The Bakewell & Brown collection consists primarily of drawings that document projects completed by the firm. These include drawings for the Horticulture Hall and the Ghirardelli Display Building at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, drawings from the 1912 San Francisco City Hall competition, and a sketch of Coit Tower. The collection also contains drawings for residential projects in San Francisco, Oakland, and Woodside. Photographs of presentation drawings of Coit Tower and the San Francisco Civic Center are also included. Drawings by Arthur Brown, Jr. completed after the breakup of the firm include an isometric view of UC Berkeley's general plan.

The firm of Bakewell & Brown was founded in 1905 by John Bakewell, Jr. and Arthur Brown, Jr. The prominent San Francisco firm designed buildings throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, including numerous buildings for Stanford University. Bakewell & Brown won the competition for the design of the San Francisco City Hall, which was built in 1915. They also designed the Berkeley Unified School District Building (formerly Berkeley City Hall), and the Pasadena City Hall. San Francisco buildings include the San Francisco Art Institute (1926), the City of Paris building reconstruction (1908, with Louis Bourgeois), the War Memorial Opera House and Veterans Building (1931, with G. Albert Lansburgh), and the Pacific Gas & Electric Building (1925).

All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in the collection should be discussed with the Curator.

Collection is open for research.