Above is a rendering by Alfred Eichler of the gymnasium that he designed at the Fred C. Nelles Youth Correctional Facility (formerly the Whittier State Reformatory for Boys and Girls), built in 1933. From 1925 to 1964, Eichler was an architect in California’s Office of the State Architect, where he designed, among many others, buildings at Patton State Hospital (1926) and Stockton State Hospital (1946); the Boys Dormitory (1930) and other buildings at California School for the Blind at Berkeley; the Long Beach Armory (1930); Quarantine Inspection Stations at Fort Yuma (1930), Crescent City (1936), and Blythe (1939); Cell Block #3 at Folsom Prison (1934); the architectural design for Sacramento’s Tower Bridge (1935); the Natatorium at California State University, San Luis Obispo (1936); and numerous buildings at the Veterans Home of California at Yountville, including the Mess Hall, Bakery, and Administration Building of 1947.
Eichler is the author of innumerable drawings and paintings in pencil, ink, and gouache of work by the Office of the State Architect, including the design for an exhibit mural of OSA projects shown in the introduction to Celebrating a Century of California Architecture, which is being published in tandem with this issue of arcCA. Many of Eichler’s drawings are held at the California State Archives, where they are available for viewing by request, and at the Golden State Museum in Sacramento.
Originally published 3rd Quarter 2007, in arcCA 07.3, “Comparing Awards.”
