Karl Kamrath

Who was Karl Kamrath?

Karl Kamrath was an American architect and tennis player. He, along with Frederick James MacKie, Jr., created the Houston-based architectural firm Mackie and Kamrath. The firm's buildings reflected the principles of Organic Architecture and Usonian architecture, an outcome of Kamrath's friendship with Frank Lloyd Wright. His career spanned over five decades during which he designed residential, commercial, institutional and government buildings. Prior to founding MacKie and Kamrath, Karl Kamrath worked for Pereira and Pereira, the Interior Studios of Marshall Field and Company, and the Architectural Decorating Company in Chicago, Illinois.

Karl Fred Kamrath was born in Enid, Oklahoma to G.A. and Martha Kreplin Kamrath on April 25, 1911. While still a child, Kamrath's family moved to Austin, Texas. Throughout his life, Kamrath was an avid tennis player, and married fellow tennis player Eugenie Sampson in 1934. That same year that he graduated the University of Texas with a Bachelor's degree in architecture. In 1955, Karl Kamrath was elected as a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, an organization he was affiliated with since 1939.