![[Pujdak Picture]](PujdakJL_01.JPG)
Jerzy L. Pujdak
Internationally experienced architect and planner
by Stanley Stankiewicz
Jerzy L. Pujdak was born in Rybnik, Poland. At the age of 18, he joined the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) in Warsaw and served as an underground courier to Berlin and Vienna. Arrested by the Gestapo in 1944, Pujdak was imprisoned for one year in German concentration camps. After liberation in 1945, he enlisted in the Polish II Corps in Italy and finally emigrated to Great Britain, where he lived for the next ten years and resumed his education.
Having completed his architectural studies at South-West Essex Technical College, London, England, he was registered as an architect by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 1954.
In 1956 he emigrated to Los Angeles, California and joined the architectural firm of Albert C. Martin and Associates. In 1966 he opened his own successful architectural office, Jerzy Pujdak & Associates in Pasadena, California. In 1968 the firm became known as Pujdak, Bielski & Associates and in 1970 expanded to include international architectural projects. In 1973 the office again reorganized and is now in Los Angeles known as J.L. Pujdak Associated Architects & Planners, Inc.
Internationally known architect and planner Pujdak has designed many important projects throughout the United States and overseas. They include research laboratories, high-rise office buildings, shopping centers, aerospace and industrial companies. He is also an architect of many Broadway department stores in Southern California including those in Laguna Hills, La Jolla, Carlsbad, Brea, Santa Monica, Beverly Center, Thousand Oaks and Santa Barbara.
His firm's international experiences include projects in Japan, Mexico, Great Britain, Kuwait, Egypt, Haiti and Tahiti. Presently Pujdak holds licenses to practice architecture in the following states: California, Minnesota, Hawaii, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and Utah, as well as in Great Britain.
Pujdak's designs have received numerous awards and recognitions, some of which are:
Design Excellence Award from the American Institute of Architects and from the State of California for the North-American Rockwell Research Center in Thousand Oaks, California.Design Excellence Award from the American Institute of Architects for 1900 Avenue of the Stars, a high rise office building, Century City, California.
Los Angeles City Beautification Award from Los Angeles Business Council for Bamboo Plaza; a retail center in Downtown Los Angeles.
In December 1981, to protest the Martial Law imposed on Poland, Jerzy Pujdak created quite a stir in Los Angeles by installing large Solidarity banners on top of two high-rise offices in Hollywood and Sherman Oaks that said; "If a Polish solidarity union member saw the banner waving beside the American flag he would cry."
A resident of San Gabriel, Mr. Pujdak is married to PearI Hooker, from Great Britain, and they have four sons: Conrad, Michael, Nicholas, and Robert.
From: Polish Americans in California, vol. II. National Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs & Polish American Historical Association. California 1995.