Born in Oak Park, Illinois on November 24, 1929, Seattle architect Allen Donald Moses grew up in that community and graduated from Oak Park and River Forest (OPRF) High School in 1948. Upon graduation, he left the state to attend college in Ames, Iowa where he earned a Bachelor’s of Architecture from Iowa State College in 1952. After graduation, he was commissioned as an Ensign in the Navy and was assigned to the USS Boxer in the waters off North Korea. While in port in San Francisco, he met his future wife, Elizabeth Ayrault, a former WAVE recruit with the US Naval Reserve program. They were married in 1954 and lived briefly in San Diego before moving to Kamakura, Japan where Allen was stationed.

After his Navy service, Allen and his young family moved to Seattle in 1955, where he began his architecture career at the firm of Young, Richardson & Carleton. Established in 1912 by principal A.M. Young, the firm was one of the oldest continually operating architecture firms in Seattle, and was well respected in the architectural community. Moses quickly rose up the ranks of the growing firm and he became a full partner in 1963.

In 1968 the firm reorganized after Young retired, and the name was then changed to The Richardson Associates or TRA for short. At the time, Moses became one of six managing partners, along with Stephen Richardson, William H. Carleton, John L. Rogers, Phillip L. Jacobson, and James E. Hussey. Founding partner Stephen Richardson served as senior director, which at the time had a staff of 80. 

By 1990 The Richardson Associates grew into one of the largest design companies in the Northwest with 180 employees and offices in Boston, Denver, and Anchorage. To run such a large firm, the company expanded to eight partners and 13 associates who each represented specific disciplines. In 1990, Moses became the chairman of the Executive Committee. The firm continued to expand and the following year, they took on a minority partnership firm, Black & Veatch, from Kansas City, Missouri. 

During this time, Moses himself had specialized in airport design and served as the lead project architect for the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport’s Central Terminal (1964), Concourse B (1964), Concourse C (1966), the Concourse B addition (1967), and the parking garage (1971). The garage was a massive undertaking, and at the time, reportedly it was the largest parking garage in the world. Other airports followed in Denver, Pago Pago, Guam, the Philippines, Qatar, and Mexico.

Other notable TRA projects during Allen’s tenure with the firm include the Group Health Cooperative; the Biology Teaching Building and Aerospace Research Lab at UW; Highways Materials Testing Lab (1970) in Tumwater; the WA State Department of Transportation Building (1970) and Office Building II / Social & Health Services Building (1975) both in Olympia; the Peoples National Bank Headquarters (1973) in downtown Seattle; Camp Orkila- Wally Fisher Lodge on Orcas Island (1982 Citation, American Wood Council Design Awards); the Sheraton Hotel in Tacoma (1984, Seattle AIA Honor Award); Correctional Centers in Monroe and Clallam Bay; the Washington State Convention Center (1986-88, Moses as lead designer); the Seattle Metro Bus Tunnel system and stations (1990); and the King County Aquatics Center (1990) in Federal Way.

Involved in a variety of volunteer activities, Allen served on the AIA Memorial Government Relations Committee (1968-69, chairman 1969); was chairman of an AIA “Barrier Free Architecture” regional workshop in 1969; and was as active member of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce’s Memorial aviation division (1968).

He was elected to the AIA College of Fellows in 1985 and passed away in Seattle on September 25, 2019 at the age 89.

– Michael C Houser