A. Quincy Jones: Building For Better Living

St. Michael's and All Angels Episcopal Church by A. Quincy Jones and Frederick E. Emmons, 1960–62. Photograph by Jason Schmidt, 2012. Courtesy Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.

A. Quincy Jones: Building for Better Living is the first major museum retrospective of the Los Angeles-based architect’s work and pays special attention to the unique collaborative nature of his practice. The exhibition is presented as part of the larger Getty-sponsored initiative Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in L.A. Archibald Quincy Jones (1913–1979), who was known as Quincy, practiced architecture in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death in 1979. A quiet modernist and dedicated architecture professor at the University of Southern California, Jones worked to bring a high standard of design to the growing middle class by reconsidering and refining postwar housing and emphasizing cost-effective, innovative, and sustainable building methods. In addition, Jones is among the first architects of this period to view developments as an opportunity to build community through shared green spaces, varied home models, and non-grid site planning. Jones is credited with over 5,000 built projects, most of which still exist today, as the clients and homeowners shared Jones’s compassion for ‘better living.’ Known by architects for designing from the inside out, Jones’s homes and buildings are celebrated for expansive interior spaces, thoughtful and efficient building layouts, and a reverence for the outdoors, which still resonates in contemporary design today. A. Quincy Jones: Building for Better Living is organized by guest curator Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, Head of Department/Associate Curator of Architecture + Design at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Hammer Museum