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Ain (Gregory) papers
0000104
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Table of contents
Description
The Gregory Ain papers span 49.5 linear feet and date from 1926 to 1972. The collection primarily contains correspondence,
clippings, writings, photographs and architectural sketches and drawings. The collection also includes landscape designs by
Garrett Eckbo and the works Ain produced in collaboration with the architects Joseph Johnson and Alfred Day.
Background
Gregory Ain (1908-1988) was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of a Russian-born socialist. His family moved to Los
Angeles in 1911 and for a year lived in the experimental farming collective, Llano del Rio, in the Antelope Valley. Ain attended
UCLA and went on to study architecture at the University of Southern California. In 1927 Ain left without graduating, due
to his frustrations with the school's Beaux Arts teaching methods. He worked for Schindler intermittently in the early 1930s
and Richard Neutra between 1930 and 1935. Ain began his independent architectural practice in 1935. In 1940, he received a
Guggenheim Foundation grant to study low-cost pre-fabricated housing. Ain worked frequently with the modernist California
landscape architect Garrett Eckbo and with architects Joseph Johnson and Alfred Day, especially on housing tracts, such as
his Park Planned Homes and Avenel Homes. Ain taught at the University of Southern California and in the 1960s became the Dean
of the School of Architecture at Pennsylvania State University. Gregory Ain died on January 9, 1988.
Extent
49.5 Linear Feet
(6 boxes and 13 flat file drawers)
Availability
Open for use by qualified researchers.