Jump to content

Bernard Maybeck

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bernard Maybeck
A black-and-white photograph of the architect Bernard Maybeck, dated 1919. In the photograph, Maybeck is gazing at the left side of the frame and resting on a step, slightly leaning to his right with his right foot drawn up on a lower step, the left foot on the ground, and the left hand holding a large rolled paper (possibly a blueprint, indicative of his work as an architect).
Maybeck in 1919
Born(1862-02-07)February 7, 1862
New York City, US
DiedOctober 3, 1957(1957-10-03) (aged 95)
Alma materÉcole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts
OccupationArchitect
AwardsAIA Gold Medal (1951)

Bernard Ralph Maybeck (February 7, 1862 – October 3, 1957) was an American architect in the Arts and Crafts Movement of the early 20th century. He worked primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area, designing public buildings, including the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, and also private houses, especially in Berkeley, where he lived and taught at the University of California. A number of his works are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[1]

Biography

[edit]

Maybeck was born in New York City, the son of a German immigrant and studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, France.[2] He moved to Berkeley, California, in 1892. He taught engineering drawing and architectural design at the University of California, Berkeley from 1894 to 1903, and acted as a mentor for a number of other important California architects, including Julia Morgan and William Wurster.[3] In 1951, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects.[citation needed]

Maybeck was equally comfortable producing works in the American Craftsman, Mission Revival, Gothic revival, Arts and Crafts, and Beaux-Arts styles, believing that each architectural problem required development of an entirely new solution. While working in the office of A. Page Brown in San Francisco, Maybeck probably contributed to the Mission Style California Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and was one of the designers of the San Francisco Swedenborgian Church, which included the first Mission Style chair.[4]me=nris/>[5] For the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, he designed the domed Palace of Fine Arts[6] and also the "House of Hoo Hoo", a "lumberman's lodge" made of rough-barked tree trunks. The Palace of Fine Arts was seen as the embodiment of Maybeck's elaboration of how Roman architecture could fit within a California context. Maybeck said that the popular success of the Palace was due to the absence of a roof connecting the rotunda to the art gallery building, along with the absence of windows in the gallery walls and the presence near the rotunda of trees, flowers and a water feature.[7] In 1928, he designed the Harrison Memorial Library in Carmel in a Spanish Eclectic style.[8][9]

In his long-time home city of Berkeley, the 1910 First Church of Christ, Scientist, Berkeley is designated a National Historic Landmark and is considered one of his masterpieces.[10][11] In 1914 he oversaw the building of the Maybeck Recital Hall in Berkeley. On flatter sites such as the city of San Francisco, the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, and the Loch Lin General Plan for Principia College in Illinois, his proposals were guided by more formal Beaux Arts planning principles.[12]

One of Maybeck's most interesting office buildings is the home of the Family Service Agency of San Francisco at 1010 Gough Street, from 1928, which is on the city's Historic Building Register. Some of his larger residential projects, particularly those in the Berkeley hills such as La Loma Park, have been compared to the ultimate bungalows of the architects Greene and Greene.[13]

Maybeck had many ideas about town planning that he elaborated throughout his career. As a citizen of Berkeley from the 1890s, he was intimately involved in the Hillside Club. His associations and work there helped evolve ideas about hillside communities. Maybeck developed a number of firm beliefs in how civilization and the land should relate to each other.[14] Two overriding principles would be: 1) the primacy of the landscape - geology, flora and fauna were not to be subdued by architecture so much as enhanced by architecture 2) roads should pattern the existing grade and not be an imposition upon it. There were other principles he would elucidate, such as a shared public landscape, but these were key, and helped Berkeley evolve into a paradigm for hillside living that was organic and unique.[15] Maybeck's visions for communities in the East Bay were also a conscientious counterpoint to across the bay where in San Francisco city planning was much more conventional, forced, and regimented into expansive grids of streets. Its grids, imposed in places on very steep grades, resulted in extremely steep streets, sidewalks and urban transitions, some almost comically so.

He also developed a comprehensive town plan for the company town of Brookings, Oregon, a clubhouse at the Bohemian Grove, and many of the buildings on the campus of Principia College in Elsah, Illinois.[16][17]

A lifetime fascination with drama and the theater can be seen in much of Maybeck's work. In his spare time, he was known to create costumes, and also designed sets for the amateur productions at the Hillside Club.[18]

Bernard Maybeck died in 1957 and is buried in the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California.[citation needed]

Works

[edit]

Notable works include:

Later the Countess Bernardine Murphy Donohue estate (c.1950−c.1970) with gardens designed by Florence Yoch & Lucile Council.[46] Later the Convent of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the Cardinal Timothy Manning House of Prayer for Priests complex (1975−2011).[47][48]
Historic districts with Maybeck designed works include
Maybeck designed residences include the Boke House (1902) at 23 Panoramic Way[1]
Maybeck designed the 'English village' campus master plan, and campus buildings including the Colonial Revival style Chapel (1931-34) at 1 Maybeck Place.[51]
Maybeck designed the "Sunbonnet House" (1899, restored 2004) for Emma Kellogg.[53]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. ^ [1] One of his early jobs was with the architectural firm of Carrere and Hastings working as a draftsman on the monumental Ponce de Leon Hotel built for Standard Oil magnate Henry Flagler in St. Augustine, Florida. Maybeck's father also worked on the project, as a woodcarver "Two of San Francisco's best-known landmarks were built by Germans: Joseph Strauss designed the 1937 Golden Gate Bridge, and Bernard Maybeck, son of a German immigrant, designed the Palace of Fine Arts."
  3. ^ Cardwell, Kenneth (1977). Bernard Maybeck; Architect, Artisan, Artist. Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith. pp. 38–40.
  4. ^ Freudenheim, Leslie. Building with Nature: Inspiration for the Arts & Crafts Home (Gibbs Smith, 2005)163ff and 60–68
  5. ^ Noehill.com San Francisco Landmarks: Swedenborgian Church (1895), 3200 Washington Street at Lyon Street
  6. ^ Way, Natalie (December 23, 2023). "'Architectural Jewel': Century-Old Bay Area Craftsman Designed by Bernard Maybeck". Realtor.com. Retrieved July 18, 2024 – via SFGate.
  7. ^ Macomber, Ben. The Jewel City, 1915, pp. 25, 101–102.
  8. ^ Seavey, Kent (2007). Carmel, A History in Architecture. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia. p. 114. Retrieved January 16, 2022.
  9. ^ Hale, Sharron Lee (1980). A tribute to yesterday: The history of Carmel, Carmel Valley, Big Sur, Point Lobos, Carmelite Monastery, and Los Burros. Santa Cruz, California: Valley Publishers. p. 67. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
  10. ^ "Maybeck And His Work". Archived from the original on July 21, 2011. Retrieved March 29, 2011.
  11. ^ Berkeley Landmarks: First Church of Christ, Scientist
  12. ^ "Bernard Maybeck at Principia College" in Craig, Robert, The Art and Craft of Building, Gibbs Smith, 2004 p. 112.
  13. ^ Freudenheim, pp. 186 and 154ff.
  14. ^ Freudenheim, Leslie, op. cit., 100.
  15. ^ The Arts and Crafts Movement in California; Living the Good Life, Kenneth R. Trapp et.al., Abbeville Press, 1993, p.60
  16. ^ Vernacular Language North. Bernard Maybeck, Grove Clubhouse, Bohemian Club of San Francisco. Archived 2003-09-01 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved March 4, 2009.
  17. ^ KETC: Living St. Louis: The Architecture of Principia College
  18. ^ Fraser, Annie (1925). Hillside Club Yearbook 1924-1925. Berkeley: Hillside Club. p. 24.
  19. ^ Berkeleyheritage.com, Berkeley Landmarks: Charles Keeler House & Studio, photo gallery + info.
  20. ^ Great Buildings Architecture: Boke House, by Bernard Maybeck (1902), Bay Regional shingle style, photo gallery + info.
  21. ^ Berkeleyheritage.com: "Maybeck's Boke House: Made by One Crusader for Another"
  22. ^ Berkeleyfacultyclub.com: The Faculty Club at UC Berkeley, website
  23. ^ Berkeleyfacultyclub.com: UC Berkeley Faculty Club History Archived 2015-09-06 at the Wayback Machine
  24. ^ Mix, Robert. "Bernard Maybeck: (1902–1905)". Vernacular Language North. Archived from the original on September 1, 2003. Retrieved September 4, 2012.
  25. ^ "Maybeck Lodge, Bohemian Grove". Calisphere. University of California. Retrieved September 4, 2012.
  26. ^ HABS−Historic American Buildings Survey: Howard B. Gates House, San Jose, Santa Clara County, CA
  27. ^ "The Outdoor Art Club, Mill Valley: History". Archived from the original on February 13, 2018. Retrieved June 30, 2015.
  28. ^ Hillside Club of Berkeley: History
  29. ^ "Maybeck Made La Loma Park His Own Country". Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA). Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  30. ^ "A Tale of Two Houses". Modern Magazine. October 19, 2017. Retrieved July 3, 2023.
  31. ^ Noehill.com San Francisco Landmarks: Roos House (1909), 3500 Jackson Street, Presidio Heights, photo gallery + info.
  32. ^ Rose Walk, by Bernard Maybeck (1912), pedestrian street, public stair, and landscape, photo gallery + info.
  33. ^ Buildings Architecture: Chick House, by Bernard Maybeck (1913), Bay regional shingle style[permanent dead link], photo gallery + info.
  34. ^ Berkeleyheritage.com: Guy Hyde Chick: The Man Behind the Chick House", photos + info.
  35. ^ Cerny, Susan (January 28, 2002). "The Temple of Wings 2800 Buena Vista Way, Berkeley, CA". Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA).
  36. ^ Ketcharp, Diana (October 7, 1991). "On the Wings of Uncertainty". Oakland Tribune. pp. B1, B2. Retrieved November 28, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  37. ^ Berkeleyside.com, "Landmark Bernard Maybeck Kennedy-Nixon house for sale in Berkeley" (2012).
  38. ^ Maybeck Studio for the Performing Arts (Maybeck Recital Hall), part of Maybeck's Kennedy-Nixon compound.
  39. ^ Dwell.com, "A Century-Old Arts and Crafts Home by Bernard Maybeck Lists for $4.25M"] (2019).
  40. ^ "Architect and engineer". Architect and Engineer, Inc. San Francisco. 1905. Retrieved April 21, 2022.
  41. ^ Great Buildings Architecture: Maybeck House and Studio, by Bernard Maybeck (1924), Bay Area Modern style, photo gallery + info.
  42. ^ Noehill.com, San Francisco Landmark #153: Earle C. Anthony Packard Showroom
  43. ^ Michael Locke @ Flickr: Earle C. Anthony House, architect Bernard Maybeck (1927), info + image #1.
  44. ^ Michael Locke @ Flickr: image #2
  45. ^ Michael Locke @ Flickr: image #3
  46. ^ Murphy Donohue estate gardens − "Landscaping the American dream: the gardens and film sets of Florence Yoch, 1890-1972"; by James J. Yoch; H.N. Abrams, 1989.
  47. ^ LA Times: Cardinal Timothy Manning House of Prayer for Priests, founder John D. McAnulty (April 2009) (Earle C. Anthony estate).
  48. ^ LA Curbed: "Katy Perry and Elderly Nuns Fighting For Control Of Spectacular Los Feliz Convent" (June 2015)[permanent dead link] (Earle C. Anthony estate).
  49. ^ Los Angeles Downtown News: "A Heap of Downtown History In Neon 'Packard' Sign", Earle C. Anthony Packard Showroom.
  50. ^ Noehill.com, San Francisco Landmark #111: Associated Charities of San Francisco / Family Service Agency of San Francisco Building
  51. ^ HABS−Historic American Buildings Survey: Principia College, Chapel, 1 Maybeck Place, Elsah, Jersey County, IL
  52. ^ NPS.gov: Professorville Historic District, Palo Alto, Santa Clara County, California
  53. ^ The Sunbonnet House, 1061 Bryant Street, Professorville Historic District, Palo Alto, CA
  54. ^ Tahoemeadows.org: Tahoe Meadows National Historic District
  55. ^ Tahoemeadows.org: Photo gallery
[edit]

Selected works

[edit]