Bernard Maybeck
Encyclopedia
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
of the early 20th century. He was a professor at University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. Many of his major buildings were in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
.
Biography
Maybeck was born in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, the son of a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
immigrant and studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, France. He moved to Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
in 1892. He became a professor of engineering drawing at University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
and acted as a mentor for an entire generation of other California architects, including Julia Morgan
Julia Morgan
Julia Morgan was an American architect. The architect of over 700 buildings in California, she is best known for her work on Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California...
and William Wurster
William Wurster
William Wilson Wurster was an American architect and architectural teacher at the University of California, Berkeley and at MIT, best known for his residential designs in California. - Biography :...
. In 1951, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
.
Maybeck was a stylistic chameleon, equally comfortable producing work in the Mission style
Mission style
Mission style may refer to the following:*Mission Style Furniture*Mission Revival Style architecture*American Craftsman, an architectural and design movement*Mission School, an art movement of the late 20th century...
and Mission Revival style
Mission Revival Style architecture
The Mission Revival Style was an architectural movement that began in the late 19th century for a colonial style's revivalism and reinterpretation, which drew inspiration from the late 18th and early 19th century Spanish missions in California....
, Gothic revival
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
, Arts and Crafts style
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
, and Beaux-Arts classicism, believing that each architectural problem required development of an entirely new solution. Maybeck's contributions include the Mission Style California Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and the first Mission Style chair designed for the San Francisco Swedenborgian Church.
Many of his buildings still stand in his long-time home city of Berkeley. The 1910 First Church of Christ, Scientist
First Church of Christ, Scientist (Berkeley, California)
First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Berkeley, California is a building designed by Bernard Ralph Maybeck. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1977. The church is widely considered Maybeck's masterpiece.-External links:* - Official website...
is designated a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
and is considered one of Maybeck's finest works. It is a strange confection of medieval European, Japanese, Nordic, Celtic and shingle style architecture, but the effect is magical. The church has an on-going program of repairs that have kept the building in good shape.
In 1914, Maybeck oversaw the building of the Maybeck Recital Hall
Maybeck Recital Hall
Maybeck Recital Hall, also known as Maybeck Studio for Performing Arts, is located inside the Kennedy-Nixon House in Berkeley, California, USA. It was built in 1914 by Bernard Maybeck. The hall seats up to 50 people and was designed upon commission for the Nixon family, local arts patrons who...
in Berkeley, California. Maybeck also designed the domed Palace of Fine Arts
Palace of Fine Arts
The Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District of San Francisco, California, is a monumental structure originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in order to exhibit works of art presented there. One of only a few surviving structures from the Exposition, it is the only one still...
in San Francisco as part of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition
Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915)
The Panama-Pacific International Exposition was a world's fair held in San Francisco, California between February 20 and December 4 in 1915. Its ostensible purpose was to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, but it was widely seen in the city as an opportunity to showcase its recovery...
, and he carried out his vision of the lumberman's lodge, House of Hoo Hoo, made of little more than rough-barked tree trunks arranged in delicate harmony. The Palace of Fine Arts was seen as the embodiment of Maybeck's elaboration of how Roman architecture
Roman architecture
Ancient Roman architecture adopted certain aspects of Ancient Greek architecture, creating a new architectural style. The Romans were indebted to their Etruscan neighbors and forefathers who supplied them with a wealth of knowledge essential for future architectural solutions, such as hydraulics...
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
Water feature
In landscape architecture and garden design, a water feature is one or more items from a range of fountains, pools, ponds, cascades, waterfalls, and streams. Before the 18th century they were usually powered by gravity, though the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon are described by Strabo as...
.
One of Maybeck's most interesting office buildings is the home of the Family Service Agency of San Francisco
Family Service Agency of San Francisco
Family Service Agency of San Francisco was founded in 1889 as Associated Charities by Katharine Felton . FSASF is the oldest nonsectarian, nonprofit charitable social-services provider in the City and County of San Francisco...
, offices at 1010 Gough Street. This building, constructed in 1928, is on the city's Historic Building Register and still serves as Family Service headquarters. Some of his larger residential projects, most notably a few in the hills of Berkeley, California (see esp. La Loma Park
La Loma Park
La Loma Park is the historic name, no longer in common use, of a tract of land located in the Berkeley Hills section of the city of Berkeley, California in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Spanish word loma means "rise/low hill". It was the property of Captain Richard Parks Thomas, a veteran of the ...
), have been compared to the ultimate bungalows of the architects Greene and Greene
Greene and Greene
Greene and Greene was an architectural firm established by brothers Charles Sumner Greene and Henry Mather Greene , influential early 20th Century American architects...
.
He also developed a comprehensive town plan for the company town of Brookings, Oregon
Brookings, Oregon
Brookings is a city in Curry County, Oregon, United States. It was named after John E. Brookings, president of the Brookings Lumber and Box Company, which founded the city in 1908. As of the 2010 census the population was 6,336. The total population of the Brookings area is over 13,000, which...
, a clubhouse at the Bohemian Grove
Bohemian Grove
Bohemian Grove is a campground located at 20601 Bohemian Avenue, in Monte Rio, California, belonging to a private San Francisco-based men's art club known as the Bohemian Club...
, and many of the buildings on the campus of Principia College
The Principia
The Principia is an educational institution for Christian Scientists located on two campuses in the St. Louis, Missouri area. Principia School, located in West St. Louis County, serves students from early childhood through high school...
in Elsah, Illinois
Elsah, Illinois
Elsah is a village in Jersey County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2000 U.S. census, the village had a total population of 673. Cyrus Bunting is the the village's current acting mayor.Elsah is a part of the Metro-East region and the St...
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A number of his works are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
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A lifetime fascination with drama and the theatre 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 Berkeley's Hillside Club
Hillside Club
The Hillside Club is a neighborhood social club established in 1898 by residents of Berkeley, California's newly formed Northside neighborhood to protect the hills from unsightly grading and unsuitable buildings, and took its cue from the Arts and Crafts movement...
.
Bernard Maybeck died in 1959 and is buried in the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
.
Works
Notable works (with variations in attribution) include:- Faculty Club, Oxford St. Berkeley, CA (Maybeck,Bernard), NRHP-listed
- First Church of Christ, ScientistFirst Church of Christ, ScientistThe First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States is The Mother Church and administrative headquarters of the Christian Science Church, and is located in the Christian Science Center in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston...
, 2619 Dwight Way Berkeley, CA (Maybeck,Bernard Ralph), NRHP-listed - Hearst Gymnasium for Women, Oxford St. Berkeley, CA (Maybeck,Bernard), NRHP-listed
- Maybeck Recital HallMaybeck Recital HallMaybeck Recital Hall, also known as Maybeck Studio for Performing Arts, is located inside the Kennedy-Nixon House in Berkeley, California, USA. It was built in 1914 by Bernard Maybeck. The hall seats up to 50 people and was designed upon commission for the Nixon family, local arts patrons who...
in Berkeley, California - Outdoor Art Club, 1 W. Blithedale Ave. Mill Valley, CA (Maybeck,Bernard), NRHP-listed
- Palace of Fine ArtsPalace of Fine ArtsThe Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District of San Francisco, California, is a monumental structure originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in order to exhibit works of art presented there. One of only a few surviving structures from the Exposition, it is the only one still...
, 3301 Lyon St. San Francisco, CA (Maybeck, Bernard), NRHP-listed - Panoramic Hill, Panoramic Wy, Canyon Rd., Mosswood, Orchard Ln., Arden Rd. Berkeley, CA (Bernard, Maybeck), NRHP-listed
- Parsons Memorial LodgeParsons Memorial LodgeThe Parsons Memorial Lodge is a small building built in 1915 by the Sierra Club at the northern end of Tuolumne Meadows of Yosemite National Park. It was one of the earliest structures built of stone in a National Park.-Memorial:...
, Tuolumne Meadows Yosemite National Park, CA (Maybeck,Bernard), NRHP-listed - Roos House, 3500 Jackson St. San Francisco, CA (Maybeck, Bernard), NRHP-listed
- Swedenborgian ChurchSwedenborgian ChurchThere are many organizations that are classified as a Swedenborgian Church. These organizations are Christian churches who understand the Bible in the light of the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.-Denominations in the United States:...
, 3200 Washington St. San Francisco, CA (Maybeck, Bernard), NRHP-listed - One or more works in Principia College Historic DistrictPrincipia College Historic DistrictPrincipia College Historic District, at Principia College, near the village of Elsah, Illinois, is a site significant for being the final phase of Bernard Maybeck's career as a designer of houses and public buildings. Maybeck designed thirteen buildings that were constructed at this site between...
, River Rd. Elsah, IL (Maybeck,Bernard), NRHP-listed - One or more works in Professorville Historic District, roughly bounded by Embarcadero Rd., Addison Ave., Emerson and Cowper Sts. Palo Alto, CA (Maybeck,Bernard), NRHP-listed
- One or more works at Tahoe Meadows, US 50 between Ski Run Blvd. and Park Ave. South Lake Tahoe, CA (Maybeck,Bernard), NRHP-listed
External links
- Maybeck Foundation—a non-profit preservation and education foundation
- Maybeck's Work at Brookings Oregon and a selection of his essays and drawings
- Maybeck at Principia College
- A High School named after Bernard Maybeck in Berkeley
- Pictures of the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Berkeley
- Pictures of Family Service Agency headquarters in San Francisco
- FSA Building on list of SF Landmarks
- Bernard Maybeck's Photo & Gravesite
- Photograph of the interior of Maybeck Lodge at the Bohemian GroveBohemian GroveBohemian Grove is a campground located at 20601 Bohemian Avenue, in Monte Rio, California, belonging to a private San Francisco-based men's art club known as the Bohemian Club...
- Roy Flamm Photographs of Buildings Designed by Bernard Maybeck, ca. 1950-1955, The Bancroft Library
- Archival holdings of the Environmental Design Archive of UC Berkeley