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 250 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, Kem Weber, Whitney Smith and Wayne Williams, Edward Killingsworth, 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
Thornton Abell: Valley Center Shopping Center (Van Nuys, Calif.)
This rendering for a shopping center was commissioned by M. Russell Davis and Philip Mackay Gordon, builder and business property developers. This…
Featured Collection
Tremaine Houses
This collection features images used in the book Tremaine Houses: One family's patronage of domestic architecture in midcentury America by Professor…
Featured Exhibit
Walter S. White: Inventions in Mid-Century Architecture
Walter S. White (1917-2002) was a mid-20th-century modern architect and inventor who deserves to be better known: his architecture reverberates with today’s concerns...
Recently Added Items
Kem Weber: Sommer and Kaufmann Shoe Store (San Francisco, Calif.)
The interiors for the Sommer & Kaufmann Shoe Store were designed by Weber; he worked with architect Alfred F. Roller on the building design.…
Kem Weber: Savery Hotel (Des Moines, Iowa)
The dining room interiors for the Hotel Savery were one of Weber's last projects before he retired.
Kem Weber: Roos Brothers Shoe Store (San Francisco, Calif.)
The triangle-shaped ''shoe salon" for Roos Brothers in San Francisco featured many different geometric forms.
Kem Weber: Plains hotel (Cheyenne, Wyo.)
Weber designed the interiors for the Plains Hotel in 1945. The "Wigwam Lounge" design was influenced by popular depictions of Native Americans.
Kem Weber: Peters house (Santa Barbara, Calif.)
In the late 1940s, Weber shifted his practice to designing and building houses. The George Peters house in Santa Barbara is one of his earlier houses;…
Kem Weber: Parker house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
In the 1930s, Weber designed the interiors for the Maynard Parker house in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. It is unclear if Maynard Parker…
Kem Weber: Oasis Hotel (Palm Springs, Calif.)
This hotel on South Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs featured Weber-designed furniture and interiors. Lloyd Wright was the architect.