Keep it midmod

Bay Area Modern Architects A to Z: Who They Were and Where Their Records Are Kept

Fifty-six entries: architects, landscape architects, designers and two online collections, all from the Environmental Design Archives at UC Berkeley. Each entry is drawn from the archive’s own collection page, read on November 13, 2026, and links back to it.

This is the companion to our guide to Eichler plans and Bay Area design archives, which covers the collections of Wurster, Bernardi & Emmons, Gardner Dailey, Joseph Esherick, Thomas Church and others. None of those collections is repeated here. Several of the people below were partners in those firms or worked in those offices, and how the names connect follows those links.

How to use this guide

Each entry has the same parts. The top line gives the person’s field and, where the collection page prints them, life dates. The paragraph sums up the career as the collection page tells it. The Records line says what the archive holds, and the Guides line says whether the collection page links to a finding aid or a project index. The last line links to the collection page itself, which opens in a new tab.

  • Finding aid. The archive’s written inventory of a collection. 41 of the 56 collection pages linked to one when we read them.
  • Project index. A list of the projects in a collection. 19 of the pages linked to one, and each of those links points to a spreadsheet file.
  • Looking for one house. Archives file drawings by project, not by street address, so start with the name of the architect or landscape architect and then look for the project. Start with the house itself explains what to gather before you write, and how to ask an archive covers the steps at the Environmental Design Archives.
  • What we left out. A date, a Records line or a Guides line appears only where the collection page gives one. The collections already described in our archives guide, including the architects who drew Eichler homes, other Bay Area modern architects and Thomas Church, Garrett Eckbo and Robert Royston, are not repeated.

All 56 names, A to Z

Pick a name to jump to its entry. People are listed by surname; the two online collections are listed by title.

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Architects

Thirty-nine entries, from Bernardi to Wurster. Four of them cover two people each.

  • Architect

    Theodore Bernardi

    Earned his architecture degree at UC Berkeley in 1924 and his license in 1933. He worked in William Wurster’s office from 1934 to 1942, and the two formed Wurster & Bernardi in 1944. Donn Emmons joined in 1945, which made the firm Wurster, Bernardi & Emmons. He lectured at UC Berkeley from 1954 to 1971, and the firm received the American Institute of Architects’ Architectural Firm Award in 1965.

    Records
    Student work, Historic American Buildings Survey material and one project file.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid.

    Source: Theodore Bernardi collection page

  • Architects · 1871–1939 and 1905–1983

    Edward G. Bolles and John S. Bolles

    Edward Bolles established his firm in 1905. His son John joined the San Francisco practice in 1936, worked as Ward & Bolles from 1944 to 1954 and then as John S. Bolles Associates until 1975. The collection page names an IBM site plan and building complex in San Jose, a McGraw-Hill office and distribution center in Novato, the Candlestick Park stadium and the Gallo headquarters in Modesto among the firm’s work.

    Records
    Office and project records, mostly drawings and photographs.

    Source: Edward G. Bolles and John S. Bolles collection page

  • Architect and photographer · 1898–1992 and 1902–1987

    Ernest Born and Esther Baum Born

    Ernest Born graduated from UC Berkeley in 1922 and worked across architecture, exhibits, murals, furniture and book design. He took part in the design of the Glen Park BART station and drew signs for 33 BART stations. Esther Baum Born was an architectural photographer, and her book The New Architecture in Mexico came out in 1937.

    Records
    Six series: his papers and practice records and her photographs, with BART sign studies and material on the Golden Gate International Exposition of 1939–1940.

    Source: Ernest Born and Esther Baum Born collection page

  • Architect · 1927–2024

    Walter Thomas Brooks

    Apprenticed from 1950 to 1960 with firms that included Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Mario Corbett, Anshen & Allen, and Wurster, Bernardi & Emmons, and registered in California in 1956. His career ran more than 50 years in California, Florida and Hawaii.

    Records
    One box holding an unbound catalog of his projects. Most are private residences in California, with designs for community centers, civic centers and museum submittals as well.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid.

    Source: Walter Thomas Brooks collection page

  • Architect · 1929–2013

    Henrik Bull

    Graduated from MIT in 1952, after a summer in Mario Corbett’s San Francisco office, and came back to work for Corbett in 1954. Ski cabin commissions led him to open his own office in 1956, and several prefabricated or kit cabins followed. In 1962 he was chosen to design the Sunset Magazine Discovery House. In 1967 he formed Bull Field Volkmann Stockwell with John Field, Sherwood Stockwell and Daniel Volkmann.

    Records
    Four series: personal papers, professional papers, office records and project records.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid.

    Source: Henrik Bull collection page

  • Architect

    Mario Ciampi

    A San Francisco native, licensed in 1935. His firm designed churches and public education buildings for growing communities such as Daly City, and the Berkeley Art Museum in the 1960s. He was the consultant in charge of San Francisco’s 1963 downtown plan.

    Records
    Professional papers, office records and a small set of project drawings. The photographs and slides give the fuller view of the early work.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid.

    Source: Mario Ciampi collection page

  • Architect · 1903–1983

    J. Lloyd Conrich

    A San Francisco native who opened his own business in 1943. He designed banks, gas stations, theatres, stores, apartment buildings and San Francisco row houses. From 1940 on he became known for housing designed to fit city lots 25 to 50 feet wide.

    Records
    Drawings and photographs.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid.

    Source: J. Lloyd Conrich collection page

  • Architect · 1916–2014

    Olof Dahlstrand

    Graduated from Cornell in 1939 and came to the Bay Area in 1948. He became an associate of Fred and Lois Langhorst and ran the practice from 1950. Between 1950 and 1958 he designed seven custom houses in the Usonian manner. He later worked for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in San Francisco, then opened a practice in the Monterey Bay area in the early 1960s. Work there includes the Carmel Valley Shopping Center (1966) and faculty housing at UC Santa Cruz, begun in 1974.

    Records
    Three series covering 1947 to 1983.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid.

    Source: Olof Dahlstrand collection page

  • Architect

    Vernon DeMars

    Born in San Francisco, he graduated from UC Berkeley in 1931, was a founder of the group Telesis and joined the Berkeley faculty in 1953. His firms were DeMars & Reay (1955) and DeMars & Wells (1966). Projects named on the collection page include Golden Gateway in San Francisco with Wurster, Bernardi & Emmons, the UC Berkeley Student Center, Zellerbach Hall, and Wurster Hall with Joseph Esherick and Donald Olsen.

    Records
    Six series covering 1933 to 2001.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid.

    Source: Vernon DeMars collection page

  • Architect · 1917–1952

    Gordon Drake

    Studied at the University of Southern California from 1937 to 1941, where Harwell Hamilton Harris was an influence. He won an annual award from Progressive Architecture, moved from Los Angeles to Northern California in 1948 and worked for Ernest J. Kump from 1951.

    Records
    Drawings and sketches for houses, furniture, screens and arbors, mainly Southern California residences, plus projects for Sunset Magazine and Better Homes and Gardens.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid.

    Source: Gordon Drake collection page

  • Architect · born 1930

    John Field

    Earned a BA (1952) and a master’s in architecture (1955) at Yale, and practiced in San Francisco from 1959, designing new and remodeled houses. He was a founding principal of Bull Field Volkmann Stockwell, and Field Paoli Architects followed in 1986. He retired in 2000. Retail work includes Stanford Shopping Center and Stonestown Galleria.

    Records
    Mostly photographs and project records, with a project index.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid and a project index.

    Source: John Field collection page

  • Architect · 1919–1988

    Howard A. Friedman

    Graduated from UC Berkeley in 1949, formed a partnership with Henry Schubart in 1953 and opened Howard A. Friedman and Associates in 1967. He worked on the Levi Strauss factory modernization and headquarters in San Francisco, and taught at UC Berkeley as a lecturer from 1966 and a professor from 1980.

    Records
    Mainly photographs.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid.

    Source: Howard A. Friedman collection page

  • Architect · 1903–1991

    Michael Goodman

    Taught at UC Berkeley from 1927 to 1971 and designed campus projects at Berkeley and Davis, along with the interiors and design of many Bay Area homes.

    Records
    Records from 1920 to 1970.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid.

    Source: Michael Goodman collection page

  • Architect · 1925–2015

    Clyde Grimes

    Earned a BA in architecture at UC Berkeley in 1950 and began his career under Paul R. Williams. He ran his own firm in Los Angeles and later in Oakland, and served as Deputy State Architect and as the City of Oakland’s architect.

    Records
    Four series covering 1939 to 2007: about 8 linear feet and 69 projects.

    Source: Clyde Grimes collection page

  • Architect · 1916–2012

    Donald Hardison

    Graduated from UC Berkeley in 1938. His firm Hardison & Komatsu (1960) continues as HKIT Architects in Oakland. He designed the UC Berkeley Student Center with Vernon DeMars (1958–1962), plus churches, apartment housing and water treatment plants, with many projects in Richmond.

    Records
    Four series covering 1936 to 2003, with a project index.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid and a project index.

    Source: Donald Hardison collection page

  • Architect · 1917–1989

    Jack Hermann

    Studied architecture at UC Berkeley and formed a partnership with Bolton White in 1948 that designed hospitals, clinics, churches, offices and housing. He practiced on his own from 1962 and closed the office in 1972.

    Records
    Office and project records.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid.

    Source: Jack Hermann collection page

  • Architect · 1935–2013

    Sanford Hirshen

    Graduated from Columbia in 1959 and came to California in 1964. He was a partner in Hirshen Van der Ryn Architects from 1965 to 1971, lectured at UC Berkeley from 1966 and chaired the architecture department in 1982–1983.

    Records
    Four series covering 1965 to 2004.

    Source: Sanford Hirshen collection page

  • Architect · 1927–2013

    Donald M. Hisaka

    Born near Stockton, he studied at UC Berkeley and earned a master’s at Harvard in 1953. He worked for Minoru Yamasaki, ran his own firm in Cleveland for about 20 years and returned to UC Berkeley in 1992 as a visiting professor.

    Records
    Five series covering 1962 to 2007, including a tasting room and museum for Takara Sake in Berkeley.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid and a project index.

    Source: Donald M. Hisaka collection page

  • Architect · 1930–2005

    Julian Knox

    Graduated from UC Berkeley in 1957. He worked as a draftsman from 1956 to 1962 for a number of offices, including John Bolles and Marquis & Stoller, was a partner at Kosevitz & Knox from 1962 to 1967 and later practiced on his own.

    Source: Julian Knox collection page

  • Architect · 1911–1999

    Ernest Kump

    Born in Bakersfield, he graduated from UC Berkeley in 1932. Projects named on the collection page include Fresno City Hall (1940), Foothill College (1961) and Crown College at UC Santa Cruz (1967). He held 59 patents.

    Records
    Six series covering 1928 to 1992, with files from Kump and his firms.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid.

    Source: Ernest Kump collection page

  • Architect · 1930–2015

    Daniel Liebermann

    Was a member of the Frank Lloyd Wright Fellowship at Taliesin from 1956 to 1958 and moved to California in 1959, where he worked with Thomas Church and then with Aaron Green Associates. He opened his own practice in 1961 and designed or co-designed more than three dozen houses in the Bay Area.

    Records
    Two series covering 1957 to 1996, mainly drawings and photographs of the houses he designed.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid.

    Source: Daniel Liebermann collection page

  • Architect · 1936–2026

    Donlyn Lyndon

    Studied architecture at Princeton and began practice as a partner in MLTW (Moore Lyndon Turnbull Whitaker). His work includes a continuing series of buildings at The Sea Ranch, where Condominium One is on the National Register of Historic Places. He taught at UC Berkeley from 1976 and was the founding editor of the journal Places.

    Records
    Records of Lyndon/Buchanan Associates: drawings, photographs and papers, with a project index.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a project index.

    Source: Donlyn Lyndon collection page

  • Architect · 1927–1995

    Robert Marquis

    Founded Robert B. Marquis Associates in San Francisco in 1953 and practiced as Marquis and Stoller from 1956 to 1974. The firm designed St. Francis Square (1963) with Lawrence Halprin.

    Records
    Four series covering 1954 to 1994. The project records open with houses of the 1950s and 1960s, mainly of wood, in a mid-century modern style.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid.

    Source: Robert Marquis collection page

  • Architect · 1917–1974

    Tallie Maule

    An associate at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill from 1947 to 1955, he ran his own San Francisco practice from 1957 to 1974 and was BART’s Chief Architect of Design Coordination from 1966 to 1973.

    Records
    Records from 1937 to about 1970, including the Sunnyvale Office Center (1963) and the Palo Alto Office Center (1966), with a project index.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a project index.

    Source: Tallie Maule collection page

  • Architect · 1910–1965

    Francis Joseph McCarthy

    Trained in offices that included William Wurster’s and registered in 1941. He was a founding member of Telesis (1939) and designed library buildings. The collection page names the Stanford University Library and public libraries in Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, San Leandro and Stockton.

    Records
    Mainly architectural drawings and specifications.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid.

    Source: Francis Joseph McCarthy collection page

  • Architects

    William Merchant and Hans Gerson

    Hans Gerson joined William G. Merchant & Associates in 1949 and took over the practice in 1962. It became Gerson/Overstreet in 1968. The collection includes the rebuilding of the Palace of Fine Arts and a World Trade Center project at the Ferry Building.

    Records
    Covers 1897 to 1993: records, drawings, specifications and photographs.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid.

    Source: William Merchant and Hans Gerson collection page

  • Architect · 1913–1978

    Germano Milono

    Graduated from Carnegie Tech in 1937 and was licensed in California in 1947. Germano Milono & Associates worked mostly in California and Nevada on educational, civic, commercial, medical and religious buildings and on houses, and collaborated with T. Y. Lin and Thomas D. Church.

    Records
    Records, drawings, photographs and papers.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid.

    Source: Germano Milono collection page

  • Architect · 1926–2013

    Earl Nisbet

    Accepted as a fellow at Taliesin West in 1950, he left in 1953 to work on his own, set up a practice in Hawaii in 1958 and returned to California in the 1960s.

    Records
    Drawings of built and unbuilt projects, mostly residential, from 1950 to 1990, with a project index.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid and a project index.

    Source: Earl Nisbet collection page

  • Architect · 1929–2011

    James Ream

    Worked as a project designer for Eero Saarinen (1957) and moved to San Francisco in 1966 as Chief of Design for John Carl Warnecke & Associates. He opened his own firm in 1969. Projects named on the collection page include the San Jose Arena and the First Presbyterian Church in Berkeley.

    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid and a project index.

    Source: James Ream collection page

  • Architect · 1914–2002

    Donald Reay

    Came from Liverpool to Berkeley in 1955 to teach, and practiced with Vernon DeMars as DeMars & Reay until 1966, then as Reay Associates.

    Records
    The Donald and Sylvia Reay Collection covers 1938 to 1999: personal papers, practice records and material from DeMars & Reay, Reay Associates and Reay-Tsuruta Associates.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid and a project index.

    Source: Donald Reay collection page

  • Architect and planner · born 1923

    Jacob Robbins

    Graduated from Harvard in 1953 and worked for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and for John Lyon Reid and Partners. He directed city planning for the City of Fremont in the 1970s and formed Robbins and Ream with James Ream in 1977. Projects include the Oakmead Terraces Office Building in Sunnyvale.

    Records
    Covers 1955 to 2007: planning records from Fremont plus drawings, specifications, photographs and correspondence.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid and a project index.

    Source: Jacob Robbins collection page

  • Architect · 1917–2000

    George Rockrise

    Earned a master’s at Columbia in 1941 and worked with Edward Stone and with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. He came to San Francisco in 1947 as an associate of Thomas Church, opened his own practice in 1949 and later established the firm ROMA.

    Records
    Covers 1935 to 1991. Many projects were done with Thomas Church and Lawrence Halprin.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid and a project index.

    Source: George Rockrise collection page

  • Architect · 1920–2010

    Burton Rockwell

    Earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture at MIT. He was a partner in John Lyon Reid & Partners, in Reid Rockwell Banwell & Tarics and in Rockwell & Banwell. Projects include the Santa Cruz County Governmental Center.

    Source: Burton Rockwell collection page

  • Architect · 1912–2001

    Joseph Allen Stein

    Worked for Richard Neutra in Los Angeles in 1938 and was associated with Gregory Ain. He practiced in San Francisco after World War II and, with John Funk, Garrett Eckbo and Robert Royston, developed designs for the Ladera cooperative of 1947. He moved to India in 1952.

    Guides
    The collection page links to a project index.

    Source: Joseph Allen Stein collection page

  • Architect · born 1920

    Claude Stoller

    Studied at Black Mountain College from 1938 to 1942 and earned a master’s in architecture at Harvard in 1949. He formed Marquis & Stoller with Robert Marquis in 1956 and Stoller/Partners in Berkeley in 1978. He joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1957 and became emeritus in 1991.

    Records
    Two boxes, mostly from his teaching career at UC Berkeley.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid.

    Source: Claude Stoller collection page

  • Architect · 1921–2016

    Terry Tong

    Born in San Francisco, he studied architecture at UC Berkeley and graduated in 1949. He worked for Campbell & Wong and then ran his own Bay Area practice, mainly designing residences.

    Records
    Three series covering about 1943 to 1994, with a project index.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a project index.

    Source: Terry Tong collection page

  • Architect · 1935–1997

    William Turnbull

    Worked on The Sea Ranch in Sonoma County with Charles Moore and others as part of MLTW (Moore Lyndon Turnbull Whitaker), and opened his own office in 1970. Projects include Kresge College at UC Santa Cruz.

    Records
    Extensive project files, photographs, marketing files and professional papers, with a project index.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid and a project index.

    Source: William Turnbull collection page

  • Architect · 1930–1997

    Dmitri Vedensky

    Graduated from UC Berkeley in 1951 and earned his master’s in 1955. He worked for Joseph Esherick for eight years and opened his own practice in 1964. Most of his work was residential, including six houses at The Sea Ranch, where he chaired the design committee from 1988 to 1997.

    Records
    Covers 1948 to 1996: promotional and site photographs, slides, drawings, specifications and project correspondence.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid and a project index.

    Source: Dmitri Vedensky collection page

  • Architect and housing writer · 1895–1973 and 1905–1964

    William Wurster and Catherine Bauer Wurster

    William Wurster graduated from UC Berkeley in 1919, opened his own firm in 1924 and by 1944 was dean of architecture at MIT, a post he held until 1950. Catherine Bauer Wurster wrote the book Modern Housing (1934).

    Records
    Papers from 1914 to 1979, mostly personal: photographs, slides and travel journals. This set is separate from the firm’s project records.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid.

    Source: William Wurster and Catherine Bauer Wurster collection page

Landscape architects

Twelve entries, from Arbegast to Vignolo. A garden plan may be filed under the landscape architect’s name and not the architect’s, so it is worth checking both.

  • Landscape architect · 1922–2012

    Mai Arbegast

    Earned a master’s degree in landscape architecture at UC Berkeley in 1953 and taught in the department there from 1953 to 1967 while keeping a part-time practice. From 1967 to 2003 she practiced full time, designing large residential gardens and estates, wineries, and commercial and public projects. The collection page credits her with a key role in the gift of the Blake Garden to UC Berkeley and the transfer of the Filoli gardens to the National Trust.

    Records
    Drawings, manuscripts, photographs and slides in four series.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid.

    Source: Mai Arbegast collection page

  • Landscape architect and illustrator · 1915–1971 and 1912–1997

    Douglas and Maggie Baylis

    Douglas Baylis graduated in landscape architecture from UC Berkeley in 1941, worked for Thomas Church for about four years and then started his own firm. Maggie Baylis opened a graphics studio in San Francisco in the mid-1940s, and the two became partners. Their early work included many modernist residential gardens, and the collection page credits them with a how-to style of garden article, most of it illustrated by Maggie.

    Records
    Records from 1938 to 1998: personal papers, office files, project files, drawings, photographs and writings, with material from the monograph Douglas wrote about architect Gordon Drake.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid.

    Source: Douglas and Maggie Baylis collection page

  • Landscape architect and architect · 1912–2002

    Kaneji Domoto

    Born in Oakland, he attended UC Berkeley for landscape architecture in 1938 and studied with Frank Lloyd Wright in 1941. He later moved to New York, and his work in architecture and landscape design ran for more than fifty years, in the Bay Area and on the East Coast. The collection page lists the Japanese Pool at the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden (about 1940) among his landscape projects.

    Records
    Records from 1928 to 2002 in five series, one of them his Frank Lloyd Wright (Taliesin) papers.

    Source: Kaneji Domoto collection page

  • Landscape architect · 1932–2006

    Walter Guthrie

    Graduated from Oregon State in 1958 with a degree in horticulture and design and went to work for the landscape firm Osmundson & Staley. He worked for Thomas Church from 1961 to 1973, then joined the firm that became Johnson, Leffingwell and Guthrie, which split up in 1980. The collection page names the Tanner Fountain at Stanford and wineries around California among his projects.

    Records
    Mostly project records: drawings, some documentation and a few photographs.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid.

    Source: Walter Guthrie collection page

  • Landscape architect · 1919–2010

    Casey Kawamoto

    Born in Selma, California, he earned his degree in landscape architecture at UC Berkeley and, on graduating in 1949, went to work for Thomas Church. He drew the illustrations for the book Gardens Are for People and worked closely with architects Germano Milono and George Rockrise. He opened his own practice in 1960 and closed it in 1998.

    Records
    Almost entirely project records: drawings, some documentation and a few photographs.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid.

    Source: Casey Kawamoto collection page

  • Landscape designer · 1905–1990

    George Kelley

    Came to San Francisco in 1937 for the Golden Gate International Exposition, where he was hired as a landscape consultant and designer, and stayed in the Bay Area. The collection page lists landscape designs for the Westlake neighborhood and shopping center, the Stonestown apartments and shopping center, and Hillsdale Shopping Center, which won the Plant America Award in 1959. UC Berkeley gave him an honorary degree in landscape design in 1961.

    Records
    Papers from 1939 to about 1990: photographs, clippings, film reels and a scrapbook.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid.

    Source: George Kelley collection page

  • Landscape architect · born 1933

    Tito Patri

    Born in San Francisco, he graduated from UC Berkeley in 1955 and worked for Eckbo, Royston, and Williams from 1954 to 1957, in San Francisco with Robert Royston and in Los Angeles with Garrett Eckbo. In his own practice he directed more than 30 environmental planning studies and master plans. He taught at UC Berkeley from 1961 to 1970 and was named a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1987.

    Records
    Records from 1955 to 2015 in four series, with a published sketchbook of his travel drawings. Project index.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a project index.

    Source: Tito Patri collection page

  • Landscape architect · 1904–1989

    Geraldine Knight Scott

    Earned a landscape architecture degree at UC Berkeley in 1926 and a degree in art and architecture at Cornell in 1928. She was an active member of Telesis. In 1947 she moved to Palo Alto, where she worked with landscape architect Kathryn Imlay, and the following year she began a private practice in Berkeley that ran until 1968. She was on the UC Berkeley landscape architecture faculty from 1952 to 1968, and the collection page lists the Oakland Museum among her notable projects.

    Records
    Personal, professional and faculty papers plus office and project records. Project index.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid and a project index.

    Source: Geraldine Knight Scott collection page

  • Landscape architect · 1921–1998

    Jack Stafford

    Graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in landscape architecture in 1950, then worked with Thomas Church and took on management of Church’s projects on the San Mateo peninsula. He later set up his own Peninsula practice, with residential designs in Palo Alto, Woodside, Hillsborough and other cities, and served on Woodside’s Architectural and Site Review Board.

    Records
    Mostly project records, plus the transcript of an oral history made for the Thomas Church Oral History Project. Project index.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid and a project index.

    Source: Jack Stafford collection page

  • Landscape architect · 1922–1988

    Robert Tetlow

    Earned a master’s degree in landscape architecture at UC Berkeley in 1951 and began his career with the City of San Jose. He returned to UC Berkeley in 1954, where he was a professor of landscape architecture for 34 years and chaired the department from 1977 to 1981. In 1959 he wrote the master plan for the Strybing Arboretum and Botanic Gardens in Golden Gate Park. His published work includes the Sunset Patio Book (1952).

    Records
    Records from 1928 to 1987, most of them from 1953 to 1985, on his work as a landscape architect, author and professor.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid.

    Source: Robert Tetlow collection page

  • Landscape architects · H. Leland Vaughan, 1905–1974

    H. Leland and Adele Vaughan

    H. Leland Vaughan graduated in landscape architecture from Ohio State in 1929, came to California in 1930 and was a professor of landscape architecture at UC Berkeley from 1930 to 1969. Adele Wharton earned two degrees in the same Berkeley department, in 1937 and 1938. They married in 1937 and practiced together. The collection page calls the records useful for studying the shift toward a more modern, site-specific approach to landscape design.

    Records
    Records from 1931 to 1955: project files, drawings and photographs, including projects by Thomas Church and with him. Project index.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid and a project index.

    Source: H. Leland and Adele Vaughan collection page

  • Landscape architect · 1927–2012

    Richard Vignolo

    Graduated in landscape architecture from UC Berkeley in 1950 and earned a master’s degree in landscape architecture at Harvard in 1953. He joined Lawrence Halprin’s firm full time in 1955, became an associate in 1957 and design principal and vice president in 1964. In 1972 he opened his own practice. The collection page lists the loggia of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco among his notable projects.

    Records
    Five series, one of them for the North Park Shopping Center. Project index.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid and a project index.

    Source: Richard Vignolo collection page

Designers and a photographer

Three collections that sit beside the architecture: the founders of a ceramics company, a graphic designer and an architectural photographer.

  • Architectural photographer

    Philip Fein

    An architectural photographer who worked mainly in California during the 1950s and 1960s, photographing residential and commercial buildings and landscapes. Architects and landscape architects in the collection include Thomas Church, Douglas Baylis, Clarence Tantau, Frederick Langhorst and William Wurster.

    Records
    Mostly black-and-white photographs and negatives, with some color transparencies.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid.

    Source: Philip Fein collection page

  • Founders of Heath Ceramics · 1913–2001 and 1911–2005

    Brian and Edith Heath

    Moved to San Francisco in 1941 and started Heath Ceramics in 1944. Edith worked on design and on the clay and glazes while Brian ran the business. Their stoneware was produced in a Sausalito factory of 1952 designed by Marquis & Stoller, and they began producing architectural tile in the late 1950s.

    Records
    Personal and professional papers, office, project and factory records, and art and artifacts, with production records and samples of tile and stoneware.
    Guides
    The collection page links to a finding aid.

    Source: Brian and Edith Heath collection page

  • Artist and graphic designer · born 1928

    Barbara Stauffacher Solomon

    An artist, graphic designer, landscape designer and writer. She studied graphic design in Basel in the late 1950s, moved back to San Francisco in the early 1960s and designed the graphics for landscape architect Lawrence Halprin’s firm. For The Sea Ranch she designed the ram’s head logo and the supergraphics for the Moonraker Athletic Club.

    Records
    Notes, sketches and drafts for her published works, plus clippings on her graphic design and writing career.

    Source: Barbara Stauffacher Solomon collection page

Online collections

Two of the collection pages describe online collections, not one person’s papers. Both are about places.

  • Online collection

    Greenwood Common

    A virtual collection of plans, surveys and photographs of Greenwood Common, the cooperative development in the Berkeley hills that William Wurster planned and commissioned. The collection page links to an online exhibition.

    Source: Greenwood Common collection page

  • Online collection

    Journey to the Sea Ranch

    A joint project of the Environmental Design Archives and the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania, funded by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. It digitized drawings, photographs and documents on the design and development of The Sea Ranch from the archives’ collections of William Turnbull and MLTW, Joseph Esherick (EHDD), Marquis & Stoller, Dmitri Vedensky and Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, with material from the Lawrence Halprin Collection at Penn. The collection page says the digital files are moving to another platform and that the earlier site can be found on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

    Source: Journey to the Sea Ranch collection page

How the names connect

Read side by side, the collection pages point at one another. Each thread below uses only what those pages say, and every name jumps to its entry.

Thomas Church’s office

The collection pages name landscape architect Thomas Church again and again. Douglas Baylis worked for Church for about four years. Casey Kawamoto joined the office in 1949 and left in 1960 to open his own practice; Walter Guthrie replaced him in 1961 and stayed more than a decade. Jack Stafford managed Church’s projects on the San Mateo peninsula. George Rockrise came to San Francisco in 1947 at Church’s invitation, and Daniel Liebermann worked with Church after moving to California in 1959. H. Leland Vaughan studied with Church at Ohio State, and Germano Milono’s firm collaborated with him. Church’s own collection is covered in our archives guide.

Telesis

Telesis was an organization of design professionals from several disciplines, formed in 1939. The Francis Joseph McCarthy page calls him a founding member. The Vernon DeMars page describes Telesis as a city and regional planning organization and DeMars as one of its founders, and his collection includes records from the group. The Geraldine Knight Scott page calls her an active member.

The Sea Ranch

Four entries tie to The Sea Ranch in Sonoma County. William Turnbull and Donlyn Lyndon were partners in Moore Lyndon Turnbull Whitaker (MLTW), whose Condominium One is on the National Register of Historic Places. Dmitri Vedensky completed six houses there and chaired its design review committee from 1988 until 1997. Barbara Stauffacher Solomon designed the ram’s head logo and the supergraphics. Journey to the Sea Ranch draws on these collections along with those of Marquis & Stoller and Joseph Esherick.

BART

Two entries worked on the Bay Area Rapid Transit system. Tallie Maule was the agency’s Chief Architect of Design Coordination from 1966 through 1973. Ernest Born took part in the design of the Glen Park station and drew the signs for 33 stations.

Frank Lloyd Wright and Taliesin

Three entries studied with Frank Lloyd Wright. Earl Nisbet was a Fellow at Taliesin West from 1950 to 1953, Daniel Liebermann was a member of the Frank Lloyd Wright Fellowship at Taliesin from 1956 to 1958, and Kaneji Domoto studied with Wright in 1941. Liebermann went on to work with Aaron Green’s office, and the Olof Dahlstrand page describes his work as inspired by Wright.

Partners with a page each

Several firms appear on two collection pages, one for each partner. Robert Marquis and Claude Stoller practiced as Marquis & Stoller from 1956 to 1974. Vernon DeMars and Donald Reay were partners as DeMars & Reay from 1955 to 1966. Henrik Bull and John Field were both founding principals of Bull Field Volkmann Stockwell. Jacob Robbins founded Robbins and Ream with James Ream in 1977. Theodore Bernardi was William Wurster’s partner in Wurster, Bernardi & Emmons; see our William Wurster profile.

Offices where careers started

Walter Thomas Brooks and Henrik Bull both worked for architect Mario Corbett, and Brooks also worked at Anshen & Allen. Gordon Drake began working for Ernest Kump in 1951, and Sanford Hirshen worked in Kump’s New York office in 1963. Dmitri Vedensky spent eight years in Joseph Esherick’s San Francisco office, and Francis Joseph McCarthy worked in William Wurster’s. Richard Vignolo joined Lawrence Halprin’s firm full time in 1955, and Tito Patri worked for Eckbo, Royston, and Williams.

Heath Ceramics

The Brian and Edith Heath page says the company’s 1952 factory in Sausalito was designed by Marquis & Stoller, the firm of Robert Marquis and Claude Stoller, and that the Heaths began producing architectural tile in the late 1950s.

Photographs and publications

The Philip Fein collection includes photographs of work by Thomas Church, Douglas Baylis and William Wurster. Douglas Baylis wrote a monograph about Gordon Drake, and material from it is in the Baylis collection. Casey Kawamoto drew the illustrations for the book Gardens Are for People.

Ties to Southern California

Several people in this list studied or worked in Los Angeles. Joseph Allen Stein moved there in 1938 to work for Richard Neutra and then worked in association with Gregory Ain before opening his San Francisco practice. Gordon Drake studied at the University of Southern California from 1937 to 1941, where Harwell Hamilton Harris was an influence. Clyde Grimes, born in Los Angeles, began his career under Paul R. Williams and started his own firm there. Tito Patri worked for Eckbo, Royston, and Williams from 1954 to 1957, in San Francisco with Robert Royston and in Los Angeles with Garrett Eckbo. The linked Southern California names open their entries in our Southern California Modern Architects A to Z, which has a Frank Lloyd Wright thread of its own, and the California timeline sets both lists in date order.

More on our site

These pages pick up where this list stops.

Questions and answers

Does this list every Bay Area modern architect?

No. It lists 56 collections whose pages we read at one archive, and it leaves out the collections our archives guide already covers. An architect who is missing here may have records in another archive, or none that have been catalogued.

Can I find the plans for my house here?

Not on this page. Use it to work out whose records to search, then open the collection page and look for a finding aid or a project index. Archives file by project, so a tract name, a builder or a client’s name helps more than a street address. Our archives guide explains how to ask an archive, and the Records Finder points to city permit files.

Are the drawings online?

This guide links to each collection page, which describes what the collection holds. Two entries, Greenwood Common and Journey to the Sea Ranch, describe online collections; the Sea Ranch page says its digital files are moving to another platform. For everything else, the archives guide covers appointments, scans and fees.

Why do some entries have no dates or no Records line?

Because the collection page gave none when we read it. We print what the page states and nothing more.

Did any of these people design Eichler homes?

None of the 56 collection pages mentions Eichler. Joseph Eichler was a developer, and the architects who drew his houses have profiles on our site: Anshen & Allen, Jones & Emmons and Claude Oakland. The archives guide says where their drawings are kept.

We want the Bay Area’s mid-century houses to stay mid-century, and knowing who drew a house is where that starts. If you are getting ready to repair, remodel or sell one and want a second pair of eyes on what you have found, call the Boyenga Team at (408) 373-1660 or (650) 383-8606, or write to MidMods@Boyenga.com.

About the sources

Every fact in an entry comes from the collection page linked at the foot of that entry, on the website of the Environmental Design Archives, UC Berkeley. We read all 56 pages on November 13, 2026 and kept a text copy of each. The threads use the same pages and nothing else.

Where a page gives no dates or no description of the records, we leave the line out; that is not proof the information does not exist. We reproduce no archive images here.

From our listings

Gardens and patios in homes we’ve sold

Six gardens, courtyards and patios at mid-century homes we’ve sold in Palo Verde and Greenmeadow, in Palo Alto, Fairbrae, in Sunnyvale, Fairgrove, in Cupertino, and Fairglen, in San Jose. Each photo shows the home as it was when listed. We haven’t matched these houses or gardens to any designer or archive named on this page.

  • Back garden of a mid-century home in Palo Alto's Palo Verde neighborhood, with a large tree, a lawn and a wall of glass under a low roof
    Palo Verde, Palo AltoBack garden · Sold 2024
  • Back garden of a mid-century home in Sunnyvale's Fairbrae neighborhood, with a sunken fire pit seat, gravel paths, a lawn, trees and the glass-walled house beyond
    Fairbrae, SunnyvaleBack garden and fire pit · Sold 2023
  • Back patio of a mid-century home in Palo Alto's Greenmeadow neighborhood, with a red brick chimney, glass walls, outdoor seating and a pine tree
    Greenmeadow, Palo AltoPatio and brick chimney · Sold 2026
  • Courtyard of a mid-century home in Cupertino's Fairgrove neighborhood, with a large tree, gravel, wood chairs and glass doors under a low roof
    Fairgrove, CupertinoCourtyard · Sold 2026
  • Back patio of a mid-century home in San Jose's Fairglen neighborhood, facing a long wall of glass under a deep overhang, with a brick chimney and vertical siding
    Fairglen, San JoseBack patio · Sold 2026
  • Back yard of a mid-century home in Palo Alto's Palo Verde neighborhood, with a curved bench around a brick patio, a lawn, a wood fence and bare trees
    Palo Verde, Palo AltoBrick patio · Sold 2026

Listing photographs of homes sold by the Boyenga Team at Compass. More homes we’ve sold

See our portfolio