Breaking the Rules - Page 7

Battling outmoded thinking, architect A. Quincy Jones sought superior design through progressive and even daring plans for 'total communities'

Her work on Jones' behalf continued long after his death, at age 66 in 1979. In 1983, she helped edit a book-length review of the work of Quincy and his partners for the magazine Process Architecture.

After Quincy died, organizing his archive became "an all-consuming job for her," Travers says.

The result has been the creation of one of the most thorough archives of a modern architect that its curator at UCLA, Simon Elliott, has ever seen—thousands of containers filled with drawings, plans, photos, and more.

Elaine Sewell, who grew up in Kansas and Oregon, graduated from Oregon State and did graduate work in communications at Michigan State University. Moving to Los Angeles in 1948, she ran a PR firm devoted to modern design and quickly became part of the scene.

"She moved in circles of the most prominent West Coast architects and designers and artists," Susan Hinerfeld recalls.

"Elaine felt that Quincy was a great architect. She wanted for him the recognition for the wonderful things he had done. She saw other architects who failed to get the fame they deserve. They had no one pushing them forward."