Daniel M. Streissguth

Streissguth, Daniel M.

(1924 – 2020)

Born April 17, 1924 in Everett, Daniel Michener Streissguth graduated from the University of Washington in 1948 and received his graduate degree in architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1950. He was licensed by the State of Washington (No. 648) on July 10, 1951. Upon graduation, he worked for architect Fred J. Rogers (1948) and then Paul Thiry (1949-1951) in Seattle, before leaving the Pacific Northwest for a teaching opportunity at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri (1953-1955).

In 1953, he migrated back to Seattle and began a long and distinguished teaching career at the University of Washington. During his tenure Streissguth served two, four-year terms as Chair of the Architecture Department, and was primarily known for his excellence in teaching design. He taught beginning level design courses to undergraduate and graduate students until his retirement in 1992.

During his teaching career, he maintained a small private practice where he worked mainly on residential projects. His work includes the Earl Helander House in Port Townsend (1956), featured in Pacific Architect & Builder; the Cotton House Remodel in Port Townsend (1956); the Jesse Epstein House in Seattle (1962); and his own home in Seattle (1962). In the late 1950s, he joined fellow architects Wendell Lovett and Gene Zema to form The Architect Artist Group, or TAAG. The team initially formed in order to gain work at the coming Century 21 World’s Fair site. With their efforts unsuccessful, the team shifted their sights onto other projects. While the partnership lasted just a couple of short years, it did produce a significant design for the University of Washington’s Nuclear Engineering Program, the Nuclear Reactor Building (1961), listed on the National Register of Historic Places (demolished in 2016). Other projects include the Wells Medina Nursery building and grounds (1968, with Gene Zema) and the current home of the University of Washington College of Built Environments, Gould Hall (1971).

In 1968, Daniel married his next door neighbor Ann Roth Pytkowicz (1932 – 2023), also an avid gardener, an internationally renowned expert on fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), and a former faculty member at the University of Washington Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Their only child, Benjamin, was born in 1970. In 1972 the family had the opportunity to buy an adjacent steep-hillside plot of land, and began at once to transform the hillside into a garden of woodlands, fruits and berries, vegetables, and perennial plantings. After gardening this steep hillside for 24 years, Ann, Ben, and Dan gave the gardens in 1996 to the City of Seattle Parks and Recreation. The gardens became a northward extension of the existing St. Mark’s Greenbelt. The family was granted the right to continue caring for the now public garden.

Daniel Streissguth passed away peacefully in his home in Seattle on November 21, 2020.

Daniel Streissguth Obituary
Ann Streissguth Obituary

– Michael C Houser, Eugenia Woo

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