Oral Histories

Interview of Robert Field Jr.

Architect and co-owner of the architectural firm, Austin, Field, & Fry.
Subtitle:
Robert Field, Jr.: Los Angeles Architect
Series:
Z: Orphan Interviews pre 1999
Topic:
Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Design
Biographical Note:
Architect and co-owner of the architectural firm, Austin, Field, & Fry.
Interviewer:
Schippers, Donald J.
Interviewee:
Field, Robert Jr.
Persons Present:
Field and Schippers.
Place Conducted:
Field's office in Los Angeles, California.
Supporting Documents:
Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library's Center for Oral History Research.
Interviewer Background and Preparation:
The interview was conducted by Donald J. Schippers, Interviewer-Editor, Oral History Program, UCLA; B.A., UCLA; M.A., American history, Occidental College; M.L.S., library service, UCLA.
Processing of Interview:
The transcript was edited by Donald J. Schippers, who assisted Adelaide Tusler in the indexing. Material from a verbatim transcription of the tape was rearranged for chronology and to bring together comments on the same subjects dispersed throughout, in 1966. Punctuation was introduced and syntax was emended only slightly. Field prepared some new material for the beginning of the manuscript, as noted on the first page, but did not review the manuscript in its entirety, accepting the program's editing as sufficient for preparing it as a research document.
Length:
5 hrs.
Language:
English
Copyright:
Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library.
Abstract:
Family background; parents' work as Salvation Army officers; education at Manual Arts High School; office boy in Pasadena architectural firm; experiences as architect in 1920s and 1930s; design work for Walker and Eisen architecture firm, 1922; move to firm of John and Donald Parkinson, 1925; work on Bullock's Wilshire building; design and style changes since 1920s; experiences during Depression; return to Walker and Eisen, 1936; Carl Jules Weyl and Rube Ransford; World War II military service; firm of Austin, Field, and Fry, 1946; planning multipurpose buildings; specific buildings in Los Angeles Civic Center, at UCLA, and in other Los Angeles locations; discussion of work of Walker and Eisen.