Clarence W. W. Mayhew
Encyclopedia
Clarence William Whitehead Mayhew (March 1, 1906 – February 13, 1994) was an American
architect
best known as a designer of contemporary residential structures in the San Francisco Bay Area
. Recognition came to him with a home designed in 1937 for the Manor family in Orinda, California
; one which was included as an example of modern architecture
's effect on the contemporary ranch house
in California
in several post-war published compilations of residential works.
in Paris for two years; Mayhew finished in 1925. Returning to California, Mayhew obtained his architect degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1927. Mayhew was subsequently hired by Miller and Pflueger
and worked with that firm for six years during a time when they were designing prominent skyscrapers and movie palace
s as well as taking occasional commissions for residential dwellings. In 1934 or 1935, Mayhew formed his own firm: Clarence W.W. Mayhew, Architect.
Mayhew's influential Manor House was designed in 1937 for Marjorie and Harold V. Manor. Manor was a San Francisco native who married Marjorie W. Arnold in 1908. He joined three different garden clubs including the California Horticultural Society. The house that Mayhew designed for the Manors was basically a ranch house in structure, but light and airy with floor-to-ceiling windows and extensive skylights. It received notice across the country for its clean, light, asymmetrical lines and its embrace of both indoor and outdoor spaces. Its L-shaped plan echoed William Wurster
's famous Gregory Farmhouse, and cost US$14,500 to build in 1938. A series of publications made mention of the design—it appeared in House and Garden
, Architect and Engineer, Progressive Architecture, Modern House in America, Tomorrow's House and If You Want to Build a House. In 1974, architectural historian David Gebhard wrote of the design: "...California’s ability to wed indoors and outdoors was beautifully captured in the solarium, with its glass roof, sliding glass walls, and the adjacent sliding glass walls of the living room. This house was a realization of flexible indoor/outdoor space, so often discussed by the exponents of modernism but never achieved in such a lyric fashion." Mayhew was quoted in Architectural Forum
in 1939 as saying that "the house has a Japanese character in both plan and elevation. Although I did not copy any Japanese details, I did copy the underlying principle."
Mayhew designed his own house in collaboration with Serge Chermayeff
, associate architect and employee of Mayhew's during 1940–1941 when Chermayeff was also teaching at California School of Fine Arts
. Chermayeff was brought in so that Mayhew would not have his own wife for a client. The house contrasted sharply with existing homes on Hampton Road, and appeared to be made of rectangular shapes descending the sloped property. The house divided into two functional groups, one for adults and one for children, with all living and sleeping rooms facing south. Glass walls were specified to allow maximum sunlight and viewing pleasure. The two main structural units enclosed a private garden and were connected by a broad stairway enclosed against the weather, with the street side made of solid wood and the garden side fully glazed. The three children's rooms were separated with demountable hanging walls that could be changed to adapt to the family's needs. Author Alan Hess wrote in 2007 that the clean abstraction of the rectilinear blocks appeared to be based on Chermayeff's Bauhaus
leanings but that the casual, site-specific interaction of garden, house and modernity showed the relaxation of California living apparent in Mayhew's prior work.
Mayhew designed two alumni houses for local colleges. The Reinhardt Alumnae House was completed in 1949 for Mills College
, and the Alumni House was finished in 1953 for the University of California, Berkeley
. The latter structure, made for US$375,000 out of stone, brick, steel and glass and organized into two wings in the International style
, was mentioned twice in Progressive Architecture, receiving notice in the Progressive Architecture Annual Design Survey for 1954 (Education)
.
and The Family
. He served as "Father" at The Family and took part in the Bohemian Club's summer encampments at the Bohemian Grove
where he directed the Lecture series for 20 years and was known as "Hap". He volunteered with the props
and sets department in at least one Grove Play: Birds of Rhiannon (1930) and in 1969 he gave a Lakeside Talk.
Mayhew was a board member of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and of the Talent Bank. He joined the St. Francis Yacht Club and the California Pioneers. Late in life, Mayhew developed Parkinson's disease
. He and his wife Joan Virginia Rapp Mayhew moved to San Rafael
together. Mayhew died there in 1994; Joan died in 2005 at age 91, survived by their daughter, Joan Mayhew Beales.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
best known as a designer of contemporary residential structures 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...
. Recognition came to him with a home designed in 1937 for the Manor family in Orinda, California
Orinda, California
-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Orinda had a population of 17,643. The population density was 1,389.5 people per square mile . The racial makeup of Orinda was 14,533 White, 149 African American, 22 Native American, 2,016 Asian, 24 Pacific Islander, 122 from other races, and...
; one which was included as an example of modern architecture
Modern architecture
Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely...
's effect on the contemporary ranch house
Ranch-style house
Ranch-style houses is a domestic architectural style originating in the United States. First built in the 1920s, the ranch style was extremely popular amongst the booming post-war middle class of the 1940s to 1970s...
in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in several post-war published compilations of residential works.
Career
Mayhew took a job in San Francisco with well-known architect Arthur Brown Jr. sometime around 1922, working as a draftsman. Brown encouraged Mayhew to study at l'École des Beaux-ArtsÉcole des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The most famous is the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, now located on the left bank in Paris, across the Seine from the Louvre, in the 6th arrondissement. The school has a history spanning more than 350 years,...
in Paris for two years; Mayhew finished in 1925. Returning to California, Mayhew obtained his architect degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1927. Mayhew was subsequently hired by Miller and Pflueger
Miller and Pflueger
Miller and Pflueger was an architectural firm that formed when James Rupert Miller named Timothy L. Pflueger partner. Pflueger, at the time a rising star of San Francisco's architect community, had begun his architectural career with Miller and Colmesnil sometime in 1907 or 1908, under the tutelage...
and worked with that firm for six years during a time when they were designing prominent skyscrapers and movie palace
Movie palace
A movie palace is a term used to refer to the large, elaborately decorated movie theaters built between the 1910s and the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opened every year between 1925 and 1930.There are three building types in particular which can be subsumed...
s as well as taking occasional commissions for residential dwellings. In 1934 or 1935, Mayhew formed his own firm: Clarence W.W. Mayhew, Architect.
Mayhew's influential Manor House was designed in 1937 for Marjorie and Harold V. Manor. Manor was a San Francisco native who married Marjorie W. Arnold in 1908. He joined three different garden clubs including the California Horticultural Society. The house that Mayhew designed for the Manors was basically a ranch house in structure, but light and airy with floor-to-ceiling windows and extensive skylights. It received notice across the country for its clean, light, asymmetrical lines and its embrace of both indoor and outdoor spaces. Its L-shaped plan echoed 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 :...
's famous Gregory Farmhouse, and cost US$14,500 to build in 1938. A series of publications made mention of the design—it appeared in House and Garden
House & Garden (magazine)
House & Garden was an American shelter magazine published by Condé Nast Publications that focused on interior design, entertaining, and gardening....
, Architect and Engineer, Progressive Architecture, Modern House in America, Tomorrow's House and If You Want to Build a House. In 1974, architectural historian David Gebhard wrote of the design: "...California’s ability to wed indoors and outdoors was beautifully captured in the solarium, with its glass roof, sliding glass walls, and the adjacent sliding glass walls of the living room. This house was a realization of flexible indoor/outdoor space, so often discussed by the exponents of modernism but never achieved in such a lyric fashion." Mayhew was quoted in Architectural Forum
Architectural Forum
Architectural Forum was an American magazine that covered the home-building industry and architecture. Started in 1892, it absorbed the magazine Architect's world in October 1938, and ceased publication in 1974.-Other titles:...
in 1939 as saying that "the house has a Japanese character in both plan and elevation. Although I did not copy any Japanese details, I did copy the underlying principle."
Mayhew designed his own house in collaboration with Serge Chermayeff
Serge Chermayeff
Serge Ivan Chermayeff was a Russian born, British architect, industrial designer, writer, and co-founder of several architectural societies, including the American Society of Planners and Architects....
, associate architect and employee of Mayhew's during 1940–1941 when Chermayeff was also teaching at California School of Fine Arts
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute is a school of higher education in contemporary art with the main campus in the Russian Hill district of San Francisco, California. Its graduate center is in the Dogpatch neighborhood. The private, non-profit institution is accredited by WASC and is a member of the...
. Chermayeff was brought in so that Mayhew would not have his own wife for a client. The house contrasted sharply with existing homes on Hampton Road, and appeared to be made of rectangular shapes descending the sloped property. The house divided into two functional groups, one for adults and one for children, with all living and sleeping rooms facing south. Glass walls were specified to allow maximum sunlight and viewing pleasure. The two main structural units enclosed a private garden and were connected by a broad stairway enclosed against the weather, with the street side made of solid wood and the garden side fully glazed. The three children's rooms were separated with demountable hanging walls that could be changed to adapt to the family's needs. Author Alan Hess wrote in 2007 that the clean abstraction of the rectilinear blocks appeared to be based on Chermayeff's Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
leanings but that the casual, site-specific interaction of garden, house and modernity showed the relaxation of California living apparent in Mayhew's prior work.
Mayhew designed two alumni houses for local colleges. The Reinhardt Alumnae House was completed in 1949 for Mills College
Mills College
Mills College is an independent liberal arts women's college founded in 1852 that offers bachelor's degrees to women and graduate degrees and certificates to women and men. Located in Oakland, California, Mills was the first women's college west of the Rockies. The institution was initially founded...
, and the Alumni House was finished in 1953 for the 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...
. The latter structure, made for US$375,000 out of stone, brick, steel and glass and organized into two wings in the International style
International style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
, was mentioned twice in Progressive Architecture, receiving notice in the Progressive Architecture Annual Design Survey for 1954 (Education)
Progressive architecture award
The Progressive Architecture Awards annually recognise risk-taking practitioners and promote progress itself in the field of architecture. The editors of Progressive Architecture magazine hosted the first Progressive Architecture Award jury in 1954. In 1996, the magazine folded and the venue was...
.
Social activities
Mayhew was an active member of the Bohemian ClubBohemian Club
The Bohemian Club is a private men's club in San Francisco, California, United States.Its clubhouse is located at 624 Taylor Street in San Francisco...
and The Family
The Family (club)
The Family is a private club in San Francisco, California, formed in 1901 by newspapermen who left the Bohemian Club. The club maintains a clubhouse in the city as well as rural property 35 miles to the south in Woodside....
. He served as "Father" at The Family and took part in the Bohemian Club's summer encampments 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...
where he directed the Lecture series for 20 years and was known as "Hap". He volunteered with the props
Theatrical property
A theatrical property, commonly referred to as a prop, is an object used on stage by actors to further the plot or story line of a theatrical production. Smaller props are referred to as "hand props". Larger props may also be set decoration, such as a chair or table. The difference between a set...
and sets department in at least one Grove Play: Birds of Rhiannon (1930) and in 1969 he gave a Lakeside Talk.
Mayhew was a board member of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and of the Talent Bank. He joined the St. Francis Yacht Club and the California Pioneers. Late in life, Mayhew developed Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...
. He and his wife Joan Virginia Rapp Mayhew moved to San Rafael
San Rafael, California
San Rafael is a city and the county seat of Marin County, California, United States. The city is located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area...
together. Mayhew died there in 1994; Joan died in 2005 at age 91, survived by their daughter, Joan Mayhew Beales.
Works
- 1929 – Brat House, Friedman Residence, Woodside, CaliforniaWoodside, CaliforniaWoodside is a small incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula. It uses a council-manager system of government. The U.S. Census estimated the population of the town to be 5,287 in 2010....
- 1930–1931 – McGuire House Project, Wildwood Gardens, Piedmont, CaliforniaPiedmont, CaliforniaPiedmont is a small, affluent city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is surrounded by the city of Oakland. The population was 10,667 at the 2010 census. Piedmont was incorporated in 1907 and was developed significantly in the 1920s and 1930s...
- 1935 – Edward G. Mayhew House, Oakland, CaliforniaOakland, CaliforniaOakland 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...
- 1936 – Oakland House, Oakland, California
- 1937 – Manor House, Monte Vista, Orinda, CaliforniaOrinda, California-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Orinda had a population of 17,643. The population density was 1,389.5 people per square mile . The racial makeup of Orinda was 14,533 White, 149 African American, 22 Native American, 2,016 Asian, 24 Pacific Islander, 122 from other races, and...
- 1937–1938 – Rowell House, Berkeley, CaliforniaBerkeley, CaliforniaBerkeley 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...
- 1938 – Morgan House, San Rafael, CaliforniaSan Rafael, CaliforniaSan Rafael is a city and the county seat of Marin County, California, United States. The city is located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area...
- 1938 – McHale House, Oakland, California
- 1939 – Sebree House, Berkeley, California
- 1941–1942 – Clarence W.W. Mayhew House, 330 Hampton Road, Piedmont, California
- 1941–1942 – St. Germain Avenue (Clarendon Heights View Home), San Francisco, California
- 1945–1946 – Shingle House, San Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
- 1947 – Hale House, Hillsborough, CaliforniaHillsborough, CaliforniaHillsborough is an incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Hillsborough is one of the wealthiest communities in America and has the highest income of places in the United States with populations of at least 10,000...
- 1949 – Aurelia Henry Reinhardt Alumnae House, Mills College, Oakland, California
- 1952–1953 – Alumni House, University of California, Berkeley
- 1952–1953 – Kaiser Foundation Medical Center, Walnut Creek, CaliforniaWalnut Creek, CaliforniaWalnut Creek is an incorporated city located east of the city of Oakland. It lies in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. While not as large as neighboring Concord, Walnut Creek serves as the business and entertainment hub for the neighboring cities within central Contra Costa...
- Kaiser Permanente Hospital, Panorama City, California
- 1958 – Packard House, Los Altos Hills, CaliforniaLos Altos Hills, CaliforniaLos Altos Hills is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population was 7,922 at the 2010 census. Located in Silicon Valley, Los Altos Hills is one of the wealthiest cities in the nation.-Strictly residential:...
- 1960 – Piedmont House, Piedmont, California
- 1961–1962 – Manning's Restaurant, Pasadena, CaliforniaPasadena, CaliforniaPasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
- 1962–1964 – Manning's Cafeteria, Ballard, Seattle, WashingtonSeattle, WashingtonSeattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
- 1964 – Steen Mansion, Washoe Valley, NevadaWashoe Valley, NevadaWashoe Valley, Nevada is a geographical region in the United States covering sixty-six square miles in southern Washoe County in the state of Nevada. Located between Reno and Carson City, it is named for the Washoe people, Native Americans who lived there before the arrival of Europeans...
- Gates Rubber Company Building, Denver, ColoradoDenver, ColoradoThe City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
- Packard House, Big Sur, California
- Racetrack, Lima, Peru