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AC Martin Partners drawings and records on microfilm
2015.M.14
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Contributing Institution: Special Collections
Title: AC Martin Partners drawings and records on microfilm
Creator: AC Martin Partners
Identifier/Call Number: 2015.M.14
Physical Description: 76.5 Linear Feet(111 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1906-2006
Abstract: The AC Martin Partners drawings and records on microfilm document the significant role this prominent, multi-generational
firm has played in shaping the built environment of Southern California throughout the last 100 years. The records consist
predominantly of aperture cards mounted with microfilmed copies of over 67,000 architectural drawings, technical plans, and
site surveys for civic, commercial, and residential projects predominantly in the greater Los Angeles area. These aperture
cards are supported by microfilmed copies of project documentation for several early projects, and a selection of the professional
correspondence of Albert C. Martin Senior.
Physical Location: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the
catalog record for this collection. Click here for the
access policy .
Language of Material: Description is in English.
This collection is arranged in three series:Series I. Architectural drawings, 1906-2006;Series II. Filing system for drawings,
1906-2006; and Series III. Office documentation and correspondence, 1911-1953.
This collection is open for use by qualified researchers, but requires special handling by both the reading room and researchers.
Series III. Office documentation is on microfilm reels that are currently restricted until reformatting is complete.
UCLA's Center for Oral History Research. Oral History Collection:
Interview of Albert Carey Martin Jr., 1980-1981.
Collection contains audio tapes and transcripts of Albert Carey Martin Jr. being interviewed about the history of the Martin
family, A. C. Martin and Associates, and his own career as an architect.
Julius Shulman photography archive, 1936-1997, Getty Research Institute, Accession no. 2004.R.10.
Shulman photographed several buildings associated with AC Martin Partners between 1955-1975. These images can be found in
the Julius Shulman photography archive, 1936-1997, and includes photographs of private residences, corporate offices, the
Los Angeles City Hall, the Los Angeles County Jail, and the firm's own office building (1953). The archive also includes a
staff portrait of Albert C. Martin and Associates from 1951.
David C. Martin on three generations of the A.C. Martin firm, April 1, 2013
The exhibition OVERDRIVE: L.A. Constructs the Future 1940-1990 (April 9 – July 21, 2013) at The J. Paul Getty Museum investigated
the evolution of Los Angeles into one of the most "influential industrial, economic, and creative capitals in the world."
The exhibition featured a video interview with David C. Martin.
Video can be found at:
http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/overdrive/video_gallery.html
AC Martin Partners records, 1906-2006, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2015.M.14.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2015m14
The AC Martin Partners drawings and records on microfilm document the significant role this Southern California firm has played
in shaping the built environment of Los Angeles throughout the last 100 years. Through copies on microfilm and aperture cards
containing detailed architectural drawings, technical plans, and site surveys for commercial, residential, and public service
projects, both the history of this multi-generational, continuously operating firm, and the development of the Greater Los
Angeles Area, through a variety of architectural styles, are seen.
Documented here is AC Martin Partners' contribution to prized Los Angeles landmarks such as Grauman's Million Dollar Theater,
The May Company Wilshire Building, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Saint Basil's Roman Catholic Church, and
City National Plaza (ARCO Plaza), as well as the firm's extensive planning and engineering work, including countless parking
structures, office interiors, schools alterations, and seismic upgrades. From honoring neoclassical traditions (Ventura County
Courthouse) and the Beaux-Arts style (Higgins Building), to Art Deco (Los Angeles City Hall) and Streamline Moderne (May Company-Wilshire),
and on to modernist architecture (Saint Basil's Roman Catholic Church) and glass tower blocks (Wells Fargo Bank Building),
their professional portfolio is all-encompassing.
AC Martin Partners had their original architectural drawings copied on microfilm and mounted on aperture cards; these aperture
cards are in Series I. Not all projects are represented equally within these records; some projects appear to have a complete
set of plans, while others may only have one or two plans. The drawings are accompanied by a filing system devised by the
firm for the aperture cards, which is represented by Series II. The filing system consists of a set of index cards with typewritten
data, with each index card representing a project for which plans were microfilmed and made into aperture cards. Series III
contains microfilmed copies of project documentation, including notes, financial statements, client invoices, and correspondence.
Series III also notably includes articles for publication written by Albert C. Martin Sr. regarding architectural practices
in California.
In the summer of 2016, Multicultural Undergraduate Intern Kathryn Reuter conducted the preliminary rehousing of the aperture
cards while retaining their original order.
In the fall of 2016, Graduate Intern Talia Olshefsky used a FileMaker Pro database that had been produced by AC Martin Partners
to create a container list, with the assistance of Laura Schroffel. Talia Olshefsky physically verified the presence of each
project listed in the database, rehoused and catalogued the records on index cards, viewed and catalogued the 14 reels of
microfilm, and completed the documentation of the archive under the supervision of Ann Harrison and Kit Messick.
AC Martin Partners are an architectural firm whose contributions to commercial and civic structures have shaped the built
environment of Los Angeles. In operation since 1906, the firm has consistently emphasized maintaining a balance between precise
planning and engineering. Based on the program and location of a building, and with appropriate design elements that reflect
the building's intended role, their approach has remained consistent over 100 years of practice. AC Martin Partners are widely
recognized for iconic structures such as the Los Angeles City Hall, Grauman's Million Dollar Theater, May Company Wilshire,
and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, as well as their extensive contribution to the skyline of downtown Los
Angeles, including Sanwa Bank Plaza and City National Plaza.
In a landscape that is home to many architects striving to define themselves with strikingly distinct styles, AC Martin Partners
has consistently contributed architecture seemingly without branding, and structures that reflect the community and climate
rather than the firm's corporate identity. Under the guidance of Albert C. Martin Junior (1913-2006) the firm's unofficial
slogan was, "The firm is not a single individual," and from honoring neoclassical traditions and the Beaux-Arts style, to
Art Deco buildings and glass tower blocks, and from malls to military facilities, their work is all-encompassing. The firm
was a central figure in the 1950s post-war boom in Southern California, building many schools, churches, shopping centers,
and technology facilities, as well as contributing to a vast amount of less-visible structural engineering work that binds
the fabric of the city as a whole.
AC Martin Partners have also maintained a tradition of being civic leaders and generous contributors to their community beyond
their corporate practice. The Martins are politically-minded and have been long-time board members of countless city planning
associations and advisory councils, as well as frequent recipients of professional awards. Both Albert C. Martin Jr. and his
nephew Christopher C. Martin (b. 1950) served as elected presidents of the Southern California chapter of the American Institute
of Architects (AIA), and Christopher C. Martin is credited with being the originator of Los Angeles's Adaptive Re-use Ordinance,
which initiated the revitalization of Downtown Los Angeles in the early 1990s.
The firm bears the distinction of having remained a family-run business for three generations. At the turn of the nineteenth-century,
the young architect and engineer Albert Carey Martin left the midwestern United States and traveled to California, a land
then symbolic of modern growth and opportunities. Martin would find both hardship and great success in the West, and ultimately
build a legacy integral to the history of Los Angeles, a legacy that continues to grow through his grandchildren.
Born in 1879, Albert Carey Martin was one of eight children raised by parents John and Mary Margaret (née Carey) in La Salle,
Illinois. Martin completed his formal education in Illinois, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in architectural engineering
from the University of Illinois in 1902. After graduation, Martin relocated to Indianapolis, where he served as a draftsman
for Brown-Ketcham Iron Works. This was followed by a move to Pittsburgh, where he spent two years working for the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company. In 1904 Martin followed his brother Joseph, a Roman Catholic priest, to Los Angeles, California. Martin
began doing manual labor related to the expansion of the rail lines for the Pacific Electric Railway, and was later employed
by the building contractor Carl Leonardt & Company, for whom he worked as a construction laborer and then a foreman. The connections
he formed through these experiences led Martin to the appointment of engineer for the development of the Hamburger Department
Store in 1906. In an unanticipated turn of events, a falling out between the project's head architect and the client resulted
in Martin being given the title of architect. Martin successfully guided the completion of the landmark building, and launched
his own architectural firm under the name Albert C. Martin and Associates. A year later he married California native Carolyn
Borchard, and the couple settled in Central Los Angeles, in the neighborhood now known as Koreatown. Here they raised six
children: Evelyn, Margaret, Albert Junior, Carolyn, John Edward, and Lucille.
Two of Martin's brothers, Frank and Emmett, came to work at Albert C. Martin and Associates in the early 1910s, but World
War I drew both of them to Europe. Frank's fate remains unknown, but Emmett returned to California and the firm in 1919, after
studying at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. By 1924 Emmett had left Albert C. Martin and Associates to open his own architectural
firm. He experienced a successful career in the Los Angeles area, particularly in his work for the Roman Catholic Church,
until his premature death at the age of 48 in November 1937.
By the mid-1930s Albert C. Martin and Associates had become a prominent commercial firm in Los Angeles. In addition to momentous
landmarks like the Hamburgers Department Store (1908), Grauman's Million Dollar Theater (1917), and Los Angeles City Hall
(1928), they also completed multiple high schools, church rectories, office buildings, factories and warehouses. By this time,
Martin's two sons, Albert Junior (August 3, 1913 – March 30, 2006) and John Edward (October 23, 1916 – November 22, 2004),
had become the second generation of Albert C. Martin and Associates. Albert Junior graduated from the University of Southern
California (USC) in 1936, then studied civil engineering at The California Institute of Technology. John Edward spent two
years at USC before pursuing architectural engineering at the University of Illinois. By the late 1940s Albert Junior and
John Edward had worked up to management roles at the firm. In 1959 their mother Carolyn passed away. Not long after losing
his wife, Martin Senior experienced a stroke and died on April 9, 1960.
The 1950s and 1960s were a period of expansion in southern California, and Albert C. Martin and Associates built many industrial
manufacturing plants, scientific research facilities, hospitals, and parking lots during this time. This was also a period
of shopping malls, and the firm completed two notable developments - The Lakewood Shopping Center and the Eastland Shopping
Center - both projects for the May Department Store Company. 1965 saw the completion of one of the firm's most iconic structures,
the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Built in the International Style, this building demonstrated to Los Angeles
that the second generation of Albert C. Martin and Associates was just as dedicated to giving the city strong and notable
civic structures as the first had been.
A third generation of the Martin family found its place within the firm by the 1970s. Albert Junior's son David Martin, FAIA,
(b. 1942) joined in 1967, after graduating from the USC School of Architecture and completing a Masters of Architecture at
Columbia University. John Edward's son Christopher C. Martin, FAIA, (b. 1950) graduated from USC with a Bachelor of Science
in Architecture in 1974. The firm began to play a large role in earthquake damage repair and seismic upgrades by the mid-1970s,
work which included a multi-phase retrofitting of Los Angeles City Hall in the 1990s. Their contribution to the skyline of
downtown Los Angeles has been significant, and includes the Union Bank Plaza (1967), ARCO Plaza (1972), Bank of America Plaza
(1974), Citigroup Center (1982), TCW Tower (1990), Figueroa at Wilshire (1991), and Two California Plaza (1992).
The firm now operates under the name AC Martin Partners, Incorporated, under the guidance of Christopher and David Martin.
Christopher Martin is the firm's current CEO; he has long served as chairman and member on many city planning, commerce and
philanthropic boards, and is a founding member of the Los Angeles Business Improvement District. David Martin is an award-winning
architect and design principal who also runs the Martin Architecture and Design Workshop (MADWorkshop) in Santa Monica, California.
This firm has evolved through challenging economic and political times, through transitory stylistic influences, and through
three generations of the same family. Today, AC Martin Partners are leaders in sustainable design and technological advancements
in engineering and architecture, and continue to contribute to the city they helped build.
Bibliography:
AC Martin Partners.
AC Martin Partners: Thinking Simultaneously. Milano: L'Arca Edizioni, 2002.
AC Martin Partners, and Kanner, Diane.
1906-2006: AC Martin Partners, One Hundred Years of Architecture. [Los Angeles, California], 2006.
Hines, Thomas S.
Architecture of the Sun : Los Angeles Modernism, 1900-1970. New York : Rizzoli, 2010.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of AC Martin Partners, Inc. Acquired in 2015.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Architects -- California -- Los Angeles
Architecture -- California -- Los Angeles -- 20th century
Los Angeles (Calif.) -- Buildings, structures, etc. -- 20th century
Architecture, Modern -- 20th century -- Designs and plans
Microfilm