Trudgett, R. Dudley, 1908-1985

Biographical Note

R. Dudley Trudgett was born in 1908 in Alameda, California. Trudgett graduated with a degree in landscape architecture from the University of California, Berkeley in 1934. Between 1935 and 1936 he attended Harvard's Graduate School of Design, focusing on city planning. He served in the Navy for four years during WWII after which he traveled extensively throughout Europe and Asia. Following the armistice, he spent six years in India and Japan working on site development and town planning. First, in India under the firm of Mayer & Whittlesey and then in Okinawa, Japan, for the firm of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill. Trudgett began his career working on county planning, State Parks, and land subdivision in both Northern and Southern California. He became an early member of Telesis, an inter-professional environmental design group organized to give direction to the city of Los Angeles in regards to regional planning.

During the late1950's, Trudgett created a landscape design practice in the Los Angeles area that he continued until his death at the age of 77 in 1985. Among his most notable projects and designs were the Howard Hughes Research Center in Malibu, the Pasadena Art Museum, the Norton Simon Museum and personal residence, the University of Southern California campus, and several homes for persons of note such as Jack Warner and Kirk Douglas.

From the guide to the R. Dudley Trudgett collection, 1932-1985, (Environmental Design Archives. College of Environmental Design.)