Austin Whittlesey (1893–1950) was the son of architect Charles Frederick Whittlesey (1867–1941), noted for his work in the American Southwest and for early experimentation with reinforced concrete in California. Austin Whittlesey studied architecture in the office of Bertram Goodhue for seven years and, in 1916, received the Le Brun Traveling Scholarship, which enabled him to document architecture in southern Spain and North Africa through drawings, watercolors, and photography. He later published two volumes based on this work: The Minor Ecclesiastical, Domestic, and Garden Architecture of Southern Spain (1917) and The Renaissance Architecture of Central and Northern Spain (1920). Active in Southern California in the 1930s, Whittlesey worked as staff designer for Allison & Allison, where he designed the Southern California Edison Building (1930), as well as the Felipe de Neve Branch Library, the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Administration Building, the Wilshire United Methodist Church (with Charles Kyson), and other notable structures in the Los Angeles area.