The Architecture and Design Collection at the Art, Design & Architecture Museum at the University of California, Santa Barbara is one of the largest architectural archives in North America. More than 230 collections and archives make up the ADC, a portrait of design in the region through the work of well-known figures such as Irving Gill, John Byers, Roland Coate, Sr., George Washington Smith, Myron Hunt and Harold Chambers, Robert Stacy-Judd, R. M. Schindler, Lutah Maria Riggs, Thornton Abell, Gregory Ain, Julius R. Davidson, Palmer Sabin, Kem Weber, Whitney Smith and Wayne Williams, Edward Killingsworth, Rex Lotery, Maynard Lyndon, A. E. Morris, and Barton Myers, among others.
The exhibits, collections, and items featured on this website are a small sampling of the materials archived at the ADC. Please visit the Online Archive of California for a full list of our collections' finding aids.
Featured Item
John Elgin Woolf: Guasti house (Montecito, Calif.)
The Guasti residence, perched high in the hills of Montecito, was designed and built by Woolf. With sweeping views of the Santa Ynez mountains to the…
Featured Collection
Cliff May (1908-1989): Custom Ranch Houses
Cliff May, known as 'the father of the ranch house,' was an early proponent of the California style ranch house. He first built hacienda style houses…
Featured Exhibit
Irving J. Gill: Simplicity and Reform
Irving J. Gill (1870-1936) is known for his refined and abstracted architectural vocabulary, which he described as “the straight line,...
Recently Added Items
Roland Coate: Stern house (Holmby Hills, Calif.)
Real estate investor Jacob Stern commissioned this house from Coate in 1928. The over 9000 square foot estate was designed in the Mediterranean…
Roland Coate: Selznick house (Beverly Hills, Calif.)
Irene Mayer and David C. Selznick, a well-known movie producer, commissioned this house from Coate at the height of the great depression. The house…
Roland Coate: Norcross house (Bel Air, Calif.)
This large house, on a prominent hill overlooking the Bel Air Country Club was commissioned by petroleum executive David C. and Irene Norcross. The…
Roland Coate: Barber house (Pasadena, Calif.)
The John E. Barber house is an early example of Coate's Monterey Revival style-- a second story balcony, center hall, with the majority of rooms…
Roland Coate: Cowlishaw ranch house (Nogales, Ariz.)
The owners of a successful furniture business, Frank and Ruth Wilmot Cowlishaw commissioned Coate to design a large ranch house and stables for their…
Roland Coate: Bixby house (Pasadena, Calif.)
This house, an interpretation of a Monterey style house, was one of Coate's earliest commissions as a solo architect, after the dissolution of the…
Roland Coate: Bryner house (Pasadena, Calif.)
This house is a departure from Coate's Spanish and Monterey Revival style. Built for industrialist Ira L. Bryner and his wife Margaret, the house was…