Richard Requa


Richard Smith Requa was an American architect, largely known for his work in San Diego, California. Requa was the Master Architect for the California Pacific International Exposition held in Balboa Park in 1935-36. He improved and extended many of the already existing buildings from an earlier exposition, as well as creating new facilities including the Old Globe Theater.
His own designs were predominantly in the Spanish Revival architectural style, occasionally blending them with American Craftsman influences, working to preserve San Diego's Spanish-influenced history. His firm, Requa and Jackson, were the architects of choice in San Diego during the 1920s, dominating the area with their "Southern California Style" that blended Mediterranean and Mission stylings.

Life and career

Requa was born in Rock Island, Illinois in 1881, and in 1900 at the age of 19 moved to San Diego, California with his parents. He died at the age of sixty in June 10, 1941, of a heart attack while working in his office, and is buried at Greenwood Memorial Park in San Diego. He was married in 1908 to Viola Hust in San Diego.
Requa made early use of home movies to capture architectural ideas on trips to Spain, the Mediterranean, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Monterey, and the Pueblos of the Southwest.
He designed many landmark homes in the San Diego area, in addition to his work on the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition in Balboa Park. In 1925, Requa designed the Del Mar Castle in Del Mar, California for Ruth and Marston Harding, a home that later was owned by the McGaugh family 1950~1963, and then by the motivational speaker Tony Robbins. He was the architect for many of San Diego's historical landmarks in La Jolla as well as historical landmarks in the Point Loma area. He also had an especially large influence on the character of the Kensington district of San Diego.

Notable works