Bernard Maybeck

Bernard Maybeck 1862-1957, American architect, b. New York City. After studying at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, he became one of the leading architects in California. From the 1890s to the 1920s, Maybeck created warm and intimate houses of redwood and shingles. His mastery of larger spaces was apparent in Hearst Hall (1899; destroyed by fire 1922) at the Univ. of California, Berkeley, a building in which he introduced the laminated wooden arch. In his masterpiece, the Christian Science church in Berkeley (1910), he unified elements from many styles, using a wide range of materials—industrial steel sash, cement asbestos panels, and exposed concrete. For the San Francisco Exposition of 1915 he designed the Palace of Fine Arts.

Bibliography: See E. McCoy, Five California Architects (1960).

Maybeck, Bernard Ralph (1862–1957). American eclectic architect, he made a distinctive contribution to domestic design. Educated in Paris, he was influenced by Viollet-le-Duc's theories, and in 1886 returned to New York to work with Carrère & Hastings before setting up on his own (1902) in CA, where he worked mostly in the Stick style. In his First Church of Christ Scientist, Berkeley, CA (1910–12), he mixed Gothic, vernacular, the Stick style, and more than a hint of Japanese-inspired timber-work. His many houses had similar qualities, but at the A. C. Lawson House, Berkeley (1907), he also used reinforced concrete, an early example of this material. He employed Beaux-Arts Classicism too, notably in the Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco (1913–15), built for the International Exposition.

Bibliography

ARe, ciii (1948), 72–9;
Bosley (1994);
Cardwell (1977);
Longstreth (1983);
McCoy (1975);
Placzek (ed.) (1982);
Jane Turner (1996);
R. Winter (ed.) (1977);
S. Woodbridge (1992)