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Finding Aid for the Robson Chambers papers, 1946-1981 0000116
0000116  
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Collection Details
 
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  • Access
  • Custodial History note
  • Preferred Citation note
  • Biographical/Historical note
  • Scope and Content note
  • Related Archival Materials note

  • Title: Robson Chambers papers
    Identifier/Call Number: 0000116
    Contributing Institution: Architecture and Design Collection, Art, Design & Architecture Museum
    Language of Material: English
    Physical Description: 4.0 Linear feet (1 record storage box, 1 flat file folder)
    Date (inclusive): 1946-1981
    Location note: Box 1/ADC - regular 1 Flat File/ADC - flat files misc.
    creator: Chambers, Robson C., 1919-1999

    Access

    Partially processed collection, open for use by qualified researchers.

    Custodial History note

    Gift of Robson Chambers, 1999.

    Preferred Citation note

    Robson Chambers papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.

    Biographical/Historical note

    Robson Cole Chambers was born in Los Angeles on March 4, 1919. He attended the University of Southern California and in 1941 graduated with his Bachelor of Architecture degree. During WWII, Chambers helped design Camp Pendleton in Oceanside during his service in the US Marine Corps. In 1946, Robson began working for John Porter Clark and Albert Frey at their Palm Springs office. Six years later, Chambers became a partner and the firm was renamed Clark, Frey, & Chambers. Once Chambers joined the firm, Clark, Frey, & Chambers took on their largest project to date, the Palm Springs City Hall. In 1956, Clark left the firm, leaving Frey & Chambers. Six years later in 1966, Chambers left Palm Springs for a job at University of California Santa Barbara, where he worked as the campus architect into the early 1980s. Robson Cole Chambers died in 1999, at the age of 80.

    Scope and Content note

    The Robson Chambers papers span 4 linear feet and date from 1946 to 1981. The collection contains correspondence regarding architectural projects and employment at the University of California Santa Barbara, newspaper clippings, greeting cards, Chambers’ business cards, black-and-white photographs shot by Julius Shulman of the Chambers’ residence in Palm Springs, a three-ring binder of color photographs of Chambers’ residential projects, architectural drawings and reprographic copies of houses Chambers’ designed in Palm Springs, as well as his personal residence designed in Borrego Springs, California.

    Related Archival Materials note

    Albert Frey papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Chambers, Robson C., 1919-1999
    Architectural drawings
    Architecture -- California
    Photographic prints
    Reprographic copies