Robert David Farquhar (23 February 1872 – 6 December 1967) was an architect working in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

from 1905 to 1940.

Early life

Farquhar was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, the son of David Webber Farquhar (1844–1905) and Sarah Malvina Joslyn. He attended Phillips Exeter and

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

(class of 1893). Farquhar completed an architectural degree at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

(1893–1895), and then attended

École des Beaux-Arts ; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centu ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

(1896–1901), where he organized the first ever American football game played in Europe. He returned to New York and worked in the office of

Hunt & Hunt Richard Howland Hunt (March 14, 1862 – July 12, 1931) was an American architect and member of the Hunt family of Vermont who worked with his brother Joseph Howland Hunt in New York City at Hunt & Hunt. The brothers were sons of Richard Morr ...

, and of

Carrère and Hastings Carrère and Hastings, the firm of John Merven Carrère ( ; November 9, 1858 – March 1, 1911) and Thomas Hastings (architect), Thomas Hastings (March 11, 1860 – October 22, 1929), was an American list of architecture firms, architecture firm ...

Los Angeles practice

Farquhar moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

in 1905 and practised architecture there. He was appointed a member of the architectural commission of the Panama-Pacific Exposition, held in San Francisco in 1915, and designed Festival Hall. He went to

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

with the

American Red Cross The American National Red Cross is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Humanitarianism, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. Clara Barton founded ...

in 1918, and re-opened his office in Los Angeles in 1919. The Southern California Chapter of the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach progr ...

awarded Farquhar its

Distinguished Honor Award The Distinguished Honor Award is an award of the United States Department of State and USAID. Similar versions of the same award existed for the former U.S. Information Agency and Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. It is presented in recogniti ...

for the William Andrews Clark Mausoleum, and Certificates of Honor for the design of the

William Andrews Clark Memorial Library The William Andrews Clark Memorial Library (Clark Library), is a library affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles. It holds books and manuscripts with particularly many regarding English literature and history from the 17th-19th ...

and the

California Club The California Club is an invitation-only private club established in 1888, based in Los Angeles, California. According to the ''Los Angeles Times'', "The people who run Los Angeles belong to the Jonathan Club; the people who own Los Angeles b ...

. He worked with chief architect

George Edwin Bergstrom George Edwin Bergstrom (March 12, 1876 – June 17, 1955) was an American architect who designed many buildings in Los Angeles, California. He also designed The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia. Biography George Edwin Bergstrom was born in ...

on design of the

Pentagon In geometry, a pentagon () is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple polygon, simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simple or list of self-intersecting polygons, self-intersecting. A self-intersecting ...

in 1941. The archives of his architectural studies and drawings are maintained at the

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

Department of Special Collections. Image:PostcardSanFranciscoCAPanPacificExpoFestivalHall1915.jpg, Festival Hall, 1915 Image:Tomb william a clark jr.jpg, William Andrews Clark, Jr. Mausoleum, 1920 Image:ParamourMansion.jpg, Canfield-Moreno Estate, 1923 Image:clark main.jpg, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, 1924 Image:California Club 1.JPG, California Club, 1930 File:Farquhar house Pasadena.jpg, House in Pasadena, 1914

Some projects

Family life

Farquhar married

Marion Jones Marion Lois Jones (born October 12, 1975), also known as Marion Jones-Thompson, is an American former world champion track-and-field athlete and former professional basketball player. She won three gold medals and two bronze medals at the 2000 ...

(daughter of

John Percival Jones John Percival Jones (January 27, 1829November 27, 1912) was an American politician who served for 30 years as a United States Republican Party, Republican United States Senate, United States Senator from Nevada. He made a fortune in silver mini ...

) in New York City, in 1903. They had three children: David Farquhar (1904 - ), John Percival Farquhar (1912 - ) and Colin Farquhar (1913 - ). The family lived first in Santa Monica, then moved to Pasadena in 1929. Farquhar retired in 1953 and lived with his half brother

Francis P. Farquhar Francis Peloubet Farquhar (December 31, 1887 – November 21, 1974) was an American mountaineer, environmentalist and author. In his professional life, he was a Certified Public Accountant. Early life Farquhar was born in Newton, Massachuset ...

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California *George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer to ...

.''Robert D. Farquhar; Retired Architect'', Obituary, Los Angeles Times, December 8, 1967, p. 28

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Farquhar, Robert David 1872 births 1967 deaths American neoclassical architects Beaux Arts architects Mediterranean Revival architects Spanish Revival architects Architects from Pasadena, California American alumni of the École des Beaux-Arts Harvard University alumni MIT School of Architecture and Planning alumni Phillips Exeter Academy alumni 20th-century American architects