May 28: Betsy J. Green – Discover Your Home’s History

Spring 2026 Lecture Series

Register for this event here. (Suggested donation $20). 

Being keenly aware of Santa Barbara’s built environment, especially the unique expression of each structure, is like unraveling a mysterious treasure hunt or jigsaw puzzle.  Santa Barbara’s story is in large part told by uncovering the fascinating details of each structure and home that forms the city’s neighborhoods and overall character. Knowing your home’s history can even help attract prospective buyers and make your house stand out.

From reviewing old phonebooks, maps and building permits, to exploring genealogy websites, local historian, Betsy Green, will share “tips and tricks” for becoming your own house detective. 

“There’s more and more information available online all the time – it’s a great time to be a home history hunter!” says Betsy.  

Audience members are invited to bring questions about their home for Betsy to tackle in real time. Betsy will also share links to websites with useful information. 

Betsy J. Green is a writer, local history aficionado, and author of the Great House Detective column for the Santa Barbara Independent.

 

May 21: Cheri Rae – Santa Barbara’s 1960s Highrise Battle

Spring 2026 Lecture Series

Register for this event here. (Suggested donation $20). 

What would Pearl Chase do now?

Please join us for a lively discussion about how balanced housing development was achieved in the 1960s and can inspire ways to move forward today in a Santa Barbara way.

Back in the late 1960s, a 9-story 107-foot, two-tower condominium project along the El Mirasol block was proposed – and approved by Santa Barbara City Council – that would have changed Santa Barbara forever.

Thankfully, Pearl Chase was the leader of the Santa Barbara community activists who organized, raised funds, and successfully sued the City to prevent the outsized proposal.

The positive impact of that grassroots campaign led to a ballot measure that instituted height limits in Santa Barbara, and the site for the proposed towers became Alice Keck Park Memorial Garden, a lush garden with walking paths, benches, gazebo and pond, often referred to as the “crown jewel” of Santa Barbara’s city parks.   

That was what Pearl did then to “Save Our City.”

But what would Pearl do now? And how do we follow in her footsteps?

Today, we are faced with similar issues of overdevelopment and can learn from the experience of the past. Recently enacted California housing laws streamline development by limiting local discretion, reducing community input, and enabling taller, denser projects near transit. By limiting local control, these measures are enabling developers to propose out-of-scale projects (in areas not designated for the scale), which is causing great community concern.

Cheri Rae will discuss the 1960s era Save Our City community initiative “to keep Santa Barbara Santa Barbara,” followed by an audience Q&A and refreshments on the patio.

Cheri Rae is an ardent civic activist, award-winning columnist, and author of more than 300 articles and commentaries about Santa Barbara. “Channeling her inner Pearl,” Cheri has led efforts to preserve the city’s Bungalow Haven Neighborhood, historic buildings and trees. She is the author of the biography, “A String of Pearls: Pearl Chase of Santa Barbara.” 

April 19: 2026 KDA Sketch Session

2026 Kids Draw Architecture Sketch Session!

We hope you can join us for the Annual Kids Draw Architecture sketch session! It will be held at Riviera Park on Sunday, April 19th from 1 -3 p.m. This is a FREE event, and all sketching materials are provided. 

2026 Spring Exhibition – PINHOLE NOIR by Lindsay Skutch

Current Exhibition: PINHOLE NOIR by Lindsay Skutch

March 28 – May 30, 2026, at the Architectural Foundation Gallery

Opening Reception: Saturday, March 28th, 2 – 4 p.m.

Artist Talk: Saturday, April 25th, 2 – 3 p.m.

The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to announce the opening of PINHOLE NOIR, an exhibition of recent pinhole camera photographs by Lindsay Skutch.

An opening reception will be held at the Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara on Saturday, March 28, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Skutch will present an Artist Talk in the gallery on Saturday, April 25, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Lindsay Skutch’s striking black & white photographs of familiar sites and sights in Southern California are taken with pinhole cameras she constructs using Sanka coffee cans, cardboard CBD containers, and Christmas cookie tins. The photographs have an eerie, outside of time feeling—like buried memories or dimly remembered dreams.

Pinhole cameras are a form of camera obscura (Latin for dark chamber)—a room or box with a small opening that allows light to pass through a tiny aperture, or pinhole, and project an inverted image of what is outside onto photographic paper on the opposite surface inside.

The exposure varies depending on location, sun direction and subject matter. The paper is processed in a darkroom, and it becomes the negative. Skutch prints all her photographs from cameras she makes and the negatives she processes.

The camera obscura/pinhole camera technique has been used since the 16th century by artists like Leonardo da Vinci; also, as a way of observing eclipses without looking directly at the sun and damaging the eyes.

Lindsay Skutch grew up in Greenwich, Conn.  She was 13 years old when her father built her a dark room and she discovered that photography was her voice.  She attended Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, Calif.

After a successful, 38-year career in Los Angeles and New York producing global commercials with directors John Frankenheimer, Sidney Pollock, Alfonso Cuaron, and Kathryn Bigelow, Skutch now revels in the chance element involved in making pinhole photographs:

“You have no idea if the negative will turn out or what the image is truly going to look like. There is no viewfinder and no way of knowing if the tin can is even pointing at what you want it to.” 

She credits Marian Roth of Provincetown, Mass. for teaching her the basics of this art form.  Roth once said to her, “I make photographs, I don’t take photographs.”

The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara (AFSB) seeks to promote quality in architecture, art, and design by fostering an understanding of excellence in the urban environment. The AFSB offers diverse programs serving Santa Barbara County that provide educational opportunities for the community with participation from local architects and design professionals. Learn more at afsb.org.

 

HSDC 2026 Winners!

We are proud to announce the winners of the 2026 High School Design Competition

2026 Finalists (L to R): Kira Grama, Benke Sepulveda, Grace Oberg, Nicole Velandia, Keith Mullen, Itzel Vasquez-Fernandez, Cas Elliott, Nico Ruffenach, Winslow Seamans, Isabell Payne, Bella Da Re, Evie Beuville

1st Place: Isabelle (Bella) Da Re, 11th grade, Dos Pueblos High School

2nd Place: Isabell Payne, 11th grade, San Marcos High School

3rd Place: Winslow Seamans, 10th grade, Midland School

Honorable Mention: Benke Sepulveda, 11th grade, Dunn School

Honorable Mention: Cas Elliott, 12th grade, Olive Grove Charter School

Sixty-three students from 15 Santa Barbara County high schools participated in design charrettes on February 24th at two locations: Santa Barbara City College and Allan Hancock College. Twelve finalists presented their designs during a Juried Review on February 28th at Elverhøj Museum in Solvang. 

Over the past 35 years, thousands of students have gone through this rigorous and fun design challege. This year’s competition challenges students to design their home in the year 2026. 

Congratulations on all who participated! It was a joy to have this competition and we look forward to another year of the High School Architectural Design Competition!

For more details, visit our High School Design Competition Page.

Past Exhibition – Santa Barbara Printmakers

2026 Winter Exhibition - People & Places by Santa Barbara Printmakers

January 17 – March 14, 2026, at the Architectural Foundation Gallery

Opening Reception: Saturday, January 17th, 2 – 4 p.m.

Artist Talk: Saturday, February 21st, 2 – 3 p.m.

Linda Taylor, Charles, Woodcut
Joyce Wilson, Longing, Photopolymer Etching

The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to announce People & Places by Santa Barbara Printmakers, an exhibition of unframed, 10” x 10” prints in a wide range of artistic expression and printmaking techniques.

An opening reception will be held at the Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara on Saturday, January 17, 2026, 2 – 4 p.m.  All are welcome!

A panel discussion, When Is A Print No Longer A Print?, will take place on Saturday, February 21, 2026, at 2 p.m.  Featured speakers are Mollie Doctrow (environmental woodcut Artist, Curator Emerita at the South Florida State College Museum of Florida Art & Culture), Stephanie Dotson (Artist, Associate Professor of Art at SBCC), and Meagan Stirling (Artist, Associate Professor of Art at Westmont College).

The Santa Barbara Printmakers (SBP) is a group of Artists dedicated to creating and presenting prints made using hand and press printing techniques: etching, engraving, monotype, monoprint, woodcut, collagraph, linocut, lithography, and serigraph/silkscreen.

These diverse Artists use techniques ranging from basic (linocuts) to complex (viscosity etchings, Chine collé) and from traditional (Japanese moku hanga woodblock) to contemporary (photopolymer etchings of digitally manipulated photographs).  Many of the prints are hybrids that combine one or more techniques and multiple plates. Regardless of the techniques used, magical moments occur whenever a piece of paper and an inked plate are pressed together and the paper is lifted from the inked surface to reveal the image–in reverse!

Their artistic explorations include impressionist, expressionist, realistic, abstract, and conceptual approaches – at times mystical, whimsical, meditative, and heartfelt.

In 2018, Josef Woodard wrote, “Santa Barbara’s printmaking scene… is alive, well, and in forward motion.”  In 2026, this lively exhibition is proof of that momentum!

Currently the SBP has 65 members and operates under the guidance of a volunteer coordinating committee.  Members include emerging and established artists throughout the California Central Coast. The organization evolved over several decades from a small group of Artists known as the Monotype Guild (1989) into the larger membership organization it is today..

The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara (AFSB) seeks to promote quality in architecture, art, and design by fostering an understanding of excellence in the urban environment. The AFSB offers diverse programs serving Santa Barbara County that provide educational opportunities for the community with participation from local architects and design professionals. Learn more at afsb.org.

Jana Julian, Untitled, Relief

KDA Gallery Show

Kids Draw Architecture 2026 Gallery Show and Opening Reception!

KDA Goes Global!

Celebrating Young Visions of Architecture from Around the World

Architecture looks different in every corner of the world — and through a child’s eyes, it becomes even more magical. Our Kids Draw Architecture program is inspired by how children from around the world see their built environment — from familiar streets to grand monuments. Each drawing tells a story, invites us to explore a culture, and reminds us that architecture speaks a universal language. 

We are delighted to share this beautiful piece of creativity from a young artist in Turkey! We hope these drawings spark your imagination, just as it has ours, a wonderful reminder that great ideas and inspiration can come from anywhere.

10/22 Public Forum on Housing Policy

Free Public Forum on Housing Policy with Assemblymember Gregg Hart

The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to announce that the Youtube video for the free public forum on housing policy with Assemblymember Gregg Hart is available HERE!

CA State Assemblymember Gregg Hart: Housing Policy Public Forum

Wednesday, October 22, 2025 at 6:00 pm

Robertson Auditorium at the Balboa Building, 735 State Street

Watch the Public Forum on Youtube Here

A Santa Barbara local who previously served as a Planning Commissioner, City Councilmember, and County Supervisor, Assemblymember Gregg Hart brings a unique understanding of our local needs to Sacramento. Assemblymember Hart will offer context about our regional housing needs, highlight promising housing efforts that are worthy of support, and share his perspective on certain concerning Builder’s Remedy development proposals that exploit state law to disregard community standards. 

10/25 Artist Talk – the taut and the lush by Madeleine Ignon

Artist Talk - the laut and the lush by Madeleine Ignon

September 6 – November 1, 2025 at the Architectural Foundation Gallery

Artist Talk: Saturday, October 25th at 2 p.m.

Press: Read Josef Woodard’s article in The Independent here.

polyphemous moth v2 (2025), acrylic and oil on panel 

The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is pleased to present an artist talk on Saturday, October 25 at 2 p.m. with Madeleine Ignon on her exhibition the taut and the lush, a series of multimedia works made during Ignon’s pregnancy and the first year and half of her daughter’s life, when she was contending with a new reality—daily paradoxes of the mundane and the miraculous, the ordinary and the life-changing.

Reservations are recommended but not required: (805) 965-6307 or lydia@afsb.org. 

The Architectural Foundation Gallery is located at 229 East Victoria Street, in Santa Barbara at the corner of Victoria and Garden Streets. Gallery hours are Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. and by appointment.

 

The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara (AFSB) seeks to promote quality in architecture, art, and design by fostering an understanding of excellence in the urban environment. The AFSB offers diverse programs serving Santa Barbara County that provide educational opportunities for the community with participation from local architects and design professionals. Learn more at afsb.org.