The Journal of San Diego History
SAN DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY
Spring 1985, Volume 31, Number 2
Thomas L. Scharf, Editor

Book Notes

Raymond Starr, Book Review Editor

A Catalogue of The Architectural Drawing Collection, The University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara. Compiled by David Gebhard, David Bricker and Lauren Weiss Bricker. Two volumes. Santa Barbara: University of California, Santa Barbara, 1983. 873 Pages.

The University Art Museum of the University of California branch at Santa Barbara has published a catalog to its impressive architectural drawing collection. This collection includes drawings, sketches, plans, photographs, published materials. The bulk of it comes from California (especially the coast from Sea Ranch to Santa Barbara, through the entire Los Angeles area, to San Diego), although there are a few items from such far away places as England, Canada and Nevada. This guide is organized alphabetically by architect’s name, with the dates and a brief descriptive paragraph about some of the major architects. The catalog then lists, building by building, the location, date, and type of material for that particular building. Since there is no subject index, one must know the architect in order to use this catalog.

This catalog is important to San Diego researchers, as the collection at Santa Barbara contains significant San Diego material. The San Diego items range from individual items — a house in Rancho Santa Fe, a service station remodeling, some state buildings (including San Diego State Teacher’s College) — to major collections such as those of Irving Gill and Louis Gill. The two Gill collections are sizable — together they take thirty six pages to list — and they alone would indicate that the Santa Barbara collection of architectural drawings is a must stop for San Diego historians.