Casey Kawamoto (1919-2010)

Casey A. Kawamoto was born in Selma, California in 1919. He attended Monterey High School and received an AA degree from Hartnell College. Following graduation, he worked for the California Division of Forestry for a year (1940-41). He then served in the Army during World War II, having attended military intelligence school. After the war, he worked briefly at the firm Holabird & Root before using the G.I. Bill to earn his B.A. in landscape architecture from the University of California at Berkeley. While studying at Berkeley, he worked for faculty member Geraldine K. Scott in the firm of Imlay and Scott. Upon graduation in 1949, he was employed by noted landscape architect Thomas D. Church. He drew the illustrations for the book, Gardens Are for People and worked closely with architects Germano Milono and George Rockrise. He left Church’s firm to open his own practice in 1960. One of his significant projects was designing the landscape for the Guide Dogs for the Blind office in San Rafael, CA. He closed his practice in 1998. The Collection consists almost entirely of project records created during Kawamoto’s professional career. Primarily the files contain drawings and some documentation. There are photographs for a small number of projects.