William Krisel

William Krisel was an American architect best known for his pioneering designs of mid-century residential and commercial architecture. Most of his designs are for affordable homes, especially tract housing, with a modern aesthetic.

Krisel was born in 1924 in Shanghai, China. He moved with his American parents to Beverly Hills, California, in 1937. His father worked as a distributor for United Artists in and brought the family back to the United States after the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War He returned to China during WWII, acting as an interpreter.

He attended the University of Southern California and graduated in 1949.

With Dan Palmer, Krisel formed Palmer & Krisel architects. Krisel designed more than 30,000 homes throughout Southern California; the total number of houses and condominiums designed by the firm probably exceeds 40,000. He frequently collaborated with the Alexander Construction Company. By the late 1950s, he and Palmer were working with seven out of the 10 largest homebuilders in America. In addition to Palm Springs, Los Angeles, and San Diego, large tracts of homes designed by the firm were built in Las Vegas, Florida, and Arizona.

In the 1950s Krisel helped to nearly double the size of Palm Springs by building 2,500 tract homes that still exist today. Beginning in 1956 with their first Palm Springs tract, Twin Palms, Krisel, the firm's lead designer for desert houses, used variation of orientation and roofline, integration of indoor and outdoor living, and careful use of standardized elements to make modernist design affordable. The houses facilitated indoor-outdoor living in the desert with sheltered patios and pools and in some cases breezeways; clerestory windows improved air circulation while bringing light into the house. The interior designs included flexible room dividers to adapt the floorplan to the owners' preferences.

Krisel designed the iconic Del Prado condominium tower on Balboa Park for San Diego developer Bill Starr.

Krisel was a member of American Institute of Architects.

Krisel died on June 5, 2017.