Finding Aid for the Victor Cusack papers, 1932-2002 0000125
Finding aid prepared by Jocelyn Gibbs and Chris Marino
Architecture and Design Collection, Art, Design & Architecture Museum
Arts Building Room 1434
University of California
Santa Barbara, California, 93106-7130
805-893-2724
adc@museum.ucsb.edu
Title: Victor Cusack papers
Identifier/Call Number: 0000125
Contributing Institution:
Architecture and Design Collection, Art, Design & Architecture Museum
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
9.0 Linear feet
(6 boxes and 1 flat file drawer)
Date (inclusive): 1932-2002
Abstract: Victor Cusack is an American architect who worked in the offices of Charles Luckman, William Pereira, and Pereira and Luckman.
Collection comprises biographical material about Victor Cusack, including his unfinished memoir about being at Taliesin with
Frank Lloyd Wright, and photographs taken at Taliesin during his time there. Also included are reports, printed materials,
and drawings for assorted designs by William Pereira during the time that Victor Cusack was an architect in the firm. Projects
at Pereira for which Cusack had design responsibilities include the California Federal Savings and Loan Building in Los Angeles,
the Lockheed Corporation headquarters in Calabasas, the theme building and west terminal for the Los Angeles International
Airport, and several master plans and reports for other projects.
creator:
Charles Luckman Associates.
creator:
Cusack, Victor A., b. 1915
creator:
Luckman, Charles
creator:
Pereira and Luckman, Architects, Engineers and Planners.
creator:
Pereira, William L., 1909-1985
Partially processed collection, open for use by qualified researchers.
Gift of Victor Cusack, 1999 and 2010.
Victor Cusack papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa
Barbara.
Victor A. Cusack was born in 1915. He attended Yale where he studied architecture and graduated in 1943. Cusack participated
in the Frank Lloyd Wright Taliesin fellowship in Wisconsin and Arizona. From 1951 to 1954 Victor Cusack worked for Pereira
and Luckman, Architects, Engineers and Planners as the senior designer working on projects such as the Union Oil Company Building,
the CLA headquarters on Sunset Boulevard, Farmers and Stockmen’s Band in Phoenix, Arizona, and the Los Angeles International
Airport. After Cusack left Pereira and Luckman, he went to work for the San Francisco firm Hertska & Knowles from 1957 to
1958. In 1959, Cusack rejoined Charles Luckman Associates as chief designer.
The Victor Cusack papers span 5 linear feet and date from 1932 to 2002. Box 1 of the collection contains Cusack’s personal
papers, which include clippings, planning summaries, drafts of speeches, contemporary color photographs of Hutchinson residence,
sketches Cusack did while at Taliesin, his Yale diploma and a VHS tape of the University of Southern California’s architectural
guild forum event in 2002 entitle “Legacy of William Pereira”. Box 2 of the collection contains 8 x 11 in. architectural sketches
and Cusack’s unfinished memoir describing his time at Taliesin. Box 3 contains Cusack’s American Institute of Architects certificate
dated 1957, black-and-white photographs of Taliesin in Wisconsin, as well as twenty-four photographs of model drawings for
Lockheed headquarters in Calabasas. Box 4 contains materials relating to the firm William L. Pereira & Association, Planning
and Architecture which consisting of several master plans relating to Rancho Malibu, the Los Angeles International Airport,
Ahmanson Ranch, and the Makaha Valley Inn and Country Club on the Island of Oahu. Box 5 contains drafts of a book on Pereira
as well as published books concerning William Pereira. Box 6 contains architectural drawings and reprographic copies mounted
on boards of both civic and residential buildings.
Flat files that comprise this collection consist of both architectural drawings (including presentation and perspective drawings)
and reprographic copies of buildings designed by Cusack while at the firms of Charles Luckman, William Pereira, Pereira and
Luckman, and Hertska & Knowles. The drawings and reprographic copies present in the collection are of civic and residential
buildings, primary in Los Angeles but also in Northern California area (primarily Oakland, California).
Related Archival Materials note
Welton Becket papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa
Barbara.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Cusack, Victor A., b. 1915
Cusack, Victor A., b. 1915
Luckman, Charles
Pereira and Luckman, Architects, Engineers and Planners.
Pereira, William L., 1909-1985
William Pereira Associates.
Architectural drawings
Photographic prints
Reprographic copies
Personal papers 1932-1947
Physical Description:
1.0 Linear feet
(2 boxes)
Papers relating to William Pereira
Physical Description:
0.25 Linear feet
Architectural projects 1941-1989
Physical Description:
4.5 Linear feet
(1 box and 1 flat file drawer)
Publications circa 1960-circa 1990
Physical Description:
0.5 Linear feet
(1 box)