Willis Polk
Encyclopedia
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 for his work in San Francisco, 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...
.
Life
He was born in Jacksonville, IllinoisJacksonville, Illinois
Jacksonville is a city in Morgan County, Illinois, United States. The population was 18,940 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Morgan County....
and was related to United States President James Polk.
Addison Mizner
Addison Mizner
Addison Cairns Mizner was an American resort architect whose Mediterranean Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival style interpretations left an indelible stamp on South Florida, where it continues to inspire architects and land developers. In the 1920s Mizner was the best-known and most-discussed...
was one of his apprentices and later a partner.
Willis Polk's early career included work with McKim, Mead & White, as well as Bernard Maybeck
Bernard Maybeck
Bernard Ralph Maybeck was a architect in the Arts and Crafts Movement of the early 20th century. He was a professor at University of California, Berkeley...
. Polk also worked with Daniel Burnham
Daniel Burnham
Daniel Hudson Burnham, FAIA was an American architect and urban planner. He was the Director of Works for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He took a leading role in the creation of master plans for the development of a number of cities, including Chicago and downtown Washington DC...
in Chicago, and then moved to San Francisco to establish and direct Burnham's San Francisco office. Before long, Polk started his own firm and spent many years designing highly regarded California commercial and residential architecture.
Polk was a versatile architect, with particular skill in combining classical styles with environmental harmony. He was regarded for his elegant residential work, mainly in mansions and estates, in the Georgian Revival style for wealthy and prominent San Francisco residents.
After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other...
and fire he was a member of Mayor Eugene Schmitz
Eugene Schmitz
Eugene Edward Schmitz was an American politician and the 26th mayor of San Francisco, who became notorious for his conviction by a jury on charges of corruption.-Life and career:...
's Committee of Fifty
Committee of Fifty (1906)
This Committee of Fifty, sometimes referred to as Committee of Safety, Citizens' Committee of Fifty or Relief and Restoration Committee of Law and Order, was called into existence by Mayor Eugene Schmitz during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake...
leaders who undertook ambitious plans to rebuild a world-class city.
In 1917, Polk designed but was not involved in the construction of the single family homes at 831, 837, 843 and 849 Mason Street in the exclusive area of Nob Hill in San Francisco at the intersection with California Street opposite the Mark Hopkins hotel building. 849 Mason Street was redeveloped into four luxury apartments called Four at the Top in 1983 by the restaurateur and wine maker Pat Kuleto
Pat Kuleto
Pat Kuleto is an American designer, restaurant impresario, builder, innkeeper, and winemaker, credited with being the first American to bring recognition to restaurant design as a distinct form of interior design...
.
Though the well-known dictum, "Make no small plans for they have not the power to stir men's minds." has often been attributed to Daniel Burnham in connection with his work on the McMillan Commission, an exhibit at the National Building Museum
National Building Museum
The National Builders Museum, in Washington, D.C., United States, is a museum of "architecture, design, engineering, construction, and urban planning"...
in Washington D.C. credits this much quoted sentence to Willis Polk.
His papers are held 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 scrapbooks are held at the Archives of American Art
Archives of American Art
The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 16 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washington, D.C...
.
Notable Polk buildings
- 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...
(Polk was the Supervising Architect of the 1915 Exposition) - Pacific Union ClubPacific-Union ClubThe Pacific-Union Club is a private social club located at 1000 California Street in San Francisco, California, at the top of Nob Hill. It was founded in 1889 as a merger of two earlier clubs: the Pacific Club and the Union Club ....
- Hallidie BuildingHallidie BuildingThe Hallidie Building is an office building in the Financial District of San Francisco, California, at 130 Sutter Street, between Montgomery Street and Kearny Street...
- Sunol Water TempleSunol Water TempleThe Sunol Water Temple is located at 505 Paloma Way in Sunol, California. Designed by Willis Polk, the 59 foot high classical pavilion is made up of twelve concrete Corinthian columns and a concrete ring girder that supports the conical wood and tile roof...
- Filoli Estate
- The reconstruction of Mission Dolores (1917) which was damaged in the 1906 earthquake
- The Carolands ChateauCarolandsThe Carolands Chateau is a 65,000 square foot mansion in Hillsborough, California. Its 75 foot -high atrium holds the record as the largest enclosed space in an American private residence...
, following the plans of French architect Ernest SansonErnest SansonPaul Ernest Sanson was a French architect trained in the Beaux-Arts manner.Sanson entered the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris at the age of eighteen, and followed the courses offered by Émile Gilbert... - Le Petit TrianonLe Petit TrianonLe Petit Trianon is a mansion on the grounds of De Anza College at 1250 Stevens Creek Blvd., in Cupertino, California.Built in 1892 for Charles A. Baldwin and his wife Ellen Hobart Baldwin, the mansion was once the center of their successful wine-producing estate where the couple was known to...
- 86 Sea View, Piedmont CA (for James K. Moffitt)
- 22 Roble Road, Berkeley CA (for Duncan McDuffie)
- 2550 Webster Street, San Francisco CA (for William Bowers Bourn II, which made clinker brick famous)
- Hobart BuildingHobart BuildingThe Hobart Building is an office high rise located at 582–592 Market Street and Montgomery Street in the financial district of San Francisco. It was completed in 1914 after only eleven months, which led to accusations that it had been constructed with a degree of recklessness, and was at the time...
, 849 Mas - Merchants Exchange Building (San Francisco)Merchants Exchange Building (San Francisco)The Merchants Exchange Building was rebuilt in 1904 at 465 California Street, San Francisco. Designed by architects Daniel Burnham and Willis Polk, who were working in Burnham's San Francisco office at the time, it was built in 1903, substantially destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire and ...
- Townhouses at 841-849 Mason Street, San Francisco