Conditions Governing Access
Conditions Governing Use
Preferred Citation
Acquisition Information
Biography
Scope and Content of Collection
Processing Information
Related Finding aids
Additional Collection Guides
Contributing Institution:
University of California, Santa Cruz
Title: Roy Rydell papers
Creator:
Rydell, Roy (Amnell Roi), 1915-2000
Identifier/Call Number: MS.029
Physical Description:
48 Linear Feet
115 boxes
Date (inclusive): 1880-2000
Abstract: This collection includes
correspondence, client files & sketches, business papers, scrapbooks, family photographs
and photograph albums.
Physical Location: Stored offsite at NRLF: Advance notice
is required for access to the papers. Box 114 is stored on site in Special Collections and
Archives.
Language of Material:
English
Conditions Governing Access
Collection open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Property rights for this collection reside with the University of California. Literary
rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. The publication
or use of any work protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use for research or
educational purposes requires written permission from the copyright owner. Responsibility
for obtaining permissions, and for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Preferred Citation
Roy Rydell papers. MS 29. Special Collections and Archives, University Library, University
of California, Santa Cruz.
Acquisition Information
Gift of Roy Rydell and the Rydell Estate.
Biography
Amnell Roi Rydell (17 Sep 1915 - 2000) was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota to a large
extened Swedish family. Roy studied at the Minneapolis Art Institute before moving to Los
Angeles in 1929. There he continued his art studies at the Chouinard Art School and
University of Southern California followed by work at University of California, Berkeley and
at Ecole de la Grand-Chaumière in Paris. In 1943 he married Frances L. Cooksey (1914-1998)
in Las Vegas, Nevada. After living in the Los Angeles area and traveling, the Rydells moved
to Scotts Valley (1948-1953) where they took a caretaking job for the Robert Law family on
the Lawridge Farm in Scotts Valley. They became good friends and neighbors to Svea V.
Lindquist and Helga O. Olsen, landscape designers and consultants. The ladies introduced
Roy, then a struggling artist, to their clients and mentored him in landscpe design.
In the early 1950s the Rydells bought the old school house in Bonny Doon and set about
transforming it and building the landscape design and consultanting business. Roy was
instrumental in the development of the new Pacific Garden Mall, along with Chuck Abbott and
architects Arthur Hyde and Kermit Darrow. As the landscape architect he used the design of
the Mall to echo the shapes of nature rather than follow the rules of urban planning. Roy
served on local and state boards and committees, and was an enthusiastic supporter of the
Cabrillo Music Festival and the development of the Museum of Art and History.
Roy and Frances Rydell established the Rydell Visual Arts Fund at the Community Foundation
of Santa Cruz in 1985, to support the arts in Santa Cruz County in perpetuity. Following
their passing, their estate was bequeathed to the Community Foundation, with the proceeds of
the sale added to the fund, which has grown to over $2 million, and is used to support the
arts through grants to visual arts organizations and fellowships to individual artists.
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection includes correspondence, business papers, scrapbooks, and family
photographs and albums.
Processing Information
Processed by M. Carey, M. E. Simpson. Completed June 2016.
Related Finding aids
MS 331 Svea V. Lindquist and Helga Olson Papers
Additional Collection Guides
-
Boxes 63-96 Landscape Design
drawings
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Landscape architecture --
California