I had the pleasure of touring the California State University, Long Beach campus for a mid-century architecture and sculpture garden tour as part of Long Beach Architecture Week. The campus is a treasure trove of mid-century buildings all united by the master planner, architect Edward Killingsworth.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. By clicking on them, at no cost to you, I may earn a very small commission that helps pay for the content on this site.

Mid-century Architecture and Sculpture Abound on the CSULB Campus

Sprinkled about the campus are a number of sculptures, nine of which were installed in 1965 as part of the California International Sculpture Symposium, during which a number of the artists partnered with diverse fabrication or technology providers to create unique, innovative pieces which combined art and technology.  Internationally recognized artists aligned with industrial partners such as Bethlehem Steel, Fellows and Stuart Shipyard and North American Aviation. 

Artist Robert Murray’s “Duet”

For example, artist Robert Murray partnered with Bethlehem Steel, located in nearby San Pedro, CA to fabricate his piece, “Duet” which is made of three sheets of thick, painted steel.  Bethlehem steel was the only local place equipped to handle and form metal at the weight and dimensions that Murray desired.  In addition, he specified a unique color, “Tangerine” that, after years of repainting the wrong color, was recently restored in 2015, thanks in part to a cooperation with the Getty Conservation Institute.

Artist Gabriel Kohn’s “Long Beach Contract”

In another collaborative example as part of the Symposium, East Coast artist Gabriel Kohn, a master in creating abstract geometric forms, worked with Fellows and Stuart Shipyard to sculpt “Long Beach Contract”. While other abstract artists of the time were interested in using new, industrial materials, he was focused on using natural materials and the traditional methods of the master carpenter.

CSULB Campus Master Planned by Architect Edward Killingsworth

The tour started at the University Art Museum, where we got a sense of the overall look and feel of the campus.  The architecture of the campus is mostly mid-century, with an emphasis on open landscaped areas throughout the campus, creating a natural, park-like setting.  Most every building was built with sleek lines, post-and-beam construction, glass, peach colored brick and access to the outdoors. Consistent use of modernist proportioning, flat roofs, punched windows and consistent color ties the whole campus together.  Starting out as farmland, the campus was master planned by architect Edward Killingsworth, who had a blank slate with which to create a new university campus over the span of 40 years.  Killingsworth worked closely with landscape architect Ed Lovell to create an inspiring space of higher education.

Various buildings were designed by various architects, but all adhere to the strict design rules laid out by Killingsworth, such as the theater arts center, designed by Long Beach architect Frank Homolka.

The psychology building is well noted for its courtyard planted with soaring Eucalyptus trees. 

While brick runs throughout the campus, the details differ from building to building.

“Sun Forces” by Artist Rita Letendre

Various murals are found throughout the campus such as the one entitled, “Sun Forces” by Canadian born artist Rita Letendre.  Outdoor wall paintings were very rare at the time of this painting in 1965. As students and faculty walk under the mural, pulled through by the black and bright colors, she achieved her goal:  “I want people walking in and out of my painting…it must be dynamic with action and an interaction that continues in the mind of the spectator.”

The most dramatic part of the tour was at the 7^th street entrance to the campus where the Mcintosh Humanities building seemingly floats over a fountain. A quintessential example of mid-century architecture, the nine-story building sitting on pilotis greets visitors. 

“U as a Set” by Artist Claire Falkenstein

In a lovely combination of mid-century architecture and sculpture, in front of the building is the “U as a Set” sculpture by artist Claire Falkenstein. A thorny tangle of copper piping, the sculpture expands and contracts, while the pipes form a series of u-shaped curves. Falkenstein was the sole female sculptor and only local artist chosen for the 1965 Sculpture Symposium.  Previous to being chosen for this commission, she had lived and studied art in Paris and had recently moved back to Venice Beach, CA.  Made of 6,000 pounds of locally supplied copper piping and tubing, the sculpture was fabricated onsite, spending many months on a wooden palette until Edward Killingsworth found the perfect spot for it.  On the day of the visit, we were very fortunate to see the fountains on as apparently, quite often, the water is drained, and the fountains are off, leaving the sculpture to rest on its own. 

Andre Bloc’s “Carlson/Bloc Tower”

Meandering back down to south campus, French artist Andre Bloc’s Carlson/Bloc Tower is a habitable sculpture, named after a benefactor of the college and Long Beach resident who facilitated the Tower’s construction.  The well-known French architect and sculptor tragically perished at the age of 70 when, ironically, he fell from a large monument in New Delhi, while on vacation.  This tower, a combination of mid-century architecture and sculpture, was his final piece before his death. The tower has a tapered shape, made of concrete and then painted.

Artist Piotr Kowalski’s “Now”

Just below the tower, near the student union, is Piotr Kowalski’s fascinating sculpture entitled, “Now”.  Kowalski, a Ukrainian sculptor, who also came to Southern California via Paris, was interested in taking advantage of the industrial material and machinery available to him in the blue-collar port city of Long Beach.  He created “Now” by exploding dynamite attached to sheets of steel while underwater, which resulted in three contoured sheet steel.

“I sculpture with machines,” Kowalski said. “Like a piano that plays many melodies, a machine can be set to create many things. The alchemy is in the processing…I set up the forces—pressure, stresses, time—then let them behave with their own laws. I seek the utmost limits of the materials to make them do things they didn’t know they could do.”

The North American Aviation Corporation, located in El Toro, CA at the time was so interested in his approach, they used his method to conduct their own experiments in forming nose cones of rocket ships.

The Walter Pyramid

Finally, the dramatic, looming, large and very blue Walter Pyramid is a 4,000-seat indoor multi-purpose arena near the track.  Built in 1994, it is representative of the post-modern style and while in stark contrast to the modernist consistency of the rest of the campus, it is certainly iconic in shape and scale.

Book Recommendations:

I was totally fascinated with Edward A. Killingsworth after the tour and found that while designing the CSULB campus over a span of 40 years, he did many luxury projects around the world, including in Hawaii, where I will be in just two months. I plan on going to see the Kahala Hotel which he designed, a true mid-century tropical hotel. I had to buy this book about him to learn about all of his projects. Per the excerpt:

“Edward A. Killingsworth has been, until the writing of this book, an unexamined genius of Southern California modernism. After his architectural education at USC and after service in the European theater of war in World War Two, Killingsworth settled into his home town of Long Beach and into an architectural practice that lasted almost half a century. His talents were quickly spotted by John Entenza, editor of Arts + Architecture magazine, and Killingsworth contributed much-admired projects to Entenza’s influential Case Study House program. His calm and elegant post-and-beam structures have an almost Miesian grace, while they also embrace the new local model of modernism, fitting into the relaxed post-war indoor-outdoor ethos of Southern California.”

Meanwhile, as the only woman sculptor to be invited to the California International Sculpture Symposium of 1965, Claire Falkenstein was truly inspirational and I had to find out more. I love that she called her pieces, whether sculptures or paintings or jewelry, “structures”, further emphasizing the indistinction between Art and Architecture. And that she spent time studying art in Paris before settling in LA.

From the book’s excerpt: “A Jackson Pollock in three dimensions is one critic’s unforgettable description of a piece by Claire Falkenstein, whose life and work spanned the 20th century. The American artist and teacher was born in Oregon in 1908 and after living in San Francisco, Paris and New York died in Los Angeles in 1997. This lavishly produced book is amazingly the first monograph ever on the work of this ceaselessly inventive artist. Falkenstein called her sculptures, paintings and prints structures, she also designed furniture, fountains, screens, wallpaper and jewelry. A fresh look at her multifaceted work collected by major institutions ranging from MoMA to the tate Britain places Falkenstein in the company of better known peers and further credits her explorations as prototypical of the work of post minimal and contemporary artists.”

If you are headed to Long Beach, CA and are interested in architecture, you can read about the beautiful art deco architecture here.

Did you enjoy reading about mid-century architecture and sculpture on the CSULB campus? Please sign up for my newsletter to keep up with the latest on Art, Architecture and Cultural Travel.