Collection Guide
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Bernardi, Theodore collection
1991.-01
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Contributing Institution:
University of California, Berkeley. College of Environmental Design. Environmental Design Archives
Title: Theodore C. Bernardi Collection
Creator:
Bernardi, Theodore C., 1903-1990
Identifier/Call Number: 1991.-01
Physical Description:
10 Linear Feet:
2 boxes, 1 flat file drawer;
Additional boxes from the 2018 accretion: 4 cartons, 2 document boxes, 4 rolls, 1 large flat box
Date (inclusive): 1920-1968
Date (bulk): 1920-1934
Date (bulk): 1955-1968
Abstract: The Theodore C. Bernardi collection consists of student work, HABS information, and one project file. Student work includes
books of basic drawing exercises as well as elaborately rendered presentation boards. The collection also contains elevations,
plans and detail drawings of the San Carlos Presidio Church (Monterey) completed as part of the Historic American Buildings
Survey (HABS), as well as procedural bulletins from HABS. Project records consist of drawings and specifications for residences
designed and built for Mr. and Mrs. Russell Giffen by the firm Wurster, Bernardi and Emmons.
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], Theodore C. Bernardi Collection, [1991 - 01] Environmental Design Archives, University of California,
Berkeley.
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 stayed at the University for a short time to study at the
graduate level. Over the next nine years he complimented 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 led the design and construction of major Wurster office projects. Bernardi directed his independent
architectural practice in the Wurster office in San Francisco from 1942-1944. During that time his projects included more
than a dozen government housing projects. When William Wurster left the Bay Area in 1942 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. In late 1945 Donn Emmons joined Wurster & Bernardi (formed in 1944) establishing the firm Wurster, Bernardi
& Emmons (WBE). Bernardi was Principal-in-Charge of many major WBE projects, including the Schuckl Canning Company office
building in Sunnyvale (1942), 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 an 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, including books of basic drawing exercises as well as elaborately rendered presentation
boards. Professional papers contains 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 by the firm Wurster, Bernardi and Emmons.
Donated by Bernardi Family