Allison & Allison

Allison & Allison was the architectural firm of brothers James E. Allison (1870 – 1955) and David C. Allison (1881 – 1962). They established their firm in Pittsburgh in 1904 and moved to Los Angeles in 1910, where they would become well known for their designs for public schools and other institutional buildings, including Royce Hall of the University of California, Los Angeles. After the brothers' retirements the firm was continued by their nephew and others, under different names, until its acquisition by Leo A. Daly in 1969.

Royce Hall of the University of California, Los Angeles, designed in the Lombard Romanesque style and completed in 1929.

The original Santa Monica High School, designed in the Mediterranean Revival style and completed in 1912.

The Calexico Carnegie Library, designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style and completed in 1918.

The Chandler High School in Arizona, designed in the Neoclassical style and completed in 1922.

The former Friday Morning Club, designed in the Italian Renaissance Revival style and completed in 1924.

The former Van Nuys Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style and completed in 1926.

The First Baptist Church of Los Angeles, designed in the Spanish Gothic style and completed in 1927.

The Southern California Edison Company Building, designed in the Art Deco style and completed in 1931.

The United States Post Office in Merced, designed in the Mediterranean Revival style and completed in 1932.

The West Los Angeles Regional Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, designed by the successor firm and completed in 1956.

History

Allison & Allison was formed in Pittsburgh in 1904 as the partnership of brothers James E. Allison and David C. Allison.^[1] James Allison, who had been in independent practice in Pittsburgh since 1893, was the businessman and superintendent of the firm while David Allison, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, was chief designer.^[2]

Watson Memorial Presbyterian Church in the Observatory Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, designed by Allison & Allison and built in 1907

The Allison brothers

James Edward Allison (February 22, 1870 – July 19, 1955) was born in Hookstown, Pennsylvania, to George A. Allison, a farmer, and Sarah Allison, née Nesbit. He had a public school education but did not finish high school. He was trained in architectural drawing at a night school and worked for architects Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge in Pittsburgh and Adler & Sullivan in Chicago before opening an office of his own in 1893.^[3][4]

David Clark Allison (May 14, 1881 – February 21, 1962) had the academic training his brother lacked. He was educated in the Beaux-Arts-oriented architectural program of the University of Pennsylvania and became his brother's partner shortly after his graduation in 1904. He spent the year 1909–10 in Paris studying in the Beaux-Arts atelier of Eugène Duquesne.^[5][6]

In 1910, shortly after David Allison returned from Paris, the brothers decided to move west to Los Angeles, where they would do most of their work. Allison & Allison developed a specialty in the design of public schools and other institutional buildings. Within two years in Los Angeles they had been awarded two major projects which established their reputation: the Santa Monica High School (1912) and the original campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (1914), which became the Los Angeles City College after 1929. Both projects, which have been demolished piecemeal, were sprawling academic complexes in the Mediterranean Revival style thought appropriate to California. During the 1920s they were hired to design several of the buildings for the second and current campus of UCLA, including Royce Hall (1929), modeled on the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio in Milan and which has become the symbol of the university. After the death of the university's supervising architect, George W. Kelham, in 1936, the firm was appointed to that role. As supervising architects they had oversight of all construction on the campus; they kept the role until David Allison's retirement. Other works included churches such as the First Baptist Church (1927) and the First Congregational Church (1932), private clubs such as the demolished University Club (1922) and the Friday Morning Club (1923) and public buildings such as the United States Post Office (1932) in Merced.^[2][7]

Later history and successors

James Allison retired in 1942; David Allison retired circa 1947.^[4][6] In 1939 the brothers had admitted their nephew, George B. Allison (1904 – 1977), to the partnership. Like David Allison he was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and had worked for the firm since 1930.^[8] In 1944 David and George Allison were joined by U. Floyd Rible (1904 – 1982), a former employee, and renamed the firm Allison & Rible.^[9] In 1958 Rodney T. Robinson (1909 – 2002), chief designer, and Raymond Ziegler (1919 – 2015) became partners; the firm was renamed Allison, Rible, Robinson & Ziegler in 1966.^[10][11] In 1969 the firm merged with the Omaha-based Leo A. Daly Co., one of the largest architectural firms in the United States, and initially kept its name and some autonomy.^[12] Over the next few years, the three older partners retired, leaving only Ziegler. In 1974 Ziegler withdrew to establish an independent firm and Daly dropped the Allison name.^[13]

Legacy

The work of Allison & Allison reflects the clecticism of early twentieth-century American architecture. David Allison, as an American product of the Beaux-Arts system, freely, or eclecticly, adapted the forms of past architectural styles for new uses on Beaux-Arts principles. One of the major principles of Beaux-Arts architecture, as defined by American architect John Harbeson, was "character," or how a building is to be made appropriate for its site and program. While the Beaux-Arts in France had a strong bias towards neoclassicism, its American students drew from a much wider group of styles. To design a building with an appropriate character, Americans frequently chose forms and styles thought to be appropriate for the history and climate of its region. For Allison in California, that meant the Mediterranean and Spanish Colonial; for an architect in another part of the country, such as New England, it would mean something completely different.^[14][15][16] George Allison, a later product of the same system, reoriented the firm's work towards modernism, though like many of his contemporaries he freely mixed Beaux-Arts and modernist principles to obtain what they would consider appropriate character. Architectural historian Richard Guy Wilson described this type of work as the "final stage of evolution" of classicism.^[17]

At least ten buildings designed by the firm, alone or with others, have been listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places. California architects Rose Connor and William Henry Harrison worked for the firm.

Throughout its existence, the Allison firm was well respected by the architectural community. The three Allisons, Rible and Ziegler were all elected Fellows of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Rible was also the recipient of the Edward C. Kemper Award, for service to the AIA, in 1970 and served as chancellor of the College of Fellows for 1973.^[18]

Projects

• 1908 – Becht Hall, Pennsylvania Western University, Clarion, Clarion, Pennsylvania^[15]
• 1910 – Bethel Presbyterian Church, Bethel Park, Pennsylvania^[15]
• 1912 – Santa Monica High School, Santa Monica, California^[2]
  • Demolished.
• 1914 – Los Angeles City College campus, Los Angeles^[2]
  • Demolished.
• 1918 – Calexico Carnegie Library, Calexico, California^[19]
  • NRHP-listed.
• 1922 – Chandler High School, Chandler, Arizona^[20]
  • NRHP-listed.
• 1923 – Las Vegas Grammar School, Las Vegas^[21]
  • NRHP-listed.
• 1924 – Friday Morning Club (former), Los Angeles^[22]
  • NRHP-listed.
• 1925 – Western Pacific Building, Los Angeles^[23]
• 1926 – Los Angeles Public Library Van Nuys Branch (former), Van Nuys, California^[24]
  • NRHP-listed.
• 1927 – First Baptist Church, Los Angeles^[25]
  • Modeled on the Ducal Palace in Mantua.
• 1927 – First Unitarian Church, Los Angeles^[26]
• 1927 – Los Angeles Public Library Washington Irving Branch (former), Los Angeles^[27]
  • NRHP-listed.
• 1929 – Janss Investment Company Building, Los Angeles^[28]
• 1929 – Kaplan Hall, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles^[7]
• 1929 – Royce Hall, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles^[7]
• 1929 – Wilshire Boulevard Temple, Los Angeles^[29]
  • Designed by Abram M. Edelman and Samuel Tilden Norton, associated architects, with Allison & Allison, consulting architects. NRHP-listed.
• 1930 – Kerckhoff Hall, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles^[7]
  • Principally designed by staff member Austin C. Whittlesey.
• 1930 – Thirteenth Church of Christ, Scientist (former), Los Angeles^[30]
  • Now the Los Angeles Full Gospel Church, a Korean congregation.
• 1931 – Southern California Edison Company Building, Los Angeles^[31]
  • Principally designed by staff member Austin C. Whittlesey and incorporating murals by Hugo Ballin and exterior bas-reliefs by Merrell Gage.
• 1931 – Wilshire United Methodist Church, Los Angeles^[32][33]
  • Modeled on the Church of San Francesco in Brescia, Italy, and the Torrazzo of Cremona.
• 1932 – First Congregational Church, Los Angeles^[34][35]
  • Principally designed by staff member Austin C. Whittlesey.
• 1932 – Kaufman Hall, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles^[36]
• 1932 – United States Post Office, Merced, California^[2]
  • NRHP-listed.
• 1934 – Beverly Hills Main Post Office (former), Beverly Hills, California^[2]
  • Designed by Ralph Carlin Flewelling, architect, with Allison & Allison, consulting architects. NRHP-listed.
• 1937 – United States Post Office, Hollywood, California^[2]
  • Designed by Claud Beelman, architect, with Allison & Allison, associate architects. NRHP-listed.

Works by the successor firm include:

• 1949 – Engineering Building I, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles^[37]
  • Demolished in 2011 to make way for Engineering IV.
• 1953 – McKenna Auditorium, Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, California^[38]
• 1956 – Los Angeles Public Library West Los Angeles Regional Branch Library, Los Angeles^[39]
• 1960 – Cypress Hall, California State University, Northridge, Los Angeles^[40]

See also

• Allison & Allison buildings