Barton Myers: Moses Myers house (Norfolk, Vir.)
The Moses Myers House is a historic house museum in Norfolk, Virginia. Barton Myers' ancestors built the house in 1792 and maintained the house through the years.
Barton Myers papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Copyright restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. University of California Regents.
Walter White: Turner house (Calhan, Colo.)
The Wayne Turner house in Calhan, Colorado is one of White's passive-solar houses with Heat Exchanger Windows. The houses were designed to trap heat inside during the cold winter months, and shade the house from the sun in the hot summer moths. The Heat Exchanger Windows reflected the light and heat away in the summer, and drew in the warmth of the sun in the winter.
Walter S. White papers, Architecture and Design Collection; Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
Architecture and Design Collection; Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
The White Energy Integration System (WEIS) was designed as an alternative energy power plant, which pulled air upwards and powered turbines to generate energy. The large structure (496 feet tall and 880,000 square feet of land) would also have contained a sewage treatment plant which also contributed by-products that were converted into energy. Unfortunately after detailed study by scientists in the federal government, it was concluded that the design would not produce the promised amount of energy, and the tower was never built.
Walter White: Johnson house (Palm Desert, Calif.)
The Paulette Herbert Johnson house in Palm Desert was one of White's last houses in the desert before he moved to Colorado Springs. The house was originally designed with a hypar (hyperbolic paraboloid) roof, but was constructed with a flat roof, for unknown reasons.
Walter White: Johnson house (Indio, Calif.)
The Philip Johnson house in Indio, was a large house with a Y-shaped plan. This splayed plan allowed for each room to have views in many directions.
Walter White: Kissing Camels guest cottages (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
White designed eighteen guest cottages for the Kissing Camels Golf Club. These one story one- and two- bedroom cottages utilized many of the hallmarks of the California Desert Modern design-- breezeblock entryways, floor to ceiling glass walls, and generous outdoor terraces.
Walter White: Garden of the Gods Golf Club (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
Palm Desert developers Al and Margaret Hill purchased land overlooking the Garden of the Gods park, outside of Colorado Springs, and created a private club. White designed the two-story guest rooms-- a complex of three buildings with forty guest rooms overlooking the golf club and mountains.
Walter White: White House (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
The large house White designed for his family at the Kissing Camels Estates outside of Colorado Springs, was the first large house White built for himself. With sweeping views of the Rocky Mountains, the house contained two bedrooms, a study connected to the living room with a roof-height circular fireplace, and an ample porte-cochere.
Walter White: Bates house (Palm Springs, Calif.)
The house White designed for Miles Bates in Palm Springs was never built, but would have been a much larger residence than the one built for Bates in Palm Desert. The plan for the house included an experiment in overlapping circles and half circles, with outdoor terraces and upward-sweeping roofs which delivered views of the San Jacinto Mountains.
Walter White: Kanrich house (Palm Springs, Calif.)
The unbuilt George Kanrich house at the Tamarisk Country Club is a luxurious curved house facing a circular pool. The concave side of the house faced the driveway and contained the utilities and service sections of the house. The convex side faced out onto the pool and the roofline curved upwards so that the inhabitants could enjoy a view of the mountains.
This early design by White has been called his "ideal home design." The long, narrow house plan shows a solid wall facing the street, with an open, glass-enclosed side facing a private backyard. Both the plan and elevation highlight the influence of both Frank Lloyd Wright and Rudolph Schindler on White.
In this design for a drive-in and restaurant (unbuilt) by White and his friend Harry Webster, the influence of Frank Lloyd Wright can be seen by the use of horizontal lines and the linear design of the building.
Walter White, architect Harry Webster, architect
Walter White: Prefabricated Mountain Cabins (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
Walter White designed a number of Prefabricated Mountain Cabins through the years with the first one being The Yellowstone in 1965. The design started out as a small weekend home, with eventual designs encompassing permanent mountain residences. By utilizing steel beams and cedar planking, the cabins were strong, sturdy, and inexpensive to build and maintain.
Walter White: La Quinta units (La Quinta, Calif.)
Walter White designed and built the four houses which are considered the La Quinta Units (or Bungalows) on land adjacent to the Breedlove house, which he built for his mother-in-law. The four T-shaped houses were designed as middle-class dwellings for permanent residents of La Quinta. The uniquely shaped roof with wide overhangs, privacy walls surrounding the garden, and air conditioning highlighted some of the more desirable features of the houses.
Walter White: Smith solar house (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
For the Carroll and Dr. Marlene Smith house in the Black Forest area near Colorado Springs, White designed the house to utilize passive solar architecture in a domestic setting. The house is curved, to take advantage of the view, and contains many of his patented Heat Exchanger Windows.
Walter White: White cabin (Los Angeles, Calif.)
After World War II, Walter White designed small cabin-like houses for returning service members in the Hollywood Hills, along Valevista Trail. White and his family lived in one of the cabins for a short time.
Walter White: Pearson, Scott & Company (Indio, Calif.)
For the Pearson, Scott & Company building, White worked with architect Leopold Fischer to design the offices for the mortgage company. The building is no longer extant.
Walter White, architect Leopold Fischer, architect
Walter White: Valley Lumber Company (Palm Desert, Calif.)
For the Valley Lumber Company in Palm Desert, White designed an addition to the store and office building.
Walter White: Calor Gas Service office building
For office buildings for the Calor Gas Service company, White used simple corrugated metal sheets, which he folded around corners and edges of the buildings. White designed buildings in Merced and Susanville for the company, as well as designing graphics and the interior of a company airplane.
Walter White: Stafford house (Escondido, Calif.)
For the Newt and Lillian Stafford house in Escondido, the clients built the original frame house, and White designed a shed-like roof, which was shaped like a butterfly's profile. With the angled roof, some of the interior walls did not reach up to the roof, but gave the appearance of the roof floating above the interior.
Walter White: Durham house (Palm Desert, Calif.)
The floor plan for the William Durham house in Palm Desert highlights the thoughtful planning behind a Walter White design. The plan shows, through a series of arrows, the view lines from each section of the house, as well as the specific angles of the sun at different point in time during the year. This careful siting allowed for maximum views with a minimum of direct summer sun on the main living areas of the house.
Walter White: Pritzlaff house (Palm Desert, Calif.)
The first Herbert Pritzlaff house was designed by Cliff May, in 1947-1948, and was one of the earliest houses in the Palm Desert / Shadow Mountain region. The home burned to the ground in 1949, and White designed and built the replacement.
Walter White: Safari USA offices (Palm Springs, Calif.)
The office building for Safari USA, a boat building company, utilized steel beams and corrugated sheet metal to provide visual interest and help shade portions of the building from the desert sun.
Walter White: Coachella Valley Farm (Indio, Calif.)
The Coachella Valley Farms development was initially designed to be the largest small-farm development in the world. With each homestead located on their own long and narrow two acre plots, the houses (with backyard pool) were near the road, with the majority of the plot dedicated to farming. and stables for livestock at the far end. The development was not successful, and eventually the area was renamed Bermuda Dunes and became a country club.
Walter White: Breedlove house (La Quinta, Calif,)
In 1944, White built a 'Desert Dwelling' for his mother-in-law, Esther Breedlove in La Quinta. This small house is one of the earliest examples of White's work in the desert, and shows how his style was shaped by the environment. White used stand alone masonry walls (to move independently in case of earthquake), interspersed with wood or glass doors and windows, a low hipped roof, and header beams were bolted together to prevent warping. Eventually, White expanded the house with a wing consisting of two bedrooms and connecting bathroom, and he moved in with his family.
Walter White: Metro Homes (Palm Desert, Calif.)
White worked with the Metro Homes company to design small homes for subdivisions throughout California. In Palm Desert, the Metro Homes (also known as "Palm Desert Homes") were one- or two- bedroom homes (either oblong or T-shaped) with and without attached carports. The Palm Desert Corporation, the large landowner, did not allow only one architect and developer to design houses for an entire neighborhood, so only a small number of lots were built.
Walter White: Alexander house (Palm Springs, Calif.)
The house for Dr. Franz Alexander and his wife was a rural retreat for the European psychoanalyst. With a long, rectangular shape and a unique roof shaped by curved steel beams with wooden planks, the house is sited to take advantage of the view of the mountains. The house is elevated off the ground (with garage underneath) and the main living areas open onto a deck, which overlooks the circular pool and backyard.
Walter S. White papers, Architecture and Design Collection; Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara
Architecture and Design Collection; Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara
Walter White: McManus guest cottages (Palm Springs, Calif.)
The plans for unbuilt duplex and triplex units wee commissioned by Pearl McCallum McManus. She inherited a large amount of land in and around Palm Springs and was a major proponent for the development of tourism in the area. McManus and her husband founded a real estate and development company, which hired many well-known architects, including Lloyd Wright, Paul Revere Williams, and A.Quincy Jones to design buildings in Palm Springs.
Walter White: First Assembly of God church (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
Walter White began designing homes in Colorado in the mid-60s, but it wasn't until 1968, when he received his Colorado architect license, that he was able to work on larger civic and commercial projects. The First Assembly of God Church in Colorado Springs was one of those commissions. The church had construction issues with the original design, and so the final plans changed from the original drawings.
Walter White: Stewart house (Palm Desert, Calif.)
The house in Palm Desert for E.W, Stewart is one of the best examples of White's large residential commissions. The interior of the house is clearly divided into public and private zones, with a massive circular fireplace at the center of the living room / dining room combination.
Walter White: Willcockson house (Indio, Calif.)
The Max E. Willcockson house in Indio is notable for White's first use of the hyperbolic-paraboloid roof. This dramatically sweeping feature appears from a distance to hover over the house (which was sited on a high sand dune to increase the drama). The orientation of the highest points of the roof (which was painted white to reflect the sun) are angled in such a way as to block the strongest and hottest rays of the sun, while also enjoying a view of the mountains.
Walter White: Milliken house (Palm Desert, Calif.)
The long, low house for Charles Milliken sat on a corner lot with an imposing front of stucco, masonry, and wood, while the back of the house featured much more open and airy glass walls to enjoy the view and outdoor living.
Walter White: Shadow Mountain Sun Lodges (Palm Desert, Calif.)
The Shadow Mountain Club was one of the first resorts in Palm Desert; the Sun Lodges were bungalows which could be purchased by individuals and then rented out when not in use. The land was owned by the corporation, making the Sun Lodges one of the first 'condominium' style developments in the area. These small houses fit the requirements of the local architecture review boards, and helped pave the way for future White commissions in the area.
Walter White: Ratliff house (La Quinta, Calif.)
White designed this house for Truman and Marie Susan Ratliff; she was a school teacher and he farmed the property, growing alfalfa and citrus fruits. The sweeping roof was S-shaped, with a higher roofline above the dining and living rooms to take advantage of light and the view, while the lower portions of the roof cover the attached carport for needed shade.
Smith and Williams: Santa Ana Woods (Santa Ana, Calif.)
Whitney Smith described his design for the Santa Ana Woods tract development as one of his best: "a tract of 104 houses, set far apart from other neighborhoods by natural barriers. The exclusive atmosphere further emphasized by the stone entrance."
Smith & Williams records, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara
Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara
Smith and Williams: Welborn Phillips Company housing (Pasadena, Calif.)
The Welborn Phillips Company was a developer of tract homes. Smith and Williams created a brochure which illustrated their philosophy on tract housing. They highlighted such details as exterior masonry planter boxes to give a pleasant view from inside the house, sound insulation between bedrooms and main living areas, a breakfast bar along one side of the kitchen for flexible seating, and integrated car shelters.
Smith and Williams: Zwell house (Pasadena, Calif.)
For the long, narrow, 1300 square foot house for Leo Zwell, Smith designed a straight line of rooms, with each one having a full wall of glass facing onto the brick terrace. A "light trough" or linear skylight provided natural light to the living/dining room ceiling.
Whitney Smith, architect Maynard Parker, photographer Garrett Eckbo, landscape architect
Smith & Williams records, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
Maynard L. Parker, photographer. Courtesy of The Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Copyright restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. University of California Regents.
Smith and Williams: Bradley house (Pasadena, Calif.)
The Harold Bradley house in Pasadena makes maximum use of a small lot, by yielding a small area to the driveway and garage, and reserving the focal point for a garden terrace. The terrace provides garden views and access for all the major rooms of the house through glass doors and windows. Though placed at the front of the house, privacy was created by effective use of a translucent plastic wall and the natural topography of the site-- the house sits on a slight rise above the street. Wide roof overhangs, up to eight feet, provide shelter to the south and west facing rooms.
Whitney Smith, architect Fred Dapprich, photographer
Rudolph Schindler: Bubeshko apartments (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Anastasia Bubeshko and her daughter Luby commissioned Schindler to design an apartment complex on Griffith Park Boulevard in the Silverlake neighborhood in Los Angeles. They wanted a modular design on the sloping lot, one which could contain 5 apartment units, but also be reconfigured into 7 units, if desired. The complex was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 2006, and won a Conservancy Preservation Award in 2010.
R. M. Schindler papers, Architecture & Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
Architecture & Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
Rudolph Schindler: Monolith house (Racine, Wis.?)
Schindler was working for Frank Lloyd Wright when Thomas Hardy commissioned a series of 18 worker houses near Racine, Wisconsin.
Rudolph Schindler, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, architect
Rudolph Schindler: Lovell beach house (Newport Beach, Calif.)
The beach house commissioned by Phillip Lovell is widely regarded as one of the best examples of modernist architecture by Schindler. With rough, exposed, concrete forms, open staircases, two story living room, and windows facing the ocean, the beach house was very modern for Newport Beach in 1926.
Smith and Williams: Mutual Housing Association (Los Angeles, Calif.)
In 1946, a group of four friends decided to pool their resources and buy land in the hills above Sunset Boulevard to build homes for their families. The group soon grew to over 400 interested parties, and the group became the Mutual Housing Association, which purchased over 800 acres of hilly land to build on. The group chose Whitney Smith, A. Quincy Jones, and Edgar Contini to design the modern houses, a park, and community center. The project was named Crestwood Hills, and the original architects drew up plans for 29 different house plans- each sited on a lot to provide unobstructed views.
Smith and Williams, architects Whitney Smith, architect A. Quincy Jones, architect Edward Contini, engineer
Smith and Williams: Scripps College swimming pool (Claremont, Calif.)
The pavilion was designed by Smith and Williams in 1958, and contained walls which were inset with milk-white, blue, and translucent glass panels.
Smith and Williams, architects Marvin Rand, photographer
© Marvin Rand Estate Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Copyright restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. University of California Regents.
Smith and Williams: Barr Lumber model house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
In 1944-1945 the Barr Lumber Company invited three architects to design model houses for an unbuilt experiment and engaged landscape architect Garrett Eckbo to create gardens for each of the proposals. For his submission, Whitney Smith wrote an extensive text, accompanied by drawings, that describe the special features and planning reasons behind each room and asserts that his design "defines urban living as an intimate garden out of which the house rises."
Smith and Williams, architects Whitney Smith, architect Garrett Eckbo, landscape architect
Smith and Williams: California State Polytechnic University (Pomona, Calif.)
Smith and Williams designed more residential and commercial buildings but produced many master plans and planning studies for public and civic projects. The expansion of the state college and university systems provided work for many architects through the middle of the 20th century.
Smith and Williams: Dorr-Siegel-Click-Hurley medical building (Pasadena, Calif.)
These medical offices have an unusual form and are very difficult to see from the exterior. In the simplified plan, the building is composed of two adjacent circles connected by a diamond- shaped reception vestibule. Patients enter through a small garden, into the reception vestibule that contains garden patios and two receptionist desks. Each of the four doctors occupies one-quarter of a circle; the other quarters are taken up by exam rooms.
Smith and Williams: Armstrong house (Pasadena, Calif.)
In a letter dated September 1955 to Dan MacMasters at the Los Angeles Examiner’s Pictorial Living section, Smith described the Armstrong house as having no front or back. All four sides, he wrote, were designed for looking ‘at’ and for looking out ‘from.’ A glass roofed passage connects the house to the terrace and divides the house into three functional buildings: living and dining, kitchen and bath, and bedroom. An interior garden off the dining area and at each end of the passage reinforces the connection of the house to its site.
Smith and Williams, architects Julius Shulman, photographer
© J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2004.R.10) Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Copyright restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. University of California Regents.
Smith and Williams: United States Post Office (La Canada Flintridge, Calif.)
The post office was designed to anchor a small suburban shopping center. A reproduction of a rendering in the archive shows that the decorative folded detail on the façade was to be carried through onto the fronts of the other buildings in the shopping center to tie the buildings together, literally and visually.
Smith and Williams: John Marshall Junior High School (Pasadena, Calif.)
Photographs in the Smith and Williams’s files show the students at John Marshall congregating in groups at the edge of the campus. The design for a new cafeteria gracefully accommodates the students’ energetic sociability with a space that is defined but open.
Smith and Williams: Mayfair Park (Lakewood, Calif.)
Community Facilities Planners produced a master plan for the parks of the City of Lakewood that called for creating four parks over 10 years. Smith and Williams designed the structures.
Smith and Williams, architects Community Facilities Planners, planners Julius Shulman, photographer Jeffrey Lindsay, photographer
Smith and Williams: Brea Civic Center (Brea, Calif.)
Community Facilities Planners produced comprehensive planning reports for the Buena Park Civic Center and the Brea Civic Center.
Smith and Williams, architects Community Facilities Planners, planners
Smith and Williams: Buena Park Civic Center (Buena Park, Calif.)
Smith and Williams arranged the office spaces in six pavilions connected by covered walkways that carry people from the edge of the site to each of the six pavilions.
Smith and Williams: Sunset Canyon Recreation Center (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Wayne Williams and Robert Meyerhof, associate partner in the Smith and Williams’s office, designed a multi-level arrangement of decks and stair landings with an elaborate post-and-beam system that gives the impression of a tree house. The University of California, Los Angeles, program requested an open place, with few physical boundaries, to encourage informal meetings and conversations between faculty and students.
Smith and Williams, architects Steve Jost, photographer Jim Collison- Photographic International, photographer
Smith and Williams: Sun Valley Methodist Church (Sun Valley, Calif.)
Whitney Smith, the partner in charge, designed a tent-like structure for a new sanctuary, in deference to the Methodist open door philosophy of worship. The interior furnishings, including the cross, communion table and rail, lectern and pulpit were made by furniture designer Sam Maloof. The pews were made by a furniture company from a Maloof prototype.
Smith and Williams, architects Jim Collison- Photographic International, photographer
Smith and Williams: St. Paul's Lutheran Church (Monrovia, Calif.)
Smith and Williams created, at the time, the longest unsupported plywood vaults for this church. The clerestories under the vaults are lighted at night, which makes the roof appear to float.
Smith and Williams, architects Larry Frost, photographer
Smith and Williams: Neighborhood Church (Pasadena, Calif.)
Prior to 1966, the Neighborhood Church congregation used a sanctuary building at 535 South Pasadena Avenue that had been built in 1887 as the First Congregational Church. In 1946, the church expanded its facilities. Smith and Williams designed a nursery school building called the Children’s House. Following their master plan, Smith and Williams subsequently added the Children’s Chapel and the Religious Education Building.
Smith and Williams: Community Facilities Planning office (Pasadena, Calif.)
The building on S. Fair Oaks in Pasadena was designed to be four separate buildings housed under one large metal lattice roof, which covers the gardens and offers privacy. The original group of Community Facilities Planners included: Smith and Williams architects; Simon Eisner and Lyle Stewart planners; and Garrett Eckbo, Francis Dean, Robert Royston, and Edward Williams landscape architects. In the early 1960s, they were joined by Richard Selje and Robert Bond, industrial designers.
Smith and Williams: Smith & Williams office (Pasadena, Calif.)
The first Smith and Williams office space was a converted structure on a property belonging to a Mrs. Armstrong, on South Los Robles Avenue in Pasadena.
Smith and Williams: Port Holiday model and plan (Lake Mead, Nev.)
Wayne Williams was the project manager for Community Facilities Planners on this unbuilt project in Lake Mead, Nevada. The development was to include homes, apartments, a mobile home park, hotels and shopping center, sporting areas, all clustered around a lake named after the client, Lake Adair.
Smith and Williams, architects Community Facilities Planners, architects
Smith and Williams: Port Holiday renderings (Lake Mead, Nev.)
The Port Holiday resort was never built, but was to be located in the northwest corner of Lake Mead's Boulder Basin, just outside of Las Vegas, on the way to the Hoover Dam. The client, J. Carlton Adair, commissioned the studies and conceptual drawings, but did not secure funding for the project.
Smith and Williams: Newport Dunes restaurant (Newport Beach, Calif.)
The restaurant at Newport Dunes resort was commissioned by the Fred Harvey Company, which was known for hotels and restaurants that were part of train depots in the southwest United States in the early 20th century. The three story circular restaurant was centered around an aquarium as tall as the building.
Smith and Williams, architects Community Facilities Planners, architects Marvin Rand, photographer
Smith and Williams: Newport Dunes aerial views (Newport Beach, Calif.)
The Newport Dunes development was a planned resort destination in Newport Beach. The rendering and photographic aerial views show contrasting visions of design and reality.
Smith and Williams, architects Community Facilities Planners, architects Garth Chandler, photographer Robert Woodruff, renderer
Smith and Williams: Newport Dunes restrooms and lifeguard station (Newport Beach, Calif.)
An associate architect in the Smith and Williams offices, Robert Thorgusen, designed a beach bath house with an undulating wall of sprayed concrete and metal lath. Thorgusen may have also designed the wooden lifeguard station.
Smith and Williams: Van Vechten Launders and Cleaners (Pasadena, Calif.)
The drive-in laundry used the canopy (33 feet wide and 48 feet long) to catch the customer’s eye as well as to shelter customers and the car hops who retrieved and delivered laundry for waiting cars. The triangular space frame truss is accented by globe lights, and a concrete block wall separates the office space from laundry area.
Smith and Williams: Mobil Service Station (Anaheim, Calif.)
The design of this Mobil station solved the requirements for auto maneuverability on a tight site with modern engineering. Smith and Williams hung four canopies of open web steel on poles to shelter gas pumps, the service area, rest rooms, and the office. Equally impressive was its translation of marketing needs into design; the pumps were labeled with large, easily visible lettering; kiosks for selling tires and oil were clustered in a protected pedestrian island. Smith and Williams commissioned the artist Millard Sheets to design a large red Pegasus (the Mobil brand symbol), for the top of the sign. Albert Stewart sculpted the figure.
Smith and Williams: CAPSA College Car Wash (Pasadena, Calif.)
Constructed on Pasadena’s main street, Colorado Blvd., this structure won an A.I.A. award. The jury praised the CAPSA Carwash for possessing lightness and motion. The steel-skeleton structure takes full advantage of its openness to create a visually weightless building.
Smith and Williams: Ralphs Market (South Pasadena, Calif.)
Smith and Williams designed several schemes for Ralphs Grocery Stores. For the South Pasadena location, they designed a distinctive frame for the facade that faces the parking lot. The frame is made up of an expressionistic roof edging held up by attenuated pillars or columns, creating an exuberant false front, which acts as a billboard for the store.
Smith and Williams: Crawford's Country Mart (Los Angeles, Calif.)
This is a rendering of an unbuilt design for a country market. The use of a metal lath roof easily defines the space of the market and encompasses all its activities and products. A similar roof design was incorporated into the building for Community Facilities Planners, a few years later.
Smith and Williams: Friend Paper Company (Pasadena, Calif.)
The saw tooth edge of the Friend Paper Company roof creates a distinctive character for the building on the street. What is not as noticeable is the double roof system that Smith and Williams created to modulate the effect of heat and light coming into the building.
Smith and Williams, architects Lin Cariffe, photographer
Smith and Williams: United Autoworkers Union building (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Of all Smith and Williams’s buildings, the union structures are the most modernistic. The glass, steel and concrete buildings present forthright, transparent façades to their members and communities. The materials also represent the sleek and modern modes of transportation made by their members: automobiles and aircraft.
Smith and Williams: Microdot Incorporated (South Pasadena, Calif.)
Brick and colored, clear, and painted glass were used to create visually pleasing spaces inside—a lobby and conference room—and read on the exterior as colorful volumes. A preliminary design proposed a façade that resembled a computer punch card, a reference to the company business.
Smith and Williams, architects Kent Oppenheimer, photographer Larry Harmon, photographer
Smith and Williams: Mulder-Gregg medical building (Covina, Calif.)
The wood beams are used in a craftsman mode and contribute to the soothing domestic appeal of this small medical building.
Smith and Williams, architects Scott Lowry, photographer
Smith and Williams: San Gabriel Valley Medical Association building (San Gabriel, Calif.)
This medical building comprises four separate structures, connected by stairways and an L-shaped second floor. The round building, closest to Las Tuna Drive, originally was a pharmacy.
Smith and Williams, architects Marvin Rand, photographer Scott Lowry, photographer
Smith and Williams: Royce Children's Clinic (Pasadena, Calif.)
The exterior is reserved but the inside is full of visual excitement. Wooden screens and colored glass separate reception from waiting areas, and animate the small space. As in their other doctors’ offices, the scale and materials create a domesticated building.
Smith and Williams: Blaisdell medical office (Pasadena, Calif.)
Medical offices became a Whitney Smith specialty; he designed two before 1949 and at least 14 with Smith and Williams. This refined design, perhaps his best, was made of concrete and wood. Patients entered through a landscaped area, now devoted to parking. The waiting room includes a private garden patio and a wooden screen for privacy at the reception desk.
Smith and Williams: Newton house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The house for Dr. and Mrs. Bernauer Newton and family is considered one of their boldest designs for integrating inside and outside spaces. The bedrooms for the Newton house are in separate pavilions connected to the living area by covered walkways. The structures of the garage, living area, and bedrooms enclose the garden, making it the central ‘room’ of the house.
Smith and Williams: George house (La Canada Flintridge, Calif.)
This house was designed for a musician and an artist on a heavily wooded lot that included nearly 50 mature trees, some of which the architects allowed to grow through the eaves, rather than remove. The architects designed the house as two separate buildings—living and sleeping—connected by a short set of stairs flanked by stained glass. The large living room is surrounded by other functions—two studios and a kitchen— that open onto the living room through sliding shojis. A long skylight, visible from the front façade, travels all the way through the house.
Smith and Williams: Orange County Home Show house (Costa Mesa, Calif.)
Robert Thorgusen of Smith and Williams was in charge of this exhibition house for the annual Orange County Home Show. Two identical rectangles—one for living and one for sleeping— are adjacent to a central court and surrounded by decks. Exposed wood elements and the use of shojis provide a Japanese character. The house is 1,000 square feet but the decks nearly double the square footage. After the Home Show, Thorgusen moved the house to property he owned.
Smith and Williams, architects Frashers Fotos, photographer Robert Thorgusen, architect
Smith and Williams: Siegel house (Pasadena, Calif.)
The house for Dr. Daniel Siegel and his family uses a strong circulation element, in this case a ramp, to organize the living areas on a deep and steep lot. The entrance to the house is strongly marked with a long covered walk. Cobblestones are used in garden retaining walls and for low steps. In the entrance hall the cobblestones appear again as a waist high wall that runs alongside the ramps and leads down to the dining rooms and up to the living room. The cobblestones are repeated in the living room in a large fireplace surrounded by window wall.
Smith and Williams: Anderson house (Loomis, Calif.)
The Anderson house is arranged in two sections connected by a hall-bridge that runs between the living house and the sleeping house. The structure sits lightly on the site so as not to disturb the rocks and mature oaks. Decks create separate outdoor rooms for the master bedroom and for dining.
Smith and Williams, architects Ernest Braun, photographer
Smith and Williams: Salet house (La Canada Flintridge, Calif.)
The Salet house was built as a mother-in-law unit on the same property, yet secluded from, the main house. The tadpole-shaped plan has a square, open plan living and dining zone, which separates living spaces from bedrooms. Opposite the entry is an interior garden with three sliding shojis, which allow for different views through the living zone.
Smith and Williams, architect Julius Shulman, photographer
Smith and Williams: Swanson house (Pasadena, Calif.)
As in many of Smith and Williams’s houses, the fireplace is set in a window wall. The architects bring nature directly into the house through views and by means of a stone wall that penetrates the living room from outside. A garden court sits at the center of the house. Lawrence Halprin was the landscape architect.
Smith and Williams, architects George Szanik, photographer
Smith and Williams: Farris house (San Gabriel, Calif.)
A central garden room separates living and sleeping zones from the kitchen. The roof is pitched to capture light and views from the hilltop site. The use of concrete block in the garden room may have inspired Smith and Williams’s model house for the 1955 Los Angeles County Fair.
Smith and Williams: Goodrich house (San Marino, Calif.)
Interior screens separate the functions in the open plan living zone of the Goodrich house and yet still keep the volume spacious. For the Calvin Goodrich house, Whitney Smith designed a "petal" roof: four identical gables, floating above triangular clerestories and supported by posts at the four corners. Smith possibly borrowed the idea of the "petal" roof from his mentor Harwell Harris.
Smith and Williams: Wilcox house (Sierra Madre, Calif.)
The house for William B. Wilcox was designed by Whitney Smith and described as an adult house for informal living and entertaining. The kitchen cooking unit and the fireplace are back-to-back, making circulation between living, dining, and kitchen fluid. Decks at the same level as the floor carry the living room outside to a stunning view and a pool. The bedroom has a secluded garden.
Smith and Williams: Crowell house (Pasadena, Calif.)
The Crowell house site is on a hilltop, at the edge of a ravine. The design won an Award of Merit in 1956 in a contest sponsored by House & Home and Sunset magazine. The A.I.A. judges cited the manner in which the “Japanese-influenced house” adapted “an Oriental idea to the requirements of California living.” Smith wrote an unpublished essay, “Japanese Influence in California Architecture,” in which he said that the fact that “regional, indigenous California houses” look Japanese “is 99% coincidence.” He went on to say, however, that, “Japanese architecture has a strong emotional appeal to California architects.”
Smith and Williams: Booth house (Beverly Hills, Calif.)
In the final design for the Booth house, a deck extends all the way across the outside and beyond the edges of the living room, integrating the outside and inside areas into one living space, close to trees. The Booth house is similar to the Crowell house in the steepness of its site, the placement of the deck to extend the living area and vistas, and in the Japanese flavor of the design.
Smith and Williams: Divina Vista tract housing (Monterey Park, Calif.)
Smith and Williams designed the Divina Vista housing tract for the Security Development Corporation in the Los Angeles suburb of Monterey Park. Smith and Williams argued that the problem of tract houses— small lots too close together—could be solved by skillful designers. They believed that “the house and lot must be intensively used together to result in a unit of total living.”
Smith and Williams: Blue Ribbon Construction Company tract housing (Northridge, Calif.)
The great variety of work in the Smith and Williams’s office mirrors the growth of Los Angeles, so it is not surprising that they designed more than 50 tract housing projects. One of the best is a small development of 13 houses in Northridge for the Blue Ribbon Construction Company. Smith and Williams sited the houses diagonally to increase privacy between adjacent houses and to provide longer vistas. Explaining the thinking regarding the design of tract housing, Williams was quoted as saying, “The cost of land has made it impossible for the architect to think of designing a house as a space with four walls.”
Smith and Williams: Spencer house (Pasadena, Calif.)
Smith had an opportunity in the Spencer house to realize some of the ideas in his Case Study House 12. The Spencer’s property contained a number of garden structures, including a Greene and Greene lath house. Sketches in the Spencer file show Smith trying out various situations for the lath house, including as an entrance space.
Smith and Williams: Roulac house (San Marino, Calif.)
Philip Roulac, a builder and contractor, became a frequent client of and collaborator with Smith and Williams. He built most of the houses that Smith and Williams designed in San Marino. When Roulac purchased land that included the 1934 pump house, Smith and Williams incorporated the older structure into the design of his house.
Whitney Smith, architect Smith and Williams, architects Julius Shulman, photographer
Smith and Williams: Dunn house (Pasadena, Calif.)
This house may be the strongest example of Smith’s and Williams’s belief in the architect as a solver of problems. Smith convinced the Dunns not to tear down their Greene and Greene-designed James Culbertson house. The Dunns wanted a smaller, less formal house with more light and fewer stairs. Smith and Williams took off the second floor and opened up the first level to the site. As a native son of Pasadena, Smith knew Greene and Greene’s buildings well. His 1941-1942 letters to Charles S. Greene convey his admiration for and the influence of their work.
Whitney Smith, architect Smith and Williams, architects Julius Shulman, photographer William Rudolph, associate architect
Smith and Williams: Smith house (Pasadena, Calif.)
Smith’s own house began as a garage on a piece of land that had been part of a larger residential property. He wrote about the house in a letter to an editor at the Ladies Home Journal in 1948: “The garden walls and landscaping positively define the total limits of view so that. . . the actual view is about 75 feet, interrupted only by vertical columns and planting. . . .Space means nothing unless defined. Openness means little unless there also is closure.”
Rudolph Schindler: Van Dekker house (Canoga Park, Calif.)
This large (3700 square feet) house was built in Canoga Park for actor Albert Van Dekker and his family. The three-level house sits under an unusual copper roof. The Van Dekker house was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 2009.
Rudolph Schindler: Kaun beach house (Richmond, Calif.)
The beach house for Alexander "Sasha" Kaun and his wife Valeria was featured in many architecture magazines in the 1930s as an example of a small, inexpensive house. Kaun was a professor of Slavic languages at UC Berkeley and his wife was a famous artist; they both knew Schindler from their time in Chicago. The house was torn down in 2010.
Rudolph Schindler: Hiler house and studio (Los Angeles, Calif,)
Hilaire Hiler was a well-known artist in the United States and Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. He commissioned Schindler to build this house and studio, just off of Sunset Boulevard. The house was torn down in the 1960s.
Rudolph Schindler: Erlik house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The Robert and Mariana Erlik house was built in the Hollywood Hills section of Los Angeles in the early 1950s.
Rudolph Schindler: DeKeyser duplex (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The house for John DeKeyser (also spelled de Keysor), is a duplex with a two bedroom unit on the top floor and a one bedroom unit on the lower floor. This house is just one house away from the Frank Lloyd Wright Freeman house, on the hill above.
Rudolph Schindler, architect Woodcock, photographer
Rudolph Schindler: How house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The James Eads How house in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles, is sited on top of a ridge, with views of the San Fernando Valley. The house at 2400 square feet, is large for a Schindler, and is built with center-cut redwood and poured concrete. Richard Neutra designed the landscaping for the house. The How house was named a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 2007.
Rudolph Schindler: Kallis house (Studio City, Calif.)
The Maurice Kallis house is sited on a north-facing slope in Studio City, with a wide view of the San Fernando Valley. The house originally contained a separate apartment and detached artist studio, but is now a single family home.
Rudolph Schindler, architect Robert Cleveland, photographer