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Vedensky, Dmitri Collection
1998.-7
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
University of California, Berkeley. College of Environmental Design. Environmental Design Archives
Title: Dmitri Vedensky Collection
Creator:
Vedensky, Dmitri, 1930-1997
Identifier/Call Number: 1998.-7
Physical Description:
25 Linear Feet:
6 boxes, 5 flat file drawers, 2 tubes
Date (bulk): 1948-1996
Language of Material:
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
Curator.
[Identification of Item],Records of Dmitri Vedensky, (1998-7), Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley.
Dmitri Vedensky (1930-1997)
Dmitri Nicholas Vedensky, Jr. was born in Berkeley in 1930, the son of metallurgist Dmitri Nicholas and Helen Montmorency
Vedensky. Raised in Berkeley, he attended Stanford University for one year before transferring to the University of California,
Berkeley were he received his bachelor's degree in 1951. After an interruption in his graduate education to serve in the
Korean War from 1952 to 1954, he returned to Berkeley, finishing his Masters Degree in Architecture in 1955.
Upon graduation he went to work in the San Francisco office of UC professor, Joseph Esherick, Esherick, Homsey, Dodge & Davis
(EHDD). He worked there for eight years on some of Esherick's most notable houses, such as the Lurline Roth House in Hawaii,
until he left to open his own practice in 1964. Working mostly as a residential designer he completed six houses at The Sea
Ranch, including his own residence, which received the Architectural Award of Excellence for Design and was published in Architectural
Record's 1975 Record Houses Issue. Other notable projects include a collaboration with the late Charles Moore on two homes
for Mr. and Mrs. Henry Shinefield – one at Sea Ranch (The Sea Ranch Design Award 1978) and the other in San Francisco's Presidio
neighborhood, the Blanchard Residence in Anchor Bay, and the McIntyre House in Pebble Beach.
From 1964 to 1967 Vedensky lectured and taught design at the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design. In 1970 he served
as a juror for the Awards Program of the A.I.A. Chapter of Portland, OR. In 1976 the then-Mayor George Moscone appointed
Vedensky to the San Francisco Art Commission and he chaired the civic design committee for 10 years. In 1986 Vedensky joined
the design review committee at The Sea Ranch and served as chairman from 1988 until his death from heart failure in 1997.
Sources:
"A Brief Resume," by Dmitri Vedensky
San Francisco Chronicle, November 4, 1997 Obituary.
Records for Dmitri Vedensky span the years 1948-1996. The collection is organized into four series: Personal Papers, Professional
Papers, Office Records, and Project Records. Within these series documents are ordered chronologically and alphabetically.
Most of the collection contains projects completed by Vedensky as a sole practitioner. Office records include photographs
and reduced scale drawings that were most likely created and collected to promote the firm. They record not only the buildings
themselves, but indicate how projects were presented, interpreted, and received. The project files include written records
(correspondence, specifications, notes, and reports), drawings, site photographs and slides, as well as photographs of architectural
study models.
Vedensky's personal papers constitute only a fraction of the collection. The professional papers reveal his active involvement
in the San Francisco Arts Commission in the mid-1970s and early 1980s.