Capturing Innovation: Julius Shulman’s Photographs of William Pereira’s Architectural Designs

January 13–July 31, 2025

William Pereira (1909–1985) was one among a small but influential group of California-based architects who redefined modern architecture, helping to make the avant-garde aesthetic accessible and attractive to a growing audience. During his 50-year career, he completed more than 300 commissions, some of which continue to define cityscapes for their futuristic style. Born a year after Pereira, Julius Shulman (1910–2009) documented the rapidly changing Californian landscape, arguably becoming the most influential architectural photographer of midcentury modernism.

Pepperdine Libraries is pleased to showcase an exhibition of more than 30 reproductions from the Getty Research Institute’s Julius Shulman Photography Archive. The first exhibition of its kind to focus solely on Pereira’s designs, it captures the genius of the two men and documents Los Angeles’ pivotal role as the incubator of architectural exploration. The showcase includes a photograph instantly recognizable by the Pepperdine community, as Pereira created the master plan and the first buildings on the Malibu campus. Viewed in context with other important commissions, it’s a testament to the enduring legacy of Pereira’s innovative designs captured by Shulman’s discerning camerawork.

About the PHOTOGRAPHER

Julius Shulman was born in 1910 in Brooklyn, New York, and was reared on a farm in Connecticut. When he was 10, his family moved to Los Angeles. In the 1930s, he experienced modern architecture for the first time while visiting a Richard Neutra-designed house in the Hollywood Hills. The amateur photographer who had no formal education—save for a handful of audited classes at the University of California, Berkeley—sent Neutra six photographs as a gift. Impressed by his talent, the architect immediately hired Shulman, thus beginning the start of a prolific career. Photographing works by the other design pioneers including Charles and Ray Eames, Pierre Koenig, and John Lautner, Shulman quickly rose through the ranks to become the preeminent architectural photographer of his day. 

Los Angeles remained Shulman’s home for the rest of his life, during which he saw the city’s population grow from less than 600,000 to more than 12 million. His images of the experimental Case Study Houses are widely credited for bringing modernism into the mainstream, with his photograph of Koenig’s Stahl House arguably the most influential. Time called it “the most successful real estate image ever taken.”

About the ARCHITECT

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, the architect took on his most ambitious projects, developing master plans for: an LAX expansion; the cities of Irvine, California; The Woodlands, Texas; and Doha, Qatar; and university campuses such as the University of Southern California; the University of California, Irvine; and Pepperdine. This later stage of his career also saw the design of several landmark buildings, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Geisel Library at the University of California, San Diego; and the Transamerica Building in San Francisco.

Sources/Further Reading

Alexander, Christopher James. 2011. Julius Shulman’s Los Angeles. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute and J. Paul Getty Museum.
https://pepperdine.on.worldcat.org/oclc/711050709

Steele, James. 2002. William Pereira. Los Angeles: University of Southern California, Architectural Guild Press. 
https://pepperdine.on.worldcat.org/oclc/50807550 

Join Us for this FREE EVENT:

Panel Discussion on Julius Shulman and William Pereira
Wednesday, April 16, 4 – 5:30 PM
Payson Library, Surfboard Room and Exhibit Gallery
Reception to Follow