William F. Cody Papers 2, 1916-1978,, bulk 1950-1975

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Summary

Creators:
Cody, William Francis, 1916-1978
Abstract:
The William F. Cody Papers 2 collection contains records created and collected by Cody including personal papers, student work, awards, architectural drawings and plans, office records, marketing and public relations materials, presentation drawings, photographs, correspondence, and project files.
Extent:
79 boxes (80 linear feet) 21 flat file drawers 11 tubes
Preferred citation:

William F. Cody Papers 2, Special Collections and Archives, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

Background

Scope and content:

The William F. Cody Papers 2 includes sketches, biographical information, pre-collegiate and University of Southern California student work, family photographs, and financial records related to family, personal life, and Cody residences.

Rearchers are strongly advised to consult the guide to the related collection MS0007 William F. Cody Papers.

The collection is divided into five series:

1. Personal Papers, 1918-1980, including childhood sketches, biographical information, extensive pre-collegiate and University of Southern California student work, and financial records;

2. Professional Papers, 1946-1979, including certifications; awards, plaques and certificates; and scrapbooks/tearsheets;

3. Office Records, 1944-1976, including appointment books, correspondence with clients and colleagues, extensive project portfolios, presentation photographs, and presentation drawings

4. Project Records, 1943-1976, including files, photographs, plans and drawings on residential, recreational, and commercial commissions

5. McCulloch Project Records, 1967-1972, including extensive project plans for industrialist Robert P. McCulloch and his related companies.

The collection is housed in 20 flat file drawers and 79 boxes and 11 tubes. The most significant portions of the collection — project records for wide variety of Cody commissions in the Coachella Valley, Arizona, and Havana — are located in Series 4. The collection is also rich in Cody's student work.

Most of the plans in the collection are Ozalids, a monochromatic copying process producing diazo prints, common to the mid-twentieth century. Many of the Ozalids and oversized plans are in poor condition. Some drawings, primarily preliminary sketches or mechanical drawings produced in consultation, have been left in project files, when relocation would have deterred research. Job numbers from Cody's practice are given, when known, but some errors in duplicate numbering have been found. With the exception of the presentation photographs in Series 3.D. and the project portfolios, there are few images in the collection.

Some project names changed before completion; drawings are located under the project's as-built name, when known. Town and city names and boundaries may also have changed; drawings are located under the current name of the town or city.

Original organization has been preserved where possible. Materials may have been reorganized or rehoused for preservation and access purposes.

Biographical / historical:

William Francis Cody, Fellow, American Institute of Architects (1916-1978) was an influential Desert Modern architect who practiced in Palm Springs at the peak of the Modernist movement. Between 1946 and 1973, Cody maintained a diverse practice in California's Coachella Valley, designing country clubs, residences, hotels, library, and church projects in the local communities of Palm Springs, Indian Wells, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, and in southern California, Arizona, Mexico, and Cuba.

Cody was born on 19 June 1916 in Dayton, Ohio, to William F. Cody, Sr., who owned a haberdashery and Anna Elizabeth Shadle, an interior designer. Cody and his brother John were both influenced by their mother's passion for art and architecture.

By 1923, the Codys had relocated to Los Angeles. While attending Beverly Hills High School, Cody designed and built stage sets for school plays with the son of Warner Bros. founder Jack L. Warner. Cody graduated from high school in April 1934 and began work the following year for architects Heath Warton and Asa Hudson while attending Santa Monica Junior College, graduating in 1940.

In 1940, Cody enrolled in the College of Architecture and Fine Arts at the University of Southern California, earning a Bachelor's degree in Architecture in 1942. At University of Southern California Cody was exposed to the Bauhaus style of art, architecture, and interior design, which emphasized a minimalist Modernism that would come to define Cody's own work. Another influence during this time was Cody's work for Cliff May, a leading southern California licensed contractor and developer. According to a résumé found in the collection and his Fellow, American Institute of Architects nomination, Cody worked in 1944 on May's influential Pace-Setter House, a modernized, low-cost California ranch house design.

Cody married Winifred Smith on July 31, 1943, with whom he had three daughters: Diane Louise (b. 1944), Winifred Lynne (b. 1948), and Catherine Louise (b. 1954).

In 1943, he worked for an Oakland engineering firm on a Kaiser steel plant in Fontana, California. That same year, he also worked for the San Francisco firm of Blanchard, Maher and Ward on Navy installations on Treasure Island. The following year, he worked for Marsh, Smith and Powell in Los Angeles, primarily on National Design Award-winning elementary and high school buildings in California and Arizona.

In May of 1946, Cody was licensed to practice architecture in California and secured his Arizona license in December 1946. In 1948, he applied for membership in the American Institute of Architects, listing his office location on Santa Monica Blvd. in Los Angeles.

In 1945, Cody was retained to alter the Desert Inn, his first commission in Palm Springs. In 1947 he completed the Del Marcos Hotel, his first independent commercial project in Palm Springs, which was recognized by the American Institute of Architects Southern California Chapter with an honorable mention.

Post-World War II Palm Springs was becoming a fashionable weekend and winter retreat for the rich and famous, and Cody's career flourished along with the city. He moved his practice and his family to Palm Springs. In 1950, he was retained to lead the successful conversion of the Thunderbird Dude Ranch into the Thunderbird Country Club, which led to commissions to design or alter clubhouses, recreational facilities, and residential developments at Eldorado Country Club (with Ernest J. Kump), Tamarisk Country Club, the Racquet Club, and the Tennis Club. In 1960, he began almost a decade of work altering and expanding the Palm Springs Spa Hotel.

Cody's specialization in country club clubhouses with related residential developments led to additional commissions in California, Arizona, Texas, Cuba, and Mexico. His residential projects emphasized key elements of Modernism: simplicity of form, natural light, and large windows offering a seamless connection between residential interiors and the outdoors.

A member of American Institute of Architects since 1948, Cody was elevated to Fellowship in the American Institute of Architects in 1965, with the following projects cited on his nomination as Achievements in Architectural Design:

William Francis Cody Residence Palm Springs, CA 1946

Del Marcos Hotel Palm Springs, CA 1947

Levin Residence Palm Springs, CA 1948

Haines Office Building Beverly Hills, CA 1949

Mission Valley Country Club San Diego, CA 1953

Jorgensen Residence Palm Springs, CA 1954

Springs Restaurant Palm Springs, CA 1956

El Dorado Country Club Palm Desert, CA 1958

Spa Bathhouse Palm Springs, CA 1958

Clare Residence Palm Springs, CA 1959

Nicoletti Residence Palm Springs, CA 1960

Palo Alto Hills Golf and Country Club Palo Alto, CA 1961

Roundhill Country Club Alamo, CA 1961

Sloane Residence La Quinta, CA 1961

Western Savings & Loan Tempe, AZ 1961

Cannon Residence Palm Desert, CA 1962

Driggs Residence Phoenix, AZ 1962

Spa Bathhouse - Hotel Palm Springs, CA 1962

Abernathy Residence Palm Springs, CA 1963

Shamel Residence Palm Desert, CA 1963

Western Savings & Loan Phoenix, AZ 1964

Cody also worked extensively with Robert P. McCulloch, an industrialist who parlayed his racing-engine manufacturing fortune into diverse business interests, including oil and gas exploration, electronics, and land and real estate development. When McCulloch founded Lake Havasu City, Arizona, Cody designed, altered and added to McCulloch Corporation chain saw plants there. For McCulloch Properties, Inc., Cody designed Arizona residential developments in Lake Havasu City and Fountain Hills in Scottsdale, and an Eldorado tract in Indian Wells, California. He also designed a McCulloch corporate complex near LAX and alterations and an addition to a house for McCulloch and his wife at Thunderbird Country Club in 1972.

Cody's last notable commissions were located in Palm Springs: St. Theresa Catholic Church and Convent (1966-68) and buildings for the Palm Springs Planning Collaborative, including the Palm Springs Public Library (1973) in the Brutalist style. A stroke then limited his career until his death on 29 August 1978 in Palm Springs.

Sources

The American Institute of Architects Archives, Record Group 803, Membership Files. "Application for Membership," 1948, "Application for Corporate Membership," 1948, and "Nomination for Fellowship — Case Record," 1964.

The Architecture of William F. Cody: A Desert Retrospective. Palm Springs: Palm Springs Preservation Foundation, 2004.

Cygelman, Adéle. Palm Springs Modern: Houses in the California Desert. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1999.

"Experience Record of William F. Cody," Box 2 Folder 2, William F. Cody Papers, Special Collections, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, circa 1948

Hess, Alan and Andrew Danish. Palm Springs Weekend: The Architecture and Design of a Midcentury Oasis. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2001.

Hess, Alan. Forgotten Modern: California Houses 1940-1970. Santa Barbara: Gibbs Smith, 2007.

Acquisition information:
Portions of the collection were purchased. Additional postions were received as a gift to the archives.
Accruals:

The National Endowment for the Humanities has generously funded the arrangement and description of this collection, along with matching funds from California Polytechnic State University.

Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard
Note:

c.: circa

n.d.: no date

n.p.: no publisher

l.f.: linear feet

c.f.: cubic feet

FF: flat file

USC: University of Southern California

AIA: American Institute of Architects

FAIA: Fellow, American Institute of Architects

HVAC: Heating, ventilation, air conditioning

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open to researchers by appointment. For more information on visiting, access policies, and reproduction requests, please visit our Reference Services page online at http://lib.calpoly.edu/search-and-find/collections-and-archives/reference-services/. .

Terms of access:

Digital copies are provided to researchers for the purpose of study, research, and personal use only, unless otherwise specified in writing. Materials that are the property of Cal Poly Special Collections and Archives require written permission prior to publication. No complete collection may be reproduced. For print and online publication, please visit our Reproduction Services page online at http://lib.calpoly.edu/support/sca-policies/reproduction/. Special Collections and Archives reserves the right to review all reproduction requests and to withhold permission if scanning would endanger the material, would violate copyright law, or would violate institutional restrictions.

Preferred citation:

William F. Cody Papers 2, Special Collections and Archives, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

Location of this collection:
Robert E. Kennedy Library, Rm 409
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407, US
Contact:
(805) 756-2305
archives@calpoly.edu
Website