Outside In: The Architecture of Smith and Williams April 13 - June...
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For Immediate Release Outside In: The Architecture of Smith and Williams examines the work of Whitney Smith (1911-2002) and his firm with his partner Wayne Williams (1919-2007) as a quintessential expression of postwar California ideas about the relationship of architecture to environment, of building to site, of inside to outside. Between 1936 and 1973 Smith and his firm designed residential, commercial, and public buildings as well as housing tracts, multi-use complexes, parks, and master plans for cities. Widely published in the popular and architectural press from the 1940s through the 1960s, the work received more than 40 awards and yet there has never been a monograph or comprehensive exhibit about the Smith and Williams firm. The crises of the Depression and world war and government and private responses to these tumultuous events form the backdrop of Smith and Williams’ work. The large number of houses and commercial buildings designed by Smith and Williams in the post-war years speaks to the growing opportunity and prosperity in southern California. Their work illustrates their success in selling modernism to a growing middle-class. Smith wrote, in 1957, “[T]he architect…begins with the premise that his main problem is to make [a] congenial, convenient, and effective environment for better living.” What sets their designs apart are the refined and subtle ways in which landscape is incorporated into the architecture. The designs deserve, and reward, close scrutiny. The exhibit is based on the Smith and Williams’ archive (1926-1989) in the Architecture and Design Collection of the Art, Design & Architecture Museum at UC Santa Barbara. The archive documents more than 200 designs of architectural excellence, which reveal an extraordinary sensitivity to the client and the building site. The exhibit and accompanying catalog examine Smith and Williams’ work in the context of their southern California contemporaries, such as Gregory Ain, Julius R. Davidson, Raphael Soriano, Thornton Abell, Maynard Lyndon, and the modern landscape architect Garrett Eckbo, who worked with many of these figures. The accompanying catalog will include essays by the curators, Jocelyn Gibbs and Christina Chiang, and by Anthony Denzer, Debi Howell-Ardila, and Lilian Pfaff. The Art, Design & Architecture Museum at the University of California, Santa Barbara provides intimate access to art. Through rotating installations of its permanent collections and special exhibitions and programs, the AD&A Museum is both a teaching museum, committed to the development of critical thinking and visual literacy in support of the University’s goals of education, research, and service, and a resource for the wider Santa Barbara community. The Architecture and Design Collection is one of the largest architecture collections in North America, with a broad and deep focus on the history of design in southern California from the late 19 th to the 21 st century. The mission of the Architecture and Design Collection is to collect and to preserve the architectural history of southern California, to encourage research and education, and to promote an understanding of the importance of good design in private and public life. Outside In: The Architecture of Smith and Williams is part of Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in L.A. This collaboration, initiated by the Getty, brings together several local cultural institutions for a wide-ranging look at the postwar built environment of the city as a whole, from its famous residential architecture to its vast freeway network, revealing the city’s development and ongoing impact in new ways. Outside In: The Architecture of Smith and Williams April 13 - June 16, 2013 Media Contact: Marie Vierra (805) 893-2951 / [email protected] www.museum.ucsb.edu University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, California 93106-7130
Transcript of Outside In: The Architecture of Smith and Williams April 13 - June...
For Immediate Release
Outside In: The Architecture of Smith and Williams examines the work of Whitney Smith (1911-2002) and his firm with his partner Wayne Williams (1919-2007) as a quintessential expression of postwar California ideas about the relationship of architecture to environment, of building to site, of inside to outside.
Between 1936 and 1973 Smith and his firm designed residential, commercial, and public buildings as well as housing tracts, multi-use complexes, parks, and master plans for cities. Widely published in the popular and architectural press from the 1940s through the 1960s, the work received more than 40 awards and yet there has never been a monograph or comprehensive exhibit about the Smith and Williams firm.
The crises of the Depression and world war and government and private responses to these tumultuous events form the backdrop of Smith and Williams’ work. The large number of houses and commercial buildings designed by Smith and Williams in the post-war years speaks to the growing opportunity and prosperity in southern California. Their work illustrates their success in selling modernism to a growing middle-class. Smith wrote, in 1957, “[T]he architect…begins with the premise that his main problem is to make [a] congenial, convenient, and effective environment for better living.” What sets their designs apart are the refined and subtle ways in which landscape is incorporated into the architecture. The designs deserve, and reward, close scrutiny.
The exhibit is based on the Smith and Williams’ archive (1926-1989) in the Architecture and Design Collection of the Art, Design & Architecture Museum at UC Santa Barbara. The archive documents more than 200 designs of architectural excellence, which reveal an extraordinary sensitivity to the client and the building site. The exhibit and accompanying catalog examine Smith and Williams’ work in the context of their southern California contemporaries, such as Gregory Ain, Julius R. Davidson, Raphael Soriano, Thornton Abell, Maynard Lyndon, and the modern landscape architect Garrett Eckbo, who worked with many of these figures.
The accompanying catalog will include essays by the curators, Jocelyn Gibbs and Christina Chiang, and by Anthony Denzer, Debi Howell-Ardila, and Lilian Pfaff.
The Art, Design & Architecture Museum at the University of California, Santa Barbara provides intimate access to art. Through rotating installations of its permanent collections and special exhibitions and programs, the AD&A Museum is both a teaching museum, committed to the development of critical thinking and visual literacy in support of the University’s goals of education, research, and service, and a resource for the wider Santa Barbara community.
The Architecture and Design Collection is one of the largest architecture collections in North America, with a broad and deep focus on the history of design in southern California from the late 19th to the 21st century. The mission of the Architecture and Design Collection is to collect and to preserve the architectural history of southern California, to encourage research and education, and to promote an understanding of the importance of good design in private and public life.
Outside In: The Architecture of Smith and Williams is part of Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in L.A. This collaboration, initiated by the Getty, brings together several local cultural institutions for a wide-ranging look at the postwar built environment of the city as a whole, from its famous residential architecture to its vast freeway network, revealing the city’s development and ongoing impact in new ways.
Outside In: The Architecture of Smith and WilliamsApril 13 - June 16, 2013
Media Contact: Marie Vierra (805) 893-2951 / [email protected]
University of California, Santa BarbaraSanta Barbara, California 93106-7130
Outside In: The Architecture of Smith and WilliamsApril 13-June 16, 2013
Art, Design & Architecture Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara
** Image Sheet **
Whitney Smith, 1911-2002 Wayne Williams, 1919-2007Shoreline House for Orange County Home Show (Costa Mesa, Calif.), 1957
Whitney Smith, 1911-2002 Wayne Williams, 1919-2007Friend Paper Company (Pasadena, Calif.), 1964 Photograph by Lin Cariffe
Whitney Smith, 1911-2002 Wayne Williams, 1919-2007
Community Facilities Planners office (South Pasadena, Calif.), 1958
Photograph by Jocelyn Gibbs, 2012
Media Contact: Marie Vierra (805) 893-2951 / [email protected]
