bequeathed to Hamilton Library at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. As of October 2013 there is a fundraising campaign on Indiegogo for the preservation and presentation of this collection of architectural documents.

References

• Haar, Francis, Artists of Hawaii: Volume Two, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1977, pp. 59–63

External links

• Trailer for 2007 documentary commissioned by the Honolulu Museum of Art
• The Ossipoff Documents Restoration Project on Facebook