Architecture & Design Collection

The Architecture & Design Collection (ADC) in the University Art Museum at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) is a growing repository of architectural records containing over 750,000 original drawings as well as specifications, office correspondence, manuscript material, historic photographs, scrapbooks, sketch books and three-dimensional objects (architectural models, fragments, and furniture) representing the work of over 350 designers from 1890 to the present. Founded in 1963 by Dr. David Gebhard (1927-1996), architectural historian and Professor in the History of Art and Architecture Department, UCSB, the ADC ranks in size with the largest repositories of architectural records in the United States including the Architecture, Design and Engineering Collection at the Library of Congress and the Drawings and Archives Collection in the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University. The scope and diversity of its holdings makes the ADC a unique and invaluable educational resource attracting scholars, architects, contractors and homeowners alike from across the country and beyond. The ADC's commitment to fostering the importance of architecture and design through accessibility and outreach programs including tours, lectures, exhibitions and publications has positioned it as one of the leading west coast archives for architectural records.

The ADC is significant because it is both a substantial collection of original drawings by national and internationally active architects and designers as well as an important archive of regional material. Its ongoing mission is to document the built environment of California and the Southwest with a special focus on the work of Southern California-based architects. Included in its holdings are the papers of many of the region's best known practitioners: Irving J. Gill (1870-1936), Rudolph M. Schindler (1887-1953), Albert Frey (1903 - 1998), Gregory Ain (1908-1987), Kem Weber (1889-1963), and Cliff May (1908-1989). The ADC is also the repository of work by two of Santa Barbara's most important historic architects: George Washington Smith (1876-1930) and Lutah Maria Riggs (1896-1984). Additionally, the collection's importance derives from David Gebhard's interest in documenting work originally considered to be outside the mainstream of the modern movement. Thus the collection includes the papers of lesser-known but equally influential regional designers and represents the wide range of vernacular building forms in California, such as service stations, drive-in structures, movie theaters, shopping centers, and prefabricated housing--all of which have had an international impact, altering the face of our contemporary landscape.

Substantial archives of designers in the collection include: Thornton Montaigne Abell (1906 -1984), Fritz [Fred] Block (1889-1955), John Byers (1875-1966), Hervey Parke Clark (1899-1982 ), Roland E. Coate, Sr. (1890-1952), Rowland Henry Crawford (1902-1973), Julius Ralph Davidson (1889-1977), Robert Vincent Derrah (1895 -1946), Casper Johann Ehmcke (1908-1995), Louis Gill (1885-1969), Paul Sterling Hoag (born 1913), Robert Ingle Hoyt (1913-1985), Myron Hunt (1868-1952), Hunt and Chambers (1920- 1947), Edward Abel Killingsworth (1917 - 2004), Paul Laszlo (1900-1993), Maynard Lyndon (1907-1999), Marcus P. Miller (1891-1949), Edla Muir (1906-1971), Jock [Jacob Detlof] Peters (1889-1934), Richard Hickman Pitman (1887-1964), Frank D. Robinson (1923-2004), F Henry Palmer Sabin (1892-1956), Smith and Williams (1946-1973), Soule Murphy & Hastings (ca.1920-1930), Samuel Reisbord (1904 -1985), Robert Stacy-Judd (1884-1975), John Hudson Thomas (1878-1945),Walter S.White (born 1917), Kenneth S. Wing (1901-1986), Carleton Monroe Winslow, Sr. (1876-1946), and John Elgin Woolf (1908-1980). For a complete list of designers represented in the Architecture & Design Collection, select the box at the end of this introduction.

Located adjacent to the galleries of the University Art Museum, the Architecture & Design Collection (housed in Room 1332 of the Arts Building) is open to researchers Monday through Friday from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm on an appointment basis only. The collection is closed on the weekends. To schedule an appointment to use the collection, please call (805) 893-2724.

 

Architecture & Design Collection (ADC)
University Art Museum
University of California at Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-7130
Telephone: (805) 893-2724
FAX: (805) 893-3013
e-mail inquiries to: adc@uam.ucsb.edu


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