Born in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, Crombie Taylor received the degree of Bachelor of Science in Architecture before taking the degree of Master of Architecture and Fine Arts from Princeton University. Following experience in architectural offices, Registration as Architect in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and three years as an instructor in the Department of Architecture of the Georgia Institute of Technology, he joined the faculty of the Institute of Design in Chicago as teacher, treasurer and Assistant Director.

The Institute of Design had been founded shortly before by Lazlo Moholy-Nagy. After his death he was succeeded by Serge Chermayeff and then Crombie Taylor, who served as acting Director for the four years from 1951 through 1954. During this time the Institute grew from an enrollment of fifty students to over eight hundred. Hans Wingler in his definitive book "Bauhaus", published in 1971, comments that during Taylor's administration of the Institute "extraordinary progress" was achieved, "all of the tools of technology, of communications theory, and sociology were explored" Wingler wrote. "The latest construction methods investigated and new and original ones developed." In addition to teaching in the areas of Product Design and Architecture examples of his work as practicing Architect during this period include the Dustin and Wenniger houses.

Following his directorship of the Institute of Design, time was devoted for a number of years to private practice and public service in Chicago. The Jernberg, Kearns, Goldberg and Frueh houses were built and studies launched upon which was based the restoration of the Auditorium Theatre of Louis Sullivan. As chairman of the A.I.A. Preservation Committee of Roosevelt University he directed architectural research and developed educational programs in Visual Communication for Roosevelt University.

Joining the University of Southern California in 1962 as Professor and Associate Dean for Architecture of the School of Architecture and Fine Arts, he directed the development of a new undergraduate program in architecture and new graduate programs in Architecture, Urban Design and Building Science. Under guidance of Konrad Wachsmann, invited by Taylor to become the Director of the Building Institute, a Doctoral Program in Building Science was adopted and a research division established for the investigation of all areas related to new technologies in building as well as to re-evaluate present educational methods in architecture and to develop new systems of academic discipline relevant to the needs of an industrialized society.

Crombie Taylor's continuing work as an Architect during the years since joining the University of Southern California is represented by the new social center for the Hull House Association of Chicago and the Rosenbaum Residence in Palm Springs.

Published 1971, by the Department of Architecture, University of Southern California, University Park, Los Angeles, California 90007

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The Rosenbaum House was the last house that Taylor built for a client. However, it was at this time that he began to embark on an altogether new path.

In 1973, Taylor moved from Palos Verdes Estates to Village Green, a park-like residential community located on a 64-acre site along the southwest edge of the city of Los Angeles. Built in 1941, with Reginald Johnson as the project architect and Clarence Stein as the consulting architect, the site plan is considered the best and most fully developed example of Clarence Stein's “Radburn Idea” of neighborhood community planning. In 1977, Taylor co-authored the Village Green's Los Angeles city landmark nomination and played a critical part in the preparation of the Village Green National Register and National Historic Landmark nominations. Landmark status was granted in 2001, under the title, Baldwin Hills Village.

It was during the 1970's, that the U.S.C. School of Architecture changed direction from the Bauhaus inspired educational program as promulgated by Taylor. As a result, he felt increasingly marginalized by the administration and concerned that the students were being trained as designers and not as building architects. This led him to further his interests outside the confines of the University and back into the realm of preservation and visual communication. Thus, he began work on the production of photographic slides made from the original negatives of late 19th and early 20th century Chicago School architecture. These slide sets were sold to architectural schools and libraries for educational purposes, and many of these images became part of his book that was published posthumously titled The Early Louis Sullivan Building Photographs. Later, with funding from his long time patrons and friends, Gwen and Morris Hirsch, along with grants from the National Endowment of the Arts and the National Endowment of the Humanities, Taylor produced three screen multimedia slide shows on the history of architecture. These shows were on such diverse subjects such as the Rose Window of the Gothic Cathedral, the Chicago School of Architecture, the Banks of Louis Sullivan, and Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace Building for the Exhibition of 1851, Hyde Park, London. These presentations were shown at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., as well as at schools in Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago and Stuttgart, Germany. Taylor believed that the three screen medium with music and voice-over provided a more expansive and intellectual experience that conveyed information better than the single screen slide or cinema format.

In 1977, Taylor was in Europe with his son, John, photographing buildings for his slide shows, when they decided to take a detour to the Lake District of England. This led to the purchase and restoration of an English farmhouse called Maiden Bridge, with four acres outside the town of High Bentham, Lancashire. Maiden Bridge consisted of a house with two barns and a small cottage all made of stone, including the roofs and floors. The original house was a single story 17th century building with an adjacent barn, and early residents made additions and added buildings in the 18th and 19th centuries. The restoration process took several years by which Taylor and his family made this their home in the summers between the academic school years.

In 1985, at the age of 71, Taylor decided to retire from teaching at U.S.C. and to sell Maiden Bridge. In 1987, he heard that the Van Allen Department Store in Clinton, Iowa, designed by Louis Sullivan, was for sale and acquired it to make sure to preserve it for future generations. Taylor and his wife Hope, moved to Clinton, Iowa, and formed a non-profit organization by which the building's ownership was transfered, so that it could be used as a design outreach resource and regional center for architecture.

In 1993, he and Hope moved to Montecito, California, where he purchased an acre and a half of land with two buildings on it. These buildings once housed the car collection for Henry Ford's Corporate Counsel that was part of a Montecito estate. The estate's main house became Brooks Institute, the photographic school, and the garages remained uninhabited until Taylor purchased them. With the help of his son, John, a developer and contractor, Taylor renovated one building into a 2800 square foot residence, and built a new 3000 foot residence on the foundation of the other building. This last house that he designed was where he died on May 23, 1999, at the age of 85.

K.Flynn