Shelly Kappe (born 1928 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an architectural historian and academic who specializes in the residential history of Los Angeles. She was a founding member of the faculty at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc),[1][2] an independent school of architecture created in 1972.[2]
Shelly graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles.[3] She earned a master's degree in Architectural History from the Southern California Institute of Architecture.[3]
As a writer, Shelly Kappe focused academic attention on the modernist architects working in Los Angeles in the 1940s-1970s through articles in Architecture California and LA Architect magazines.[4][5] Shelly has been the editor of Environmental Design West and has written about the history of environmental design.[3] In 1985, she was a member of the editorial board of Architecture California, the journal of the AIA/California Council.
In addition to her role as a faculty member at SCI-ARC, Shelly Kappe was “instrumental in establishing and coordinating…” the school's Design Forum Public Lecture Program, “…which featured prominent figures in national and international design and architecture…”.[1] In 1977, 12 Los Angeles architects (including Frank Gehry and Kappe's husband, Raymond Kappe) came together to exhibit their work for the first time as a group. Shelly Kappe contributed videotaped interviews used in conjunction with the photo exhibition of L.A. 12 work at the Pacific Design Center and an associated two-day seminar.[6]
Shelly Kappe served as inaugural director of the Architecture Gallery at SCI-ARC, for which she curated 8 exhibits. Among them are the 1981 inaugural exhibit, Modern Architecture: Mexico [7] (for which Kappe authored the catalog) and an exhibit of work by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto entitled The Mystery of Form.[8]