WONDERLANDS

Theme Parks, Fairs, and Urban Visions
from the Smith & Williams Architectural Archives

Smith and Williams (1946-1973) Perspective View of Floating Gardens Port Holiday (project) Lake Mead, NV (c. 1961) Gift of Whitney Rowland Smith Architecture and Design Collection University Art Museum, UCSB

June 2, 2004-August 28, 2004
University Art Museum, University of California Santa Barbara

Tuesday, June 1, 2004, 5:00–8:00 pm, OPENING CELEBRATION
Thursday, June 3, 2004, 4:30pm, Gallery Talk with Exhibit Curator

Southern California Modernist visionaries stimulate the mind and eyes in Wonderlands: Theme Parks, Fairs and Urban Visions from the Smith and Williams Architectural Archives. This unique exhibition, now open at the University Art Museum (UAM), is comprised of materials from the UAM's Architecture and Design Collection and examines the work of Whitney R. Smith and Wayne R. Williams of the architectural firm Smith and Williams (active 1946-1973, South Pasadena, CA). Their collaboration, which emphasized architecture and reacreational planning for a "leisure-lifestyle," was seen as an important and uniquely Southern Californian contribution to urban planning of the period.

Smith and Williams (1946-1973) Perspective View of Crawford's Country Fair Crawford's Country Fair (project) Los Angeles, CA (1958) Gift of Whitney Rowland Smith Architecture and Design Collection University Art Museum, UCSB

The gallery is divided into three distinct sections: Parks and Community Centers, Theme Parks and Fairs, and Urban Visions. The exhibition traces a selection of Smith and Williams projects, realized and unrealized, which demonstrate the possibilities of recreation in Southern California Modernist designs through drawings, photographs, archival material, and excerpted texts from Smith and Williams' own writings.

Smith and Williams (1946-1973) Perspective Sketch of Congregational Church California City Congregational Church California City, CA (1958-1967) Gift of Whitney Rowland Smith Architecture and Design Collection University Art Museum, UCSB

Smith and Williams are noted for a variety of projects including commercial, educational, and residential designs as well as community and urban planning. They were integral to the development of an indigenous Modernism in Southern California and many of their early structures reflect an ingenuity in engineering and inventiveness in materiality made necessary by the shortage of steel in construction after World War II. Smith and Williams' concern with the social implications and possibilities of architectural design, as well as their shared interests in cost effective construction, the potential for mass production in architecture, and civic planning and social organizations formed the foundation of their twenty-seven year partnership.

Smith and Williams (1946-1973) Perspective Sketch of Twenty Mule Team Parkway Twenty Mule Team Parkway California City, CA (1958-1967) Gift of Whitney Rowland Smith Architecture and Design Collection University Art Museum, UCSB

Curated by Mahlon W.L. Chute, Graduate Curatorial Intern