James Edward Allison

Allison & Allison was formed in Pittsburgh in 1904 as the partnership of brothers James E. Allison and David C. Allison. James Allison, who had been in independent practice in Pittsburgh since 1893, was the businessman and superintendent of the firm while David Allison, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, was chief designer. • Illustration — Watson Memorial Presbyterian Church in the Observatory Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, designed by Allison & Allison and built in 1907

James Edward Allison (February 22, 1870 – July 19, 1955) was born in Hookstown, Pennsylvania, to George A. Allison, a farmer, and Sarah Allison, née Nesbit. He had a public school education but did not finish high school. He was trained in architectural drawing at a night school and worked for architects Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge in Pittsburgh and Adler & Sullivan in Chicago before opening an office of his own in 1893. David Clark Allison (May 14, 1881 – February 21, 1962) had the academic training his brother lacked. He was educated in the Beaux-Arts-oriented architectural program of the University of Pennsylvania and became his brother's partner shortly after his graduation in 1904. He spent the year 1909–10 in Paris studying in the Beaux-Arts atelier of Eugène Duquesne. In 1910, shortly after David Allison returned from Paris, the brothers decided to move west to Los Angeles, where they would do most of their work. Allison & Allison developed a specialty in the design of public schools and other institutional buildings. Within two years in Los Angeles they had been awarded two major projects which established their reputation: the Santa Monica High School (1912) and the original campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (1914), which became the Los Angeles City College after 1929. Both projects, which have been demolished piecemeal, were sprawling academic complexes in the Mediterranean Revival style thought appropriate to California. During the 1920s they were hired to design several of the buildings for the second and current campus of UCLA, including Royce Hall (1929), modeled on the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio in Milan and which has become the symbol of the university. After the death of the university's supervising architect, George W. Kelham, in 1936, the firm was appointed to that role. As supervising architects they had oversight of all construction on the campus; they kept the role until David Allison's retirement. Other works included churches such as the First Baptist Church (1927) and the First Congregational Church (1932), private clubs such as the demolished University Club (1922) and the Friday Morning Club (1923) and public buildings such as the United States Post Office (1932) in Merced.

James Allison retired in 1942; David Allison retired circa 1947. In 1939 the brothers had admitted their nephew, George B. Allison (1904 – 1977), to the partnership. Like David Allison he was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and had worked for the firm since 1930. In 1944 David and George Allison were joined by U. Floyd Rible (1904 – 1982), a former employee, and renamed the firm Allison & Rible. In 1958 Rodney T. Robinson (1909 – 2002), chief designer, and Raymond Ziegler (1919 – 2015) became partners; the firm was renamed Allison, Rible, Robinson & Ziegler in 1966. In 1969 the firm merged with the Omaha-based Leo A. Daly Co., one of the largest architectural firms in the United States, and initially kept its name and some autonomy. Over the next few years, the three older partners retired, leaving only Ziegler. In 1974 Ziegler withdrew to establish an independent firm and Daly dropped the Allison name.

• 1908 – Becht Hall, Clarion State Normal School, Clarion, Pennsylvania • 1910 – Bethel Presbyterian Church, Bethel Park, Pennsylvania • 1912 – Santa Monica High School, Santa Monica, California • Demolished. • 1914 – Los Angeles City College campus, Los Angeles • Demolished. • 1918 – Calexico Carnegie Library, Calexico, California • NRHP-listed. • 1922 – Chandler High School, Chandler, Arizona • NRHP-listed. • 1923 – Las Vegas Grammar School, Las Vegas • NRHP-listed. • 1924 – Friday Morning Club (former), Los Angeles • NRHP-listed. • 1925 – Western Pacific Building, Los Angeles • 1926 – Los Angeles Public Library Van Nuys Branch (former), Van Nuys, California • NRHP-listed. • 1927 – First Baptist Church, Los Angeles • Modeled on the Ducal Palace in Mantua. • 1927 – First Unitarian Church, Los Angeles • 1927 – Los Angeles Public Library Washington Irving Branch (former), Los Angeles • NRHP-listed. • 1929 – Janss Investment Company Building, Los Angeles • 1929 – Kaplan Hall, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles • 1929 – Royce Hall, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles • 1929 – Wilshire Boulevard Temple, Los Angeles • Designed by Abram M. Edelman and Samuel Tilden Norton, associated architects, with Allison & Allison, consulting architects. NRHP-listed. • 1930 – Kerckhoff Hall, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles • Principally designed by staff member Austin C. Whittlesey. • 1930 – Thirteenth Church of Christ, Scientist (former), Los Angeles • Now the Los Angeles Full Gospel Church, a Korean congregation. • 1931 – Southern California Edison Company Building, Los Angeles • Principally designed by staff member Austin C. Whittlesey and incorporating murals by Hugo Ballin and exterior bas-reliefs by Merrell Gage. • 1931 – Wilshire United Methodist Church, Los Angeles • Modeled on the Church of San Francesco in Brescia, Italy, and the Torrazzo of Cremona. • 1932 – First Congregational Church, Los Angeles • Principally designed by staff member Austin C. Whittlesey. • 1932 – Kaufman Hall, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles • 1932 – United States Post Office, Merced, California • NRHP-listed. • 1934 – Beverly Hills Main Post Office (former), Beverly Hills, California • Designed by Ralph Carlin Flewelling, architect, with Allison & Allison, consulting architects. NRHP-listed. • 1937 – United States Post Office, Hollywood, California • Designed by Claud Beelman, architect, with Allison & Allison, associate architects. NRHP-listed. Works by the successor firm include: • 1949 – Engineering Building I, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles • Demolished in 2011 to make way for Engineering IV. • 1953 – McKenna Auditorium, Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, California • 1956 – Los Angeles Public Library West Los Angeles Regional Branch Library, Los Angeles • 1960 – Cypress Hall, California State University, Northridge, Los Angeles