The Pearl Chase Society’s (PCS) Kellam de Forest Speaker Series continues, 6-8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 8, at Alhecama Theatre, 215a E. Canon Perdido St., Santa Barbara.
For the fourth installment in the series, architectural historian and author Lauren Weiss Bricker will discuss the contributions David Gebhard made to preserving and furthering the vitality of Santa Barbara.
To reserve a seat, call 805-961-3938. The event is free but a $5 per guest donation is suggested to help extend the series in Kellam’s memory. Alhecama Theater is wheelchair accessible.
Gebhard was California’s leading architectural historian, known for his books on its architecture, landscape architecture and the architects and designers who created its many distinctive places.
Gebhard arrived in Santa Barbara in the early 1960s at a critical moment when preservation of the city’s historic sites appeared to be challenged by an emergent modernism.
Rather than see these as two confrontational perspectives, Gebhard supported creative ways to pursue new design while protecting historic resources and the natural environment. Pearl Chase was an important collaborator in many of his endeavors.
Gebhard’s research areas were highly influential. As director of the University Art Museum, UCSB, he developed one of the nation’s leading collections of architectural drawings.
He repeatedly turned to drawings as beautiful art objects and key sources of documentation. He curated numerous exhibitions during his tenure at UCSB; the accompanying exhibition catalogs remained, and in some cases remained the sole scholarly source on a topic.
As a faculty member of the Department of Art and Architectural History, Gebhard’s scholarship attracted students and contributed to the reputation of the department.
Perhaps his best-known publication is “An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles,” co-authored by Gebhard and Robert Winter, is considered the bible of L.A. Architecture by professionals and enthusiasts alike. In many ways, this publication, which enjoyed multiple editions, hints at the breadth of his knowledge and scope of his scholarly contributions.
On Oct. 13, Pearl Chase Society will host a screening of “Birth of Beauty,” a film about the women who helped build upon the city’s Spanish revival architectural legacy.
On Nov. 10, community members are invited to help celebrate Pearl Chase’s 135th birthday (and Kellam DeForest’s birthday) with a panel discussion by founding Pearl Chase Society members about how PCS came to be and its mission into the future.
Bricker recently retired as professor of architecture at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. From 2019-July 2022, she was interim dean of the College of Environmental Design.
Bricker was director of the ENV Archives-Special Collections. She holds a doctorate in the history of art and architecture from UCSB. She writes on American domestic architecture, the historiography of architecture and historic preservation.
The Pearl Chase Society is an all-volunteer, not-for-profit conservancy dedicated to preserving Santa Barbara’s historic architecture, landscapes and cultural heritage. Established in 1998, the Pearl Chase Society continues to advance and enlarge upon the founding vision of Pearl Chase. For more, visit pearlchasesociety.org.