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William L. Woollett, FAIA (1901-1988) was a 4th-generation American architect and a painter[10]/printmaker, who practiced in Southern California from 1926-1988. He is best known for his drawings, lithographs, and etchings.

Early Years
William L. Woollett was born in Albany, New York on February 20, 1901. He is named after his father, William Lee Woollett, AiA, an Albany, NY architect, who moved the family to Berkeley, CA after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. When Woollett was around 14 years old, he moved to Los Angeles, CA.

Education
After graduation from Hollywood High School in California, Woollett attended the University of Minnesota where he studied architecture. He continued his architectural education at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in New York City.

Career
After completing his education in New York, William L. Woollett returned to Los Angeles in 1923 and began a series of drawings of buildings and sites around Los Angeles as a means of preserving California’s architectural legacy. This series included drawings of the Pico House, Olvera Street, the Hollywood Bowl, the Pilgrimage Theater, the La Brea Adobe, the La Brea Tar Pits, the Griffith Observatory, and the Pasadena Bridge over the Arroyo Seco. William L. Woollett also worked with his father, William Lee Woollett from 1926 to 1929.[11] When the Depression hit in the 1930s, construction virtually stopped and architectural work was scare so, William L. Woollett began a project of drawing four of America’s great engineering projects: The Hoover Dam, the LA Power Transmission Line, the San Francisco Bay Bridges and the All-America Canal.

After WWII, when construction picked up again, William L. Woollett returned to architectural practice designing a number of churches and other buildings. In addition to his practice, Woollett's experience documenting historic sites proved useful when he joined together with Dr. Carl Dentzel, to help draft the first Historic Preservation Ordinance for the City of Los Angeles. [15]In addition to being a member of the American Institute of Architects, Woollett was a member of the California Society of Etchers, the Santa Barbara Art Association, and the California Art Club. He was also co-founder of the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Board.[16] Woollett was elevated to Fellowship in the American Institute of Architects (FAIA) in 1970 for his contributions to the profession.

Exhibitions
Woollett's drawings and etchings were exhibited in the California Pacific International Exposition of 1935 in San Diego. His lithographs of the building of the Hoover Dam were also exhibited at the National Gallery in Washington, DC in 1935.[13] They have also been exhibited at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C., and toured by the California Museum of Science and Industry.

Publications
William L. Woollett published his drawings of the buildings and sites around Los Angeles in a book entitled California's Golden Age: As Seen by William Woollett which he published with his father William Lee Woollett, AIA.

Woollett's Hoover Dam etchings are published in a book entitled Hoover Dam: Drawings, Etchings, Lithographs 1931-1933.[14]

Legacy
William L. Woollett, FAIA gave papers belonging to himself and his father, William Lee Woollett, AIA, to the Architecture and Design Collection, Art, Design and Architecture Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), in 1981. Azuza Pacific University houses the Woollett Collection[12] comprised 22 signed prints of William L. Woollett, FAIA's Hoover Dam Project. There is also permanent exhibit of his drawings and etching in the International Offices of Bechtel Corporation in San Francisco.

William L. Woollett, FAIA died in Santa Barbara on October 13, 1988. He had four sons, William Jr., James, Joseph (an architect in Orange, CA) and Morgan. The William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center at Concordia University in Irvine, CA is named after William Woollett, Jr, William L. Woollett's son.