Bernard Ralph Maybeck

Year Awarded: 1951
Born: February 07, 1862; New York City, New York, USA
Died: 1957; Berkeley,California

Quote
The keynote of a fine arts palace should be that of sadness modified by the feeling that beauty has a soothing influence.


Projects
• 1930: Principia College Campus, Elsah, Ill.
• 1924: Maybeck Studio (Sack House), Berkeley, Calif.
• 1915: Palace of Fine Arts, Panama Pacific Exposition, San Francisco
• 1912: Rose Walk, Berkeley, Calif.
• 1910: First Church of Christ Scientist (a National Historic Landmark), Berkeley, Calif.
• 1908: R.H. Briggs House Library Addition, Los Gatos, Calif.
• 1902: Boke House, Berkeley, Calif.
• 1902: Faculty Club, University of California, Berkeley, Calif.
• 1899: Hearst Hall, University of California, Berkeley, Calif.
• 1894: Swedenborgian Church, Pacific Heights, Calif.


Biography
As the son of a cabinetmaker who worked in architectural carving, Bernard Maybeck was exposed to architecture and the arts early in his life. After his mother died when he was three years old, his grandparents raised him. He attended private schools, gaining a liberal arts education that included philosophy, the arts, and several languages.

In 1881 he traveled to Paris to apprentice in the art of woodcarving, his father’s profession. While he was there, he applied to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and in 1882 began his studies in architecture. He completed his studies and returned to New York in 1886.
There he worked for Carrère & Hastings, where he participated on the designs of the Ponce de Leon and Alcazar hotels in Florida. He remained with the firm for a few years, then decided to set up his own practice in 1889. Meeting with little success in New York and Kansas City because of the depression of the late 1880s, Maybeck moved on to San Francisco and joined the firm of Wright & Sanders. He also worked as an interior designer during this period. In 1891 he went to work for Page Brown and contributed to the California Building for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

In 1894 Maybeck set up a private practice in Berkeley, Calif. That same year, he began teaching at the Civil Engineering College at the University of California. He remained at Berkeley until 1903, becoming the first professor of architecture at the school in 1898. At about this time, in 1895, Maybeck also became the director of the architectural department at Mark Hopkins Institute of Art. In these roles, Maybeck served as a mentor to young architects, encouraging some to follow in his foot steps by studying at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.