Rita and Max Lawrence began the firm Architectural Pottery (1950) to produce and market the pottery container designs of students of LaGardo Tackett, professor at California School of Art. In 1971, the company name was changed to Group Artec and began producing office furniture, public seating, tile, kiosks, modern dinner ware, and building directories (signage). The collection consists of records of the firm Architectural Pottery/Group Artec and includes correspondence, publicity materials, photographic slides and scrapbooks.

Almost a lifetime resident of Los Angeles, Rita Milaw Lawrence was graduated from UCLA in 1940 (political science snd sociology). Earlier that year she was married to Max Lawrence, a New Yorker she met after he moved to Los Angeles following his graduation from City College of New York; in 1950 they began the firm Architectural Pottery to produce and market the pottery container designs of students of LaGardo Tackett, professor at California School of Art; began issuing catalogs in September 1950 featuring products for the new modern postwar styles of architecture, using new design materials, such as fiberglass; the firm had three locations in Los Angeles; subdivisions subsequently added included Architectural Fiberglass (1961), Pro-Artisan (1966), Arcon (1971), Architectural Ceramic Surfaces (1972), and Graphic structures (probably, 1972); in 1971, the company name was changed to Group Artec; the company produced varied products such as office furniture, public seating, tile, kiosks, modern dinner ware, and building directories (signage).In 1972 when architect A. Quincy Jones responded to a query from the Los Angeles Times for a statement about Architectural Pottery, he may also have encapsulated the essence of the manufacturing business established by Rita and Max Lawrence in 1950, as well as the thrust of those times in terms of design influence. In 1950, Los Angeles thrived in a climate of exuberance and what seems now to have been a boundless wellspring of creative energy that spawned a number of new design firms and manufacturers whose products influenced design attitudes, internationally, within the decade. Echoes of that time resound with renewed vibrations today in the questioning minds of researchers who seek to know how it all happened. By Rita Lawrence

11 boxes (5.5 linear ft.) and 3 oversize boxes

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