Smith and Williams explained

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 (16 January 1911, Pasadena, California -, Bend, Oregon) attended Pasadena City College, then graduated from USC 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 (Los Angeles, California -, 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-Berkeley 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] [21]}
• Newport Dunes, for Irvine Company, unbuilt^[26]
• Port Holiday, unbuilt Lake Mead development for J. Carlton Adair^{[26] [27] [28]}

External links

• USModernist: Smith and Williams homes

Notes and References

1. Web site: Residential Works, 1950s-1970s · Outside In: The Architecture of Smith and Williams · UCSB ADC Omeka . adc-exhibits.museum.ucsb.edu . 8 August 2020 .
2. Web site: Whitney Smith, 91; Pioneer in Modernist Architecture . DENNIS MCLELLAN . Los Angeles Times . 28 April 2002 . 9 August 2020 .
3. Web site: Award-winning architect left Modernist imprint across the Southland . Claire Noland . Los Angeles Times . 9 December 2007 . 9 August 2020 .
4. Web site: Tract Housing · Outside In: The Architecture of Smith and Williams · UCSB ADC Omeka . adc-exhibits.museum.ucsb.edu . 8 August 2020 .
5. Web site: Early Houses for Postwar Living, 1940s · Outside In: The Architecture of Smith and Williams · UCSB ADC Omeka . adc-exhibits.museum.ucsb.edu . 8 August 2020 .
6. Web site: Commercial Works · Outside In: The Architecture of Smith and Williams · UCSB ADC Omeka . adc-exhibits.museum.ucsb.edu . 8 August 2020 .
7. Web site: PCAD - Friend Paper Company, Building, Pasadena, CA . pcad.lib.washington.edu . 8 August 2020 .
8. Web site: Smith & Williams and the Fate of the 1414 Fair Oaks Building . aiapf.org . July 2004 . 8 August 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20050428031416/http://www.aiapf.org/aia-July2004.pdf . 28 April 2005.
9. Web site: 1414 Fair Oaks Building Los Angeles Conservancy . laconservancy.org . 8 August 2020 .
10. Web site: Mobil Gas Station, Anaheim 1956 . anaheimhistoricalsociety.blogspot.com . 8 August 2020 .
11. Web site: Full Moon Tea House in Descanso Gardens. . Ying . Matthew . Smithsonian Magazine . 8 August 2020 .
12. Web site: NRHP Descanso Gardens . file.lacounty.gov . 8 August 2020 .
13. Web site: PCAD - Blue Ribbon Tract Housing, Reseda, Los Angeles, CA . pcad.lib.washington.edu . 8 August 2020 .
14. Web site: Smith and Williams: Dorr-Siegel-Click-Hurley medical building (Pasadena, Calif.) — Calisphere . Calisphere . 8 August 2020 .
15. "Outside In: The Architecture of Smith and Williams"
16. Web site: Smith and Williams: Microdot Incorporated (South Pasadena, Calif.) — Calisphere . Calisphere . 8 August 2020 .
17. Web site: CEQA Final Environmental Impact Report: State Clearinghouse Number 2015111042 . cpp.edu . August 2016 . 8 August 2020 .
18. Web site: PCAD - California Polytechnic State University, Pomona, Residence Halls, Pomona, CA . pcad.lib.washington.edu . 8 August 2020 .
19. Web site: Attachment D: Smith and Williams . ww2.cityofpasadena.net . 8 August 2020 .
20. Web site: Residence Halls [California State Polytechnic University] ]. Hendel . archINFORM – Sascha . archINFORM . 8 August 2020 .
21. Web site: Public and Civic Buildings · Outside In: The Architecture of Smith and Williams · UCSB ADC Omeka . adc-exhibits.museum.ucsb.edu . 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. Web site: PCAD - City of Buena Park, City Hall, Buena Park, CA . pcad.lib.washington.edu . 8 August 2020 .
23. Web site: PCAD - County of Kern, California City Master Plan, California City, CA . pcad.lib.washington.edu . 8 August 2020 .
24. Web site: California City- Water resources · UCSB ADC Omeka . adc-exhibits.museum.ucsb.edu . 8 August 2020 .
25. Web site: California City: Advertising Brochure · UCSB ADC Omeka . adc-exhibits.museum.ucsb.edu . 8 August 2020 .
26. Web site: Mixed-Use Developments · Outside In: The Architecture of Smith and Williams · UCSB ADC Omeka . adc-exhibits.museum.ucsb.edu . 8 August 2020 . California City was chosen as a building site because of 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. Web site: Wonderlands . allstrangeaway.com . 8 August 2020 .
28. Web site: Managing Land in a Regional Context . npshistory.com . 8 August 2020 .