ARCH TOUR FEST: The North Range, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA

Photo Credit: Tom Bonner

ARCH TOUR FEST: The North Range, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA

The Clark Library is an amazingly little-known Renaissance revival masterpiece built in 1926 by philanthropist William Andrews Clark, Jr. as a memorial to his father, a notorious copper baron and a U.S. Senator. It was designed by the city’s classiest architect, Robert Farquahar, as a lavishly detailed, deeply encoded message to the cognoscenti. It glitters from a walled block in a once grand Los Angeles neighborhood. At Clark Jr.’s death in 1934 the entire property was willed to UCLA with the stipulation that nothing be built above grade within 100 feet of the library. By then Clark had removed ten neighboring houses, relocated a two-story chauffeur’s quarters, extended an existing brick wall around the block, and engaged landscape architect Ralph Cornell to remodel the site as a public park. Whatever Clark had in mind, it was never completed. The library drifted for the next 60 years as an unfinished landscape made emptier by the removal of Clark’s house and observatory. The Clark is not only the focus of research activity as the UCLA Center for 17th and 18th Century Studies, but also an active venue for chamber music.

Funding allowed construction of support facilities as a first step in transforming the library site into a community of scholars. This posed questions of enclosure, anchorage, juxtaposition, and landscape dynamics. The plan builds on Clark’s concern with enclosure- an extendable wall thickened to 22 feet, cracked open with daylight and as tall as we could push it. Four rectangular modules are separated by courtyards to form a “range” (an 18th century term used by Jefferson at the University of Virginia) that runs 270 feet along the north side of the block to leave the center suggestively open. It houses editorial offices, storage, conference, food service facilities, and guest quarters. In form and color, it relates to Clark’s stocky red brick wall and not to the delicate library from which it respectfully withdraws. Operating as a spatial counterweight, it lessens the emptiness of the garden expanse, and its two-story height further encloses the open garden. Its mural presence palpably anchors the library when seen from across the lawn.

Design Awards: AIA/Los Angeles 1990; AIA/California Council 1991; AIA National Brick in Architecture 1995

Tour Led by:

Barton Phelps, FAIA emeritus

Over nearly a half-century of practice, Barton Phelps, FAIA, has contributed to the profession of architecture in a remarkable variety of ways. He is an inspiring teacher, an engaging writer, editorial leader, and a determined advocate for progressive change. His leadership at local, state, and national levels-for the AIA, NEA Design Arts, GSA Design Excellence program, Society of Architectural Historians, Mayor’s Institute on City Design, the University of California, and the City of Los Angeles-has enhanced public environmental policy, elevated architectural journalism, and set new standards for recognition of design excellence. Above all, Barton Phelps is an insightful designer, whose work reveals a subtle, studied grasp of the dynamics of urban and rural landscapes. He was the 2022 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from AIA/California. In addition to the North Range of the Clark Library, projects for UCLA include the Seismic Renovation of Royce Hall, the East Building of the University Lab School, and the Adademic Advancement Center. Other new buildings include L.A. Public Libraries in Los Feliz, Hollywood, and Woodland Hills, the performing Arts Center and Student Commons at Thacher School in Ojai, and a major expansion of the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, as well as residential and ecological retreat properties in California and across the U.S.

Derek Christian Quezada Meneses – Head Librarian, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library at UCLA

Derek Christian Quezada Meneses is the Head Librarian of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library at UCLA, where he oversees one of the nation’s most distinguished collections of early modern, fin-de-siècle, and modern fine press materials. Before joining UCLA, he held positions at the University of Southern California, the University of California, Irvine, and the Getty Research Institute.

Ikumi Crocoll – Clark Library

Ikumi Crocoll has been the Instruction & Engagement Librarian at UCLA’s William Andrews Clark Memorial Library since 2021. Previously, she worked as the Manuscripts & Special Collections Librarian at the Daughters of the American Revolution Library in D.C. and as a reference librarian at the Newberry Library in Chicago. She holds a Master of Science in Information from the University of Michigan and a Master of Arts in the Humanities from the University of Chicago.

Architect: Barton Phelps & Associates

Building Credits: 

General Contractor: California I.B.A., Inc.

Structural Engineer: Melvyn Green & Associates

Landscape Architect: Robert M. Fletcher

Interior Designer: Audrey Albers

AIA CES: 1.5 LU Approved

Learning Objectives

1) Design for low-cost durability

2) Envision building as landscape

3) See architecture as language

4) Approach functional program as direct generator of building form.

Parking

Parking is available at a large, on-site lot through an open gate off Cimarron. There is no fee to park.