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Theodore C. Bernardi Collection, 1920-1934, 1955-1968
1991-1
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Collection Title: Theodore C. Bernardi Collection,
Date (inclusive): 1920-1934, 1955-1968
Collection Number: 1991-1
Creator:
Bernardi, Theodore C., 1903-1990
Extent: 2 boxes, 1 flat file drawer
Repository: Environmental Design Archives. College of Environmental Design. University of California, Berkeley. Berkeley, California
Language:
English.
Collection is open for research.
All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in the collection should be discussed with the
Director.
[Identification of item], Theodore C. Bernardi Collection, (1991-1), Environmental Design Archives. College of Environmental
Design. University of California, Berkeley. Berkeley, California
Architects--California.
Architecture--California.
Wurster, Bernardi, and Emmons
Historic American Buildings Survey
Theodore C. Bernardi (1903 - 1990)
Theodore C. Bernardi was born in Korčula,Yugoslavia (then Austria-Hungary), in 1903. A year later, his mother and uncle brought
him to the United States to join his father who was already in America. In 1906 the family returned to Yugoslavia where Bernardi
attended school until the family once again moved to the U.S. in 1912. Bernardi studied architecture at the University of
California, Berkeley; he earned his bachelor's degree in 1924 and continued with graduate studies. Over the next nine years
he supplemented his academic studies by working as an architect and draftsman in a number of Bay Area firms, including the
office of Timothy Pflueger.
Bernardi obtained his architectural license in 1933, and joined the firm of William W. Wurster the following year where, during
the next eight years, he lead the design and construction of major Wurster office projects, including more than a dozen government
housing projects. When William Wurster left the Bay Area for Harvard University to study and later become Dean of the School
of Architecture and Planning at MIT from 1944 to 1950, Bernardi directed the Wurster office in San Francisco. And in 1944,
an official professional partnership between Bernardi and Wurster was formed; Donn Emmons joined this partnership in 1946
and the firm Wurster, Bernardi & Emmons (WBE) was born. Bernardi was Principal-in-Charge of many major WBE projects, including
the Schuckl Canning Company office building in Sunnyvale (1930), the Master Plan for University of California Santa Cruz (1962),
the Ice House renovation in San Francisco's North Waterfront (1967), and the First Unitarian Church of Berkeley (located in
Kensington). His own home in Sausalito (1950) won a 1956 AIA Award of Merit in 1956.
In addition to his work with WBE, Bernardi was a lecturer in the UC Berkeley Department of Architecture between 1954 and 1971.
In 1962 he was elected to Fellowship in the American Institute of Architects, and in 1965 WBE won the AIA Architectural Firm
Award Medal. Though his role in the firm became less active during the 1970s, Bernardi continued to work on projects until
his death in 1990.
The Theodore C. Bernardi collection is arranged in three series: Personal Papers, Professional Papers, and Project Records.
The bulk of the collection consists of drawings, though some correspondence is also included. The first series, Personal Papers,
contains Bernardi's student drawings, which include books of basic drawing exercises as well as elaborately rendered presentation
boards. Bernardi's professional papers contain minimal correspondence, drawings of the San Carlos Presidio Church (Monterey)
completed as part of the Historic American Buildings Survey and some unidentified competition boards. The final series contains
records of residences designed and built for Mr. and Mrs. Russell Giffen.
Title: Wurster, Bernardi, and Emmons Collection,
Identifier/Call Number: 1976-2,
Contributing Institution: Environmental Design Archives