Thirteen seconds in June, and a style that became compulsory
The 1925 earthquake, the Architectural Board of Review, and what got rebuilt.
Thirteen seconds in June, and a town that came back different
The June 1925 earthquake flattened much of State Street. What replaced it was decided by a review board rather than by the owners.
A review board made one style effectively compulsory
The Architectural Board of Review set Spanish Colonial Revival as the condition of rebuilding, and the rule outlasted the emergency that produced it.
A county courthouse built as though it were Spain
The Santa Barbara County Courthouse opened in 1929 with a mural room, a tower and a sunken garden. It is a working court and the town's argument in one building.
Before the quake, painters came for the light
Plein-air work on the coast, and the collectors who followed it.
A town of ninety thousand kept a kunsthalle
The Contemporary Arts Forum in Paseo Nuevo, 1976 to 2013.
The Forum closed and the thread was picked up
MCASB, and the galleries that grew near the tracks.
Half the story is the schools
Brooks, UCSB and a small college gallery that punches above its enrolment.
The coast and what was painted on it
Chumash rock art, and a potter in the next valley.