Scope and Contents
Biographical / Historical
Organization
Conditions Governing Access
Conditions Governing Use
Rights Statement for Archival Description
Preferred Citation
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Processing Information
Contributing Institution:
USC Libraries Special Collections
Title: William L. Pereira & Associates records
Creator:
William L. Pereira and Associates
Creator:
Johnson, Fain & Pereira Associates
Identifier/Call Number: 0326
Identifier/Call Number: 153
Physical Description:
102.4 Linear Feet
115 boxes and 1 oversize folder
Date (inclusive): 1939-2022
Date (bulk): 1960-1980
Abstract: The William L. Pereira & Associates records consist of architectural plans, materials for presentations to clients, site studies,
project workbooks, and interim reports documenting the majority of the firm's projects from 1960 to 1989. William Leonard
Pereira, who had already been working as an architect in Chicago and Los Angeles since the early 1930s, founded the company
in 1958. William L. Pereira & Associates designed over 300 buildings, including the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco;
the University of California, Irvine campus (its infrastructure, campus layout, and early buildings); the original three buildings
of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); and much of the University of Southern California's University Park Campus
-- where Pereira also taught as a professor in USC's School of Architecture. The collection also holds six pre-1960 project
documents created under Pereira's earlier firm, Pereira & Luckman, as well as news clippings dating back to 1939, photographs
by Julius Shulman, and audiovisual material about William L. Pereira & Associates. In 2021, a donation of additional project
files, photographs, and administrative files from the offices of Johnson Fain, a successor firm to William L. Pereira & Associates,
was added to the collection. In 2022, a donation of family correspondence, photographs, drawings by William L. Pereira, and
newspaper clippings from Monica Pereira, William L. Pereira's daughter, was added to the collection.
Language of Material:
English
.
Scope and Contents
The William L. Pereira & Associates records contain over 400 distinct documents from the corporate archives of the architectural
firm, William L. Pereira & Associates. The majority of the collection consists of the firm's project files, which contain
architectural plans, materials for presentations to clients, site studies, project workbooks, interim progress reports, executive
summaries, feasibility studies, master plans, concept studies, land use projections, long range development plans, and environmental
impact statements documenting the majority of the firm's projects from 1960 to 1989. The collection also holds six pre-1960
project documents created under Pereira's earlier firm, Pereira & Luckman. Projects with significant amounts of documentation
in the collection include expansions to the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX); long range development plans for the
University of California, Irvine; various projects for the Lockheed Corporation and North American Rockwell Corporation; master
plans for the University of Missouri; and urban development planning for Burlington Northern Railroad concerning various properties.
Records in this collection also document architectural projects that were never built, such as the pyramidal tower for the
ABC headquarters in Manhattan.
Aside from the project files, the collection holds a smaller quantity of news clippings, photographic prints (the majority
of which were photographed by Julius Shulman), speech transcripts, and audiovisual material about Pereira and the works of
William L. Pereira & Associates. This material covers a much larger period of time, spanning 1939 to 1985.
Subsequent to the initial acquisition of the William L. Pereira & Associates records in 1997, the USC Libraries added two
accruals of material to the collection in 2021 and 2022. Johnson Fain, a successor firm to William L. Pereira & Associates,
donated the 2021 accrual, which consists of additional project files, photographs, and administrative files from the offices
of Johnson Fain. Some of the material from the 2021 accrual are branded under "Johnson Fain and Pereira Associates" and "Johnson
Fain." Monica Pereira, William L. Pereira's daughter, donated the 2022 accrual, which comprises family correspondence, photographs,
drawings by William L. Pereira, and newspaper clippings.
Biographical / Historical
William L. Pereira & Associates was founded in 1958 by William Leonard Pereira. Pereira had already been working as an architect
in Chicago and Los Angeles since the 1930s, gaining some of his earliest experience while helping to draft the master plan
for the 1933 "A Century of Progress" Chicago World's Fair. Pereira then moved to Los Angeles and worked as a solo architect,
a Hollywood art director, and a professor of architecture at the University of Southern California (USC) before co-founding
his first large architectural firm, Pereira & Luckman, with Charles Luckman in 1950. By 1958, Pereira and Luckman parted ways
and Pereira founded the final company of his career, William L. Pereira & Associates, based in Los Angeles.
William L. Pereira & Associates took on large-scale projects in its early years, including the project started in 1960 to
develop a master plan for the University of California, Irvine campus and the surrounding 93,000 acres of land that comprised
the larger community of Irvine itself. The firm also designed much of USC's University Park Campus as part of USC's 1961 Master
Plan. Other university campuses that William L. Pereira & Associates helped plan and develop include Pepperdine University,
Occidental College, Brigham Young University, and the University of Missouri.
Pereira's signature concrete, futuristic aesthetic left its mark on many of his firm's large-scale institutional projects
throughout Southern California. Specific projects by William L. Pereira & Associates in the Southern California region include
multiple expansions to the Los Angeles International Airport, the original three buildings of the Los Angeles County Museum
of Art (LACMA), and the Hollywood Film Museum. William L. Pereira & Associates also designed many well-known structures outside
of Southern California, such as the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco and The Woodlands, Texas -- a planned community
near Houston.
After Pereira's death in 1985, two primary associates at the firm, Scott Johnson and William Fain, managed the firm under
the name Johnson Fain and Pereira Associates. Subsequently, Johnson and Fain formally acquired the company and changed its
name to Johnson Fain.
Organization
The collection is organized into two series: (i) Project files and (ii) News clippings, photographs, and films about William
L. Pereira & Associates. Project files are organized alphabetically by project. If the collection holds multiple documents
for a particular project, that project becomes a sub-series with document titles grouped underneath. William L. Pereira &
Associates often conducted multiple projects for the same client (e.g., Lockheed Corporation and North American Rockwell Corporation).
In cases where multiple project files exist for the same client, projects are grouped under sub-series titled by client company.
There is one film within the Project files: "Ford Dearborn Site Movie, 1969." All other audiovisual materials are described
under the smaller second series.
Conditions Governing Access
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for access.
Conditions Governing Use
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Department of Special
Collections at specol@usc.edu. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical
items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
Rights Statement for Archival Description
Finding aid description and metadata are licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
Preferred Citation
[Box/folder# or item name], William L. Pereira & Associates records, Collection no. 0326, Special Collections, USC Libraries,
University of Southern California
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Johnson Fain, 1997 and 2021. Gift of Monica Pereira, February 28, 2022.
Processing Information
Many of the project files in this collection were previously held in William L. Pereira & Associates binders. During processing,
most of these binders were removed and each binder's contents were rehoused in acid-free folders. If a binder included a title,
that title was reused for its corresponding archival object record.
This collection often includes multiple copies of the same document with slight variations across copies (e.g., hardcover
vs. spiral-bound or changes in cover design). Sometimes the titles of these documents also vary slightly across copies, but
their contents are the same. If these title variations occur, they are usually described in the notes of their corresponding
archival object records. Hardcover and spiral-bound copies of the same document are described under separate archival object
records with the format included in brackets at the end of each title.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Architects and builders -- California -- Archival resources
Architecture -- California -- Los Angeles -- 20th century -- Archival resources
Architecture -- Designs and plans -- Presentation drawings
Architecture, Modern -- 20th century -- Archival resources
Architectural firms -- California -- Archival resources
Brutalism (Architecture) -- California -- 20th century -- Archival resources
Futurism (Architecture) -- California -- 20th century -- Archival resources
Landscape architecture -- California, Southern -- History -- 20th century -- Archival resources
Planned communities -- United States -- 20th century -- Archival resources
Unbuilt architectural projects -- Archival resources
Architectural documents
Architectural drawings
Business correspondence
Newspaper clippings
Personal correspondence
Photographs
Johnson, Fain & Pereira Associates -- Archives
Pereira, Monica -- Archives
Pereira, William L., 1909-1985 -- Archives
William L. Pereira and Associates -- Archives