Lafayette, He Is Here

Early last year, President Kennedy and his art adviser friend William Walton sat puzzling over an architectural model showing a proposed renovation of buildings surrounding Washington's Lafayette Square, across from the White House. As the President fiddled with tiny town houses and scaled-down Government office buildings, Walton apologized for bothering him with a matter of "less than global content." Kennedy quickly reassured him. "Hell," he said wryly, "that's all right. After all, this may be the only monument we leave."

Kennedy was still brooding over the matter at a naval reunion in April 1962, when he spotted a familiar face in the crowd. "What's Rose Bowl doing now?" he asked Navy Under Secretary Paul Fay Jr. "He's a very successful architect," Fay replied. "Have him give me a call," said Kennedy.

Three for the Eyes. "Rose Bowl" is John Carl Warnecke, 44, a handsome, husky six-footer who studied liberal arts at Stanford University, where he played a bruising game as tackle on its undefeated, untied 1940 football team. The 1941 Rose Bowl game won him a nickname, but football cost him a shoulder injury that kept him out of World War II. So he let his hair grow and went on to Harvard's school of architecture. When Kennedy called him in to take charge of the $29 million Lafayette Square project, Warnecke had behind him a meteoric, 13-year career which had seen his office staff grow from three to more than 80. From the Lafayette project, still to be built, grew two other commissions that will keep architectural eyes trained on Warnecke. He worked with Kennedy on the presidential library at Harvard and was picked to design the Kennedy tomb in Arlington National Cemetery.

Son of a San Francisco architect, Warnecke grew up in the informal redwood tradition of Bernard Maybeck, struck out on his own in 1950 after his father's firm grew too cramped. He won his first national acclaim with a series of Bay Area schools. In 1956 he struck into the international field, won a State Department commission to build the Thailand embassy. His "floating pagoda" design (provided that Congress authorizes funds) will match the mood of Bangkok's temples as it rises airily on slender white stilts.

Into the Geography. In Honolulu, another example of Warnecke's ability to blend modern technique into a unique geographical setting will soon go into construction. The $14 million Hawaiian state capitol will rise on 24 banyanlike columns that will soar 60 ft. above a shallow reflecting pool--symbolic of Hawaii's oceanic isolation, but not in conflict with the Italian-Renaissance-style lolani Palace near by.

The plan for Lafayette Square, which Warnecke conceived over a weekend after his talk with Kennedy, shows the same knack for accepting traditional forms without violating the tenets of modern architecture. Unveiled in October 1962 with Jackie Kennedy's blessing, it cuts down the size of the proposed Government buildings and places them in the background. Moreover, the new buildings will wear bay windows and be faced with dark brick or granite to match the tone of the square.

Pleased with Warnecke's work, Kennedy took him along to Harvard last October during a planning trip for the library. Then, after the President's assassination, Jackie chose Warnecke to design the tomb. What he will do with these two monuments is still in the privacy of his own mind.

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