Smith and Williams

Smith and Williams was an architecture firm based in South Pasadena, California and created in 1949. They were noted for their Modernist and Googie design style. The firm developed buildings and master planned communities. The Smith-Williams partnership was active until 1973.

They were described by Robert Winter as being experts in domestic architecture.[1]

History

Whitney R. Smith and Wayne Richard Williams began working together in 1946. Smith left the architecture firm in 1973.

Smith

Whitney Rowland Smith ((1911-01-16)January 16, 1911, Pasadena, California - (2002-03-13)March 13, 2002, Bend, Oregon) attended Pasadena City College, then graduated from University of California, Berkeley around 1934. He then worked under Harwell Hamilton Harris and William Pereira in 1939–1940. He taught architecture at USC around 1945. He contributed to four designs in the Case Study Houses; two were built.[2]

Williams

Wayne Richard Williams (1919 (1919), Los Angeles, California - (2007-11-27)November 27, 2007, Leesburg, Virginia) was born in Los Angeles in 1919, and went on to study architecture at USC until World War II, when he designed military buildings. After the war he received his architecture bachelor's degree from USC in 1947. He worked under Smith at USC, then established the firm together. Later, Williams worked for Giuseppe Cecchi's International Developers Inc. Williams became a fellow at the American Institute of Architects in 1964. Williams taught at UC-Berkley in 1970.[3]

Significant designs

• Mutual Housing Tract, custom homes in Brentwood designed with A. Quincy Jones, Edgardo Contini, and James Charlton. 500 houses were designed, 82 were built.[4][5]
• Friend Paper Company building, Pasadena (1965)[6][7]
• Smith and Williams building, 1414 Fair Oaks, South Pasadena[8][9]
• Googie-styled Mobile gas station, Harbor Boulevard, Anaheim (1956)[6][10]
• Full Moon Tea House, Descanso Gardens (1966 with blue glazed tile roofing from Nara, Japan)[11][12]
• Blue Ribbon Tract Housing, Reseda, Los Angeles (1953)[13][4]
• Dorr-Siegel-Click-Hurley Medical Building, distinctively circular and diamond shaped psychiatric office from 1964[14][15][6]
• Microdot company building, South Pasadena[16]
• Palmitas and Cedritos residence halls at Cal Poly Pomona[17][18]

[19][20][21]

• Buena Park City Hall[22][21]
• Neighborhood Church (aka Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church), Pasadena, California[21]
• Thatcher Music Building, Scripps College, Claremont, California

Master planned communities:

• Mission Bay Park, San Diego
• California City, California, designed with Garrett Eckbo; partially built, their designs are echoed in the Pavilion and Community Church[23][24][25][26][27][21]
• Newport Dunes, for Irvine Company, unbuilt[26]
• Port Holiday, unbuilt Lake Mead development for J. Carlton Adair[26][27][28]

References

1. "Residential Works, 1950s-1970s · Outside In: The Architecture of Smith and Williams · UCSB ADC Omeka". adc-exhibits.museum.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
2. DENNIS MCLELLAN (28 April 2002). "Whitney Smith, 91; Pioneer in Modernist Architecture". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
3. Claire Noland (9 December 2007). "Award-winning architect left Modernist imprint across the Southland". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
4. "Tract Housing · Outside In: The Architecture of Smith and Williams · UCSB ADC Omeka". adc-exhibits.museum.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
5. "Early Houses for Postwar Living, 1940s · Outside In: The Architecture of Smith and Williams · UCSB ADC Omeka". adc-exhibits.museum.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
6. "Commercial Works · Outside In: The Architecture of Smith and Williams · UCSB ADC Omeka". adc-exhibits.museum.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
7. "PCAD - Friend Paper Company, Building, Pasadena, CA". pcad.lib.washington.edu. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
8. "Smith & Williams and the Fate of the 1414 Fair Oaks Building" (PDF). aiapf.org. July 2004. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 April 2005. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
9. "1414 Fair Oaks Building | Los Angeles Conservancy". laconservancy.org. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
10. "Mobil Gas Station, Anaheim 1956". anaheimhistoricalsociety.blogspot.com. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
11. Ying, Matthew. "Full Moon Tea House in Descanso Gardens". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
12. "NRHP Descanso Gardens" (PDF). file.lacounty.gov. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
13. "PCAD - Blue Ribbon Tract Housing, Reseda, Los Angeles, CA". pcad.lib.washington.edu. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
14. "Smith and Williams: Dorr-Siegel-Click-Hurley medical building (Pasadena, Calif.) — Calisphere". Calisphere. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
15. "Outside In: The Architecture of Smith and Williams"
16. "Smith and Williams: Microdot Incorporated (South Pasadena, Calif.) — Calisphere". Calisphere. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
17. "CEQA Final Environmental Impact Report: State Clearinghouse Number 2015111042" (PDF). cpp.edu. August 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
18. "PCAD - California Polytechnic State University, Pomona, Residence Halls, Pomona, CA". pcad.lib.washington.edu. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
19. "Attachment D: Smith and Williams" (PDF). ww2.cityofpasadena.net. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
20. Hendel, archINFORM – Sascha. "Residence Halls [California State Polytechnic University]". archINFORM. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
21. "Public and Civic Buildings · Outside In: The Architecture of Smith and Williams · UCSB ADC Omeka". adc-exhibits.museum.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 8 August 2020. Cal Poly Pomona, 1967 The rapid expansion of colleges and universities in California during the 1950s and 1960s offered many architects the opportunity to design buildings on their brand new campuses. Smith and Williams designed a residence hall, reception center, and cafeteria for the California State Polytechnic University campus at Pomona.
22. "PCAD - City of Buena Park, City Hall, Buena Park, CA". pcad.lib.washington.edu. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
23. "PCAD - County of Kern, California City Master Plan, California City, CA". pcad.lib.washington.edu. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
24. "California City- Water resources · UCSB ADC Omeka". adc-exhibits.museum.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
25. "California City: Advertising Brochure · UCSB ADC Omeka". adc-exhibits.museum.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
26. "Mixed-Use Developments · Outside In: The Architecture of Smith and Williams · UCSB ADC Omeka". adc-exhibits.museum.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 8 August 2020. California City was chosen as a building site because of its' proximity to highways, railroads, military bases, and mining. It also was purported to sit on top of an underground aquifer that would never run dry.
27. "Wonderlands". allstrangeaway.com. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
28. "Managing Land in a Regional Context" (PDF). npshistory.com. Retrieved 8 August 2020.

External links

• USModernist: Smith and Williams homes