Bay Area mid-century architects
The architects who shaped mid-century modern in Northern California, from Frank Lloyd Wright's first Bay Area house to the redwood modernists of the Bay Region Style.
The Bay Region Style
In 1947 the critic Lewis Mumford gave Northern California's modernism a name in The New Yorker: the Bay Region Style. He described a native, humane modernism that paired modern forms with local wood, the landscape, and an easy informality, rooted in Bernard Maybeck's work and carried forward by William Wurster.
His column set off a 1948 symposium at the Museum of Modern Art on what was happening to modern architecture. Where Southern California modernism leaned toward steel and glass, the Bay Area's version stayed woodsy and site-driven.
Architects to know
Frank Lloyd Wright
1867–1959
Organic architecture; his modest Usonian homes are shaped around their sites. The Hanna House was the first plan he built on a hexagonal grid.
Where: The Hanna–Honeycomb House on the Stanford campus (1937), a National Historic Landmark; the Walker House in Carmel
William Wurster
1895–1973
Simple, unpretentious wood houses built for indoor-outdoor living; a leading figure of the Bay Region Style.
Where: Around the Bay Area, and early houses at Pasatiempo in Santa Cruz (1930s)
Thomas Church
Landscape architect
Defined the modern California garden, often working alongside Wurster and Dailey.
Where: Pasatiempo in Santa Cruz, and gardens across the Bay Area
Gardner Dailey
1895–1967
Turned to modernism in 1935; credited with Wurster for introducing modern architecture to Northern California.
Where: San Francisco and the Bay Area
Joseph Esherick
1914–1998
Hundreds of houses rooted in regional tradition and the site; AIA Gold Medal, 1989.
Where: The Bay Area, and cluster houses at Sea Ranch
Jack Hillmer
1918–2007
Meticulously hand-crafted redwood modernist homes.
Where: Belvedere, Berkeley, and Napa
Henry Hill
1913–1984
As many as 500 Bay Area houses, described as International Style meets California redwood.
Where: Around the Bay Area
Mario Corbett
1901–1977
Redwood-clad Bay Region houses, featured in LIFE in the 1950s.
Where: Marin, including Sausalito
Roger Lee
1920–1981
More than 100 residences plus civic and commercial work; a pioneer of Bay Area modernism.
Where: The Bay Area and across the West Coast
Ernest Kump
1911–1999
Palo Alto modernist trained under Walter Gropius; best known for school design.
Where: Foothill College in Los Altos Hills
Mark Mills
1921–2007
Frank Lloyd Wright apprentice whose organic homes in wood, glass, stone, and poured concrete answer to the site.
Where: Carmel and the Monterey coast
Sea Ranch
From 1965
Lawrence Halprin's master plan, with shed roofs, redwood siding, and flush windows set by Moore Lyndon Turnbull Whitaker and Esherick.
Where: The Sonoma coast