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THE 130 MOST INSPIRING ASIAN AMERICANS
OF ALL TIME

C. W. Kim
PAGE 2 OF 2

im earned his AIA (American Institute of Architects) certification and worked at the firm late into the night while Jean, who never finished her master's, waited until his return home for a late dinner together.

     Kim felt the need for better credentials than his White colleagues in order to advance his career. That meant an advanced degree, a long-term investment he hoped would pay off in 15 years. He decided on UC Berkeley because it offered Mellon Fellowships that covered tuition and room. He was chosen from among 202 students for an architecture and city planning master's program.

     For the next three years Kim's life became a marathon of classes, four hours of work a day at San Francisco's Sasaki & Walker, weekends at the library and three or four hours of sleep a night. Each morning Jean made him three sandwiches, one for lunch, one for dinner and one for a midnight snack.

     Not surprisingly, Kim's fellow students labeled him "King of All Students" in honor of his near-4.0 GPA as well as his workaholic habits.

     While Kim went to school Jean played golf, learned to play guitar nd waited for his late night returns for dinner together. After two years their savings ran out and they were forced to move into a one-bedroom apartment on campus. The housing was so tiny they had to store most of their abundant furniture, including the upright piano Jean enjoyed playing. Jean's pride prevented her from getting a job under such difficult circumstances. "It was too pathetic to work knowing that you had to work to make ends meet," she says with a patrician shrug. Kim finished the coursework in two-and-a-half years and spent an additional six months on his thesis. By then he had moved to Goets, Hellenbeck & Goets to learn more about city planning.

     By 1978 Kim wanted new opportunities. He found San Francisco too competitive and architecturally unstimulating. He didn't want to return to Seattle, and Los Angeles was too smoggy. San Diego, he found, was both fresh-aired and full of challenges for designing its skyline and landscape.

     The couple had one problem. Jean had somehow come to build up a successful travel agency during the past two years, and was reluctant to leave it. For the next 16 months Kim commuted between San Francisco and San Diego.

     Eventually Jean grew bored with her business and tired of the week-long separations. She moved to San Diego. One sunny weekend, while cruising aimlessly around San Diego, they found a pleasant hill in Pacific Beach, saw a for-sale sign and bought the house on the spot.

     In the early 1980s Kim became director of design at the prestigious Hope Consulting Group. As his list of distinctive landmarks grew, so did the media attention. He was design director for the First National Bank building and the waterfront Inter·Continental Hotel. In 1983 Kim became a senior VP and a head director. He was finally reaping the rewards of his educational investments.

     Unfortunately that same year Kim began putting on weight and, uncharacteristically, slowing down. At the suggestion of his eldest brother he quit smoking and began exercising. Kim had earned such a reputation as a chain-smoker that none of his co-workers believed he could quit. They laid bets and kept an eye on him to prevent cheating. They lost the bet.

     In 1984 developer Neil Hooverman approached Kim for a large commercial office building project and urged him to open his own practice. He even offered to pay a retainer that would let Kim be independent. Kim opened an office in San Diego's Wells Fargo Building with a project manager, a project architect, a job captain and a draftsman. Now he felt the burden of juggling money, people and projects. Kim also learned the pain of laying off people between major projects. From that experience he fine-tuned his practice so no one loses a job at the conclusion of each project.

     Jean is forced to cope with the type of enforced leisure that befalls the wife of a successful architect. She plays golf, goes to lunch and shops with friends — mainly the wives of Kim's clients. They've been known to rent a limousine for shopping excursions to Rodeo Drive. On Wednesdays she volunteers for Meals on Wheels, delivering meals to the less fortunate.

     Kim keeps fit by jogging hills for 45 minutes each morning at 5:30. "Your mind has to be clear to work hard and your mind is clear only when you are healthy," he says. He then showers, makes himself two wheat toasts and arrives at the office before everyone else. He allows himself only a single cup of coffee per day. Spending his days in meetings with various vendors and clients, his real design work doesn't start until everyone else leaves at around 6:00 p.m. He works until eight or nine unless he has to entertain.

     "Huge projects take a lot of hard work and design," Kim says. "You can't have good work without hard work."

     "C.W. told me, 'If you want me to be ordinary, [I'll] work 9 to 5, but an extraordinary person takes extraordinary efforts,'" recalls Jean.

     She asks her husband for one day a week to relax and spend time together. It has become their Sunday date. Kim jogs down to the village while Jean drives her red Mercedes-Benz 190E to meet him at a quaint cafe for a light breakfast together. Then Kim jogs back home while Jean drives, sometimes picking him up near the local golf course where the road gets steep. At home Kim swims and relaxes until around one in the afternoon when they look at each other and Jeans asks, "Are you sure you don't have to go into the office?" Typically she finds that he is tempted to go in.

     Jean recalls someone asking them at a party, what would they like to be if they were reborn? Predictably Kim replied, "I'd be an architect again." Jean's reply: "I would not be an architect's wife."

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San Diego's Emerald-Shapery Center is one of the more distinctive of C. W. Kim's creations which dominate large expanses of that city's skyline.

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