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Marcus, Clare Cooper Collection
2011.-14
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Contributing Institution:
University of California, Berkeley. College of Environmental Design. Environmental Design Archives
Title: Marcus, Clare Cooper Collection
Creator:
Marcus, Clare Cooper
Identifier/Call Number: 2011.-14
Physical Description:
8 Linear Feet:
14 Document Boxes, 1 Flat Box
Date (inclusive): 1963- circa 1995
Language of Material:
English
.
Collection is open for research. Many of the Environmental Design Archives collections are stored offsite and advance notice
is required for use.
All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in the collection should be discussed with the
Curator.
[Identification of Item], Clare Cooper Marcus Collection, Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley.
Arrangement and description of this collection was funded by the Beatrix Jones Farrand Endowment through the Landscape Architecture
and Environmental Planning Department of University of California, Berkeley.
Clare Cooper Marcus first attended the University of London where she graduated in 1955 with a bachelor's degree in Cultural
and Historical Geography. Soon after in 1958, Marcus received a master's degree from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln
in Urban Geography. Marcus finished her education with master's degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1966
in City and Regional Planning. Her master's thesis at Berkeley was titled,
Some Social Implications of House and Site Plan Design at Easter Hill Village: A Case Study, and outlined her, soon to be, lifelong interest in relations among physical environments and social behaviors.
In 1969, Clare Cooper Marcus began teaching at the University of California, Berkeley in the department of Architecture and
Landscape Architecture and continued to teach there until 1994 when she retired from teaching full-time under the title of
Professor Emerita. Her teaching emphasized the social implications of open space design; user needs in high-density housing;
behavior in public open spaces; and the needs of children in the natural and built environment. Often calling herself an "
Environment-Behavior Researcher," Marcus pioneered her own field concerning the psychological and sociological aspects of
architecture, landscape, and urban design.
As a faculty member and professor, Marcus taught both undergraduate and graduate courses with her most popular and longest
running class being "Social and Psychological Factors in Open Space Design." She continued research throughout her time at
the University of California, Berkeley at sites throughout the Bay Area such as St. Francis Square (San Francisco, CA), Geneva
Towers (San Francisco, CA), Easter Hill (Richmond, CA), and Eichler Towers (San Francisco, CA). Marcus conducts her research
through detailed observations of people's behaviors and through interviews of residents. Her extensive research has prompted
books such as
House as a Symbol of the Self (1974) and
Housing As If People Mattered: Site Design Guidelines for Medium-Density Family Housing (1986), as well as many other publications.
Participating in independent consulting work throughout her career, Marcus has worked with a variety of clients throughout
the United States and the world in countries such as, Scandinavia, Netherlands, Iceland, Italy, Canada, Britain, Australia,
New Zealand, and China. Marcus' consulting work specializes in user-needs in design and creating healing and comfortable environments.
Marcus has received numerous awards throughout her career such as the Guggenheim Fellowship Award in 1989 to support her research
on co-housing in Europe and the US and CELA Outstanding Educator Award in 1997.
Biographical Summary, Box 1 Folder 1, Clare Cooper Marcus Papers, Environmental Design Archives, University of California,
Berkeley.
Conarroe, Joel, Letter from Joel Conarroe to Clare Cooper Marcus, April 5, 1989, Clare Cooper Marcus Papers, Environmental
Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley.
Sarkissian, Wendy. Letter from Wendy Sarkissian to Willo P. White, September 5, 1983, Clare Cooper Marcus Papers, Environmental
Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley.
The Clare Cooper Marcus collection is primarily comprised of course materials and student work from her time teaching at the
University of California, Berkeley from 1969 to 1994 and research notes from her field studies at St. Francis Square (San
Francisco), Geneva Towers (San Francisco), Easter Hill, and Eichler Towers. This collection is organized into two series and
documents her academic and research career from 1963 until the early 1990s. Series I: Professional Papers consists primarily
of Marcus' correspondence, consulting work, unpublished writings, and book reviews, but also includes biographical information
such as Marcus' CVs and graduate school work between 1963 and 1964. Series II: Faculty Records contains teaching and course
materials, and extensive, detailed research notes from her field studies throughout the Bay Area. Throughout these research
notes Marcus provides an array of observational data that she and/or her students conducted that ranges from survey interviews
of residential community members, drawings done by young school students, and photographs. The Clare Cooper Marcus collection
provides a wide range of information on Clare Cooper Marcus' career from environmental behavior consulting to her academic
pursuits in the Departments of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley.
Records of the Department of Architecture, Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Easter Hill Village -- St. Francis Square (San Francisco, Calif.) -- Geneva Towers (San Francisco, Calif.) -- Eichler Towers
Landscape Architecture
Environmental Behavior
Architecture--Domestic--California--San Francisco Bay Area.
Landscape architecture--California.
Urban landscape architecture
Urban Behavior
Marcus, Clare Cooper