Fred Linn Osmon earned a bachelor of arts degree from Washington University in St. Louis and studied under Louis Kahn at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a master’s degree. He served in the United States Air Force, worked in several top architectural firms, and was an architectural research associate at Educational Facilities Laboratories (EFL) of the Ford Foundation.
Mr. Osmon taught at the University of California, Berkeley for five years before beginning his architectural practice in Arizona in 1973. He taught several design courses and a course on utopian housing at Arizona State University. His architectural projects have focused on building ecologically-sound and beautiful environments in the Sonoran Desert. Mr. Osmon has received numerous awards including:
Honor Award 1987–American Institute of Architects–Skane House
Phoenix Visual Improvement Award 1987–Lakewood Kwik Stop
Environmental Excellence Award 1985–Valley Forward Association, Rabinowitz House
Merit Award 1984 –Arizona Society of the American Institute of Architects – Rabinowitz House
Excellence in Planning and Design—Architectural Record Houses of 1979 – Osmon House
Award of Merit–Foundation for San Francisco Architectural Heritage –Center for Educational Development
Bay Area A.I.A. Honor Award 1974 –Center for Educational Development (with Esherick, Homsey, Dodge & Davis Architects)
Award of Exceptional Distinction–State of California 1966–Temporary Communities for Farm Worker Families
Sea Ranch Design Award 1974–Nimnicht House
Drawings and Papers: 1960s-2000s
32 oversize folders and 1 box, c. 10 linear feet
The collection consists of architectural drawings produced for projects (residential, commercial, medical, educational) by Fred Linn Osmon, as well as a small amount of biographical and historical materials.
Click here to view collection finding aid (pdf)
Harold Housley
Archivist (Architecture, Arts and Design)
Harold.Housley@asu.edu
(480) 965-6370
De Chirico Charisma: Spanish Village Addition, Carefree, Arizona." Architectural Record 173.6 (1985): 114-5. Print.
Freeman, Allen. "Reinterpreting Regionalism: Arizona: Three Architects Who Respect the Desert Terrain and Traditions." Architecture: the AIA journal 73.3 (1984): 114-119. Print.
"House at Carefree, Arizona." Triglyph 3 (1986): 25-28. Print.
Morton, David. "Desert Forms: Rabinowitz and Lange Houses, Carefree, Arizona." Progressive architecture 62.6 (1981): 90-[97]. Print.
Osmon, Fred Linn. Patterns for Designing Children's Centers: a Report from Educational Facilities Laboratories. New York: Educational Facilities Laboratories, 1971. High Density Collection Stacks LB 3257 .O85
Osmon, Fred Linn. Toward an Architecture Without Permanent Form?: The Projects and Ideas of Fred Linn Osmon, Architect: February 15 to March 11, 2005. Design and the Arts Library Special Collections NA .O76 A4 2005
