Title: Samuel Reisbord papers

Identifier/Call Number: 0000168

Contributing Institution: Architecture and Design Collection, Art, Design & Architecture Museum

Language of Material: English

Physical Description: 28.0 Linear feet (1 record storage box and 9 flat file drawers)

Date (inclusive): 1923-circa 1976

creator: Reisbord, Samuel, 1904-1985

Partially processed collection, open for use by qualified researchers.

Gift of Susan Martin, 2000.

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

Sam Reisbord (1904-1985) was born in Kiev, Russia and came to the United States with his family when he was a child. In 1929, Reisbord graduated with his Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. Upon graduation Reisbord worked in local Pennsylvania offices until 1932, when he began working with Albert Kahn who at the time was consulting architect to the State Industrial Design Trust in Moscow. Between 1939 and 1942 Reisbord lived in Japan and Hawaii working in the Hawaiian Islands at U.S. Military bases Hickam Field and Pearl Harbor. Between 1943 and 1944, Reisbord was an architect for the Canol Project, a sub-Arctic pipeline and refinery project for Bechtel, Price, Callahan and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and Alaska. From 1944 to 1946, Reisbord worked as a designer for Paul R. Williams, and then went on to be the principal of his own firm, until 1965 when he joined forces with Jerrold M. Caris. The two architects formed Reisbord & Caris, a partnership that lasted until 1969. Over the course of his career Reisbord’s more notable projects include: the Beverly Carlton Hotel, Sunset Center Hollywood, the Warner Victory Center, Lake-Green Center Pasadena, Howe Elementary School in Culver City California, and the Culver City Unified School District Natatorium. Reisbord is also known for his apartment buildings which were built in the dingbat style. Sam Reisbord died in 1985.

The Samuel Reisbord papers span 28 linear feet and date from 1923 to circa 1976. The collection consists primarily of architectural drawings and reprographic copies of civic and commercial projects Reisbord did in the Los Angeles region, but also includes letters, magazine and newspaper clippings, Reisbord’s passport and naturalization papers, office stationary, job lists, scrapbooks, and ephemera.