Born in 1922, Matsumoto studied architecture at the University of California, Berkeley until he was sent to an internment camp during World War II.
He completed his degree at Washington University in St. Louis, which Matsumoto claims was one of only two universities in the United States to enroll Japanese-Americans at the time (the other was Harvard).
He received his master’s degree with honors from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, where he studied under architect Eliel Saarinen.
Matsumoto was influenced by the likes of Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, Eduardo Catalano, and R. Buckminster Fuller, all of whom visited or taught at North Carolina State University School of Design between 1949 and 1960.
In 1951, he married Kimi Nao, whom he had known since kindergarten. She passed away this year at age 82.
One of Matsumoto’s clients, the Julian family, had to go all the way to the North Carolina Supreme Court to get their neighborhood to approve Matsumoto’s design. They were ultimately successful, and later named their daughter Kimi after Mrs. Matsumoto.
If not for civil engineer and contractor Frank Walser, Matsumoto would have had trouble finding someone who could build his early designs, since post-and-beam construction was revolutionary in North Carolina in the 1940s and ’50s. Walser’s son, Bern, repaired the exterior of the Poland house during its rehabilitation.
When DeFeo met Matsumoto in 2001, the architect was able to sketch the Poland house from memory on a napkin, 47 years after designing it.
After moving to California, Matsumoto accepted only commercial commissions. He told DeFeo that he preferred commercial work because with residences he had to “deal with the wives.”
In 1973, Matsumoto was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects. He is now retired and lives in California.
