William Pereira Collection

William Pereira was born in 1909 in Chicago. He received a degree from the University of Illinois School of Architecture before moving to Los Angeles in 1933, where he set up his first private practice. In the 1940s, he had a brief stint as a Hollywood art director, during which he even won an Academy Award for Best Special Effects. In 1949 Pereira became a professor of architecture at the University of Southern California, and shortly after, he formed a partnership with architect Charles Luckman. The pair’s firm designed some of Los Angeles’ most well-known buildings in the 1950s, including the Theme Tower at Los Angeles International Airport and the Disneyland Hotel, before parting ways and Pereira establishing his final firm, William L. Pereira & Associates.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Pereira took on his most ambitious projects, including developing master plans for Pepperdine’s Malibu campus. This later stage of his career also saw the design of several landmark buildings such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Geisel Library at the University of California, San Diego; and the Transamerica Building in San Francisco.

Source: Curtis-Castillo, J., Pepperdine Libraries explores the enduring legacy of Pepperdine campus architect William Pereira through Julius Shulman’s photography. Available at: https://www.pepperdine.edu/newsroom/articles/pepperdine-exhibition-featuring-photography-by-julius-shulman-of-architect-william-pereiras-buildings.htm.