Lecture: “David Gebhard’s Santa Barbara”

PEARL CHASE SOCIETY CONTINUES THE KELLAM DE FOREST SPEAKER SERIES

SEPTEMBER 8TH PRESENTATION: DAVID GEBHARD’S SANTA BARBARA

The Pearl Chase Society’s Kellam de Forest Speaker Series continues from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, September 8th, at the Alhecama Theatre, 215a E Canon Perdido St, Santa Barbara. The Alhecama Theater is wheelchair accessible.

To reserve a seat, please call 805-961-3938. The event is free but a suggested donation of $5 per guest will allow us to extend the series in Kellam’s memory.

For its fourth installment in this series, architectural historian and author Lauren Weiss Bricker, Ph.D., will discuss the important contributions David Gebhard, Ph.D., made to preserving and furthering the vitality of Santa Barbara. Dr. Gebhard was California’s leading architectural historian, known for his books on its architecture, landscape architecture and the architects and designers who created its many distinctive places.

David Gebhard arrived in Santa Barbara in the early 1960s, at a critical moment when preservation of the City’s historic sites appeared to be challenged by an emergent modernism.  Rather than see these as two confrontational perspectives, Dr. Gebhard enthusiastically supported creative ways to pursue new design while protecting historic resources and the natural environment. Pearl Chase was an important collaborator in many of his endeavors.

His research areas were highly influential. As Director of the University Art Museum, UCSB, Dr. Gebhard developed one of the nation’s leading collections of architectural drawings. He repeatedly turned to drawings as beautiful art objects and key sources of documentation. He curated numerous exhibitions over his tenure at UCSB; the accompanying exhibition catalogs remained, and in some cases remained the sole scholarly source on a topic. As a faculty member of the Department of Art and Architectural History, his scholarship attracted students and contributed to the reputation of the department.

Perhaps his best-known publication is “An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles,” co-authored by Gebhard and Robert Winter, is considered the “Bible” of L.A. Architecture by professionals and enthusiasts alike. In many ways, this publication, which enjoyed multiple editions, hints at the breadth of his knowledge and scope of his scholarly contributions.

On October 13, PCS will host a special screening of “Birth of Beauty,” a film about the women who helped build upon the City’s Spanish revival architectural legacy.

On November 10th, join us in celebrating Pearl Chase’s 135th birthday (and Kellam DeForest’s birthday!) with a panel discussion by founding Pearl Chase Society Members about how the PCS came to be and its mission into the future.

ABOUT LAUREN WEISS BRICKER, PH.D

Lauren Weiss Bricker, Ph.D. very recently retired as professor of architecture at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. From 2019-July 2022, she was Interim Dean of the College of Environmental Design. Dr. Bricker was Director of the ENV Archives-Special Collections. She holds a doctorate in the history of art and architecture from University of California, Santa Barbara. She writes on American domestic architecture, the historiography of architecture and historic preservation. She has lectured on “Conserving the Vitality of Our Historic Places.” Dr. Bricker was chair of California’s State Historical Resources Commission, and currently serves on Redlands’ Historic and Scenic Commission, and is Vice-President, Harada House Foundation in Riverside. She has published works on “The Mediterranean House in America,”  the architecture of Palm Spring architect  Donald Wexler; her thesis was based on the architectural collection of Roland Coate, housed at UCSB.

ABOUT PEARL CHASE SOCIETY

The Pearl Chase Society is an all volunteer, not-for-profit conservancy dedicated to preserving Santa Barbara’s historic architecture, landscapes and cultural heritage. Established in 1998, the Pearl Chase Society continues to advance and enlarge upon the founding vision of Pearl Chase. It engages in charitable and educational activities to promote and preserve Santa Barbara’s historic sites of rare value and continuing community interest. For more information, please visit pearlchasesociety.org.