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Lyndon, Donlyn / Lyndon Buchanan Associates Collection
2003.09
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
University of California, Berkeley. College of Environmental Design. Environmental Design Archives
Title: Donlyn Lyndon / Lyndon Buchanan Associates Collection
Creator:
Lyndon, Donlyn
Creator:
Lyndon Buchanan Associates
Identifier/Call Number: 2003.09
Physical Description:
48.5 Linear Feet:
10 cartons, 4 document boxes (letter), 2 flat files, 131 Tubes.
Date (inclusive): 1957-2012
Date (bulk): 1960-1995
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], Lyndon/Lyndon Buchanan Associates, Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley.
Donlyn Lyndon is an American architect, planner, and educator who worked primarily in California and the East Coast. Lyndon
was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1936. His father, Maynard Lyndon, was an architect known for designing modern school buildings
across California and Michigan, including Northville School in Northville, Michigan, known as the first modern public school
in America, and Bunche Hall, at University of California, Los Angeles. Donlyn Lyndon's mother, Joyce Earley Lyndon was a landscape
architect and planner. In 1953, Donlyn Lyndon began attending Princeton University, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture
in 1957, and a Master of Fine Arts in Architecture in 1959. At Princeton, Lyndon befriended architects Charles Moore and William
Turnbull, Jr. Between 1959-1960 Lyndon studied in India on a Fulbright scholarship (1959-1960). He is married to artist/photographer
Alice Wingwall.
In 1963, Donlyn Lyndon joined a partnership with Charles Moore, William Turnbull, Jr., and Richard Whitaker, forming the firm
MLTW (Moore Lyndon Turnbull Whitaker). MLTW, along with Lawrence Halprin, designed the master plan for The Sea Ranch, located
on the Sonoma Coast of Northern California, as well as Condominium One. The condominium drew high praise from critics and
the general public alike, and the firm instantly made a name for itself. Condominium One is now on the National Register for
Historic Places. In addition to The Sea Ranch, MLTW completed several other significant projects, including Kresge College
at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the Faculty Club at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Most MLTW
projects can be found in the William Turnbull, Jr./MLTW Collection at the Environmental Design Archives at the University
of California, Berkeley. By 1970, the firm MLTW, had dissolved with all principal designers leaving the firm to pursue academic
careers and establish new firms, but remained in close contact.
As an educator, Donlyn Lyndon held faculty positions at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Oregon,
and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After graduating from Princeton University, Lyndon led the Architecture Department
at the University of Oregon. As head of the Department from 1964 to 1967 starting at the age of 28, Lyndon was a key figure
in the expansion of the department. From 1967 to 1978, Lyndon was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and served as chair of the Architecture Department from 1967-1975.
In 1978, Lyndon took a position at the University of California, Berkeley as professor of Architecture, and served as chair
of the Architecture Department from 1996-1999. At the UC, Berkeley Lyndon taught studio, seminar, and lecture courses both
in the Architecture and Masters of Urban Design Programs. He also founded the Graduate Group for the Design of Urban Places,
served as a Chancellor's Professor, and was a founding Editor of PLACES, a journal of environmental design. Lyndon is the
first Eva Li Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at UC Berkeley and is currently Professor Emeritus.
Lyndon has also held guest professorships at University College (London), Bartlett School (1970); University of Maryland (1975-1976);
and Lund University in Sweden (2010-2017). In 1997 Lyndon received the Topaz Award, one of the most distinguished awards for
excellence in architectural education, from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. Between 1977 and 2003,
Lyndon served as a board and faculty member of the International Laboratory of Architecture and Urban Design, also known as
ILAUD, originally directed by architect Giancarlo de Carlo. Lyndon taught design seminars in Urbino, Siena, San Marino & Venice,
Italy and Seminars in Oslo, Barcelona, Paris, Brussels, Ferrarra, and Berkeley.
Prior to returning to Berkeley, Lyndon practiced architecture as the principal of Lyndon Associates in Cambridge, MA. Their
most significant project was Pembroke Dormitories at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The project, done between
1968 and 1975, was a collaboration between MLTW and Lyndon Associates. It received a Progressive Architecture first design
award in 1970, an honor award from Boston Society of Architects in 1977, and an AIA Honor Award in 1979. On returning to Berkeley
in 1978, Lyndon asked fellow architect and designer, Marvin Buchanan, to partner with him in the firm Lyndon/Buchanan Associates
which continued until 2006. Prior to their partnership, Lyndon and Buchanan had worked closely together first at MLTW on The
Sea Ranch Condominium One. Later Buchanan played an important role in the work of MLTW/Moore Turnbull, in San Francisco and
New Haven, and led the Boston office of MLTW/Lyndon, which became Lyndon/Buchanan Associates. University Avenue Housing in
Berkeley was Lyndon/Buchanan partnership's first project (1978), consisting of new and rehabilitated apartment buildings,
flats, row houses and bungalows—constructed with government subsidies as a limited equity cooperative. Other notable projects
include: Bayer Research Campus planning and urban design guidelines (Berkeley, CA), as well as several houses and siting/design
guidelines for a segment of The Sea Ranch, and the Hanzlik residence in Austin, Texas. In 1987 the firm formed an urban design
team consisting of Allan Jacobs, Randy Hester, Marcia McNally, and Frances Halsband, which prepared the Pasadena Civic Center
Master Plan and a later urban design plan for the Pasadena Playhouse District.
Throughout his career Lyndon has written extensively about the structure of "place" and the ways in which architecture intersects
with the lives of people and the sites of which it becomes a part. He is the author of several books, including The Sea Ranch
(with Jim Alinder) and The City Observed: Boston. He co-authored, with Charles Moore, Chambers for a Memory Palace and The
Place of Houses. He has authored many articles for journals and magazines including Casabella, Spazio e Societa, Progressive
Architecture, Places, Journal of Architectural Education, Global Architecture Houses, World Architecture, and the International
Encyclopedia of Higher Education. He was a founder and for many years the editor of Places: Forum of Design for the Public
Realm. He also served for nine years as the director of the Mayors' Institute for City Design, West—a National Endowments
for the Arts initiative to help transform communities and teach mayors to be the chief urban designers of their cities.
Sources:
Curriculum Vitae, Donlyn Lyndon, 2019
The Donlyn Lyndon/Lyndon Buchanan Collection spans the years 1957-2012, with the bulk of collection from 1960-1995.The collection
is organized into eight series: Personal Papers, Professional Papers, Faculty Papers (University of California, Berkeley),
Faculty Papers (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Office Records, Project Records, ILAUD Papers, and Mayors' Institute
of Design Papers. Within this collection, records have been arranged either chronologically or alphabetically as noted in
the scope and content note within each subseries. The majority of the collection is comprised of Lyndon's personal papers,
professional writings, and teaching materials from the University of California, Berkeley and MIT. Office records and project
records consist of administrative materials, architectural and planning projects from the firm Lyndon Buchanan Associates.
Series I Personal Papers (1957 – 1998) is comprised of eight subseries: biographical information, personal correspondence
with family and friends, Lyndon's student work, photographs of family and friends, travel notes and sketches, drawings, clippings,
and eulogies written by Lyndon. Correspondents include architect Maynard Lyndon. Travel notes and sketches are from Lyndon's
wide range of travel as well as from his time in India as a Fulbright Scholar. Clippings include article and newspaper clippings
about Lyndon. Eulogy is comprised those o written for William Turnbull and Richard B. Oliver.
Series II Professional Papers (1962 – 2004) consists of Lyndon's career outside of his architectural projects, firms, and
faculty materials. Organized into ten subseries: correspondence, writings, presentations and lectures, notes, book and exhibit
reviews, publication information, PLACES journal, awards, reference files, and committee, jury, and board memberships, the
majority this series is comprised of Lyndon's writings for architectural magazines and journals, both published and unpublished.
Contracts, clippings, reviews, and correspondence related to publication of Lyndon's books can be found in the publications
subseries.
Series III Faculty Papers (University of California, Berkeley, 1960 to 2002), includes administrative records, course papers,
lectures, and grant materials such as correspondence written by Lyndon as faculty and as chair of the Architecture Department
and letters related to Lyndon's positions at the University of Oregon and University of California, Los Angeles. Course Papers
comprise the largest sub-series and contains teaching materials and student work.
Series IV Faculty Papers (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1961-2003) includes four subseries comprised of administrative
records, course papers, faculty lectures, and grant materials. Administrative Papers contain information about his visiting
professorship at University College in London in 1970.
Series V Office Records (represent a selected sample of the day-to-day administrative operations of the firm offices, such
as legal agreements, notes, and correspondence. Includes the dissolution of the MLTW joint-venture agreement and several consulting
jobs.
Series VI Project Records contains architectural and planning projects designed primarily by Lyndon while with the firm Lyndon/Buchanan
Associates (LBA) (1978 – 2006, bulk dates, 1985-1994). Project Records consist primarily of drawings with only a few manuscripts
and photographs. Major projects include: Athenian School (Danville, CA); Bayer Street (Berkeley, CA); Cache Creek (Brooks,
CA); Hanzlik Residence (Austin, TX); Miglio Residence (Sea Ranch, CA); Pasadena Center Square (Pasadena, CA); planning for
Downtown Berkeley (CA); and the University of California, Santa Barbara Campus and Art Museum (Santa Barbara, CA). This series
also contains planning with MLTW for the Sea Ranch Athletic Club, Condominiums, General Lodge, Golf Club, Meadow House, and
Village (Sea Ranch, CA) and drawings for the Social Sciences Building at University of California, Los Angeles done by Maynard
Lyndon, Donlyn Lyndon's father.
Series VII contains materials related to ILAUD (International Laboratory of Architecture and Urban Design) which was created
in 1976 by Giancarlo de Carlo. Lyndon was involved in the program and taught design seminars sessions in Italy, Norway, Spain,
France, Belgium, and Berkeley. This series contains syllabi, student work from ILAUD seminars, and writings published in ILAUD.
Series VIII contains materials relating to the Mayors' Institute on City Design, West (1990-2012) and the national organization.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Architects -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area.
Architecture--Study and Teaching
Architecture -- California.
Architecture--California--History--20th century
Architecture, Domestic--Massachusetts
Architecture, Domestic--Texas
Architecture--Domestic--California--San Francisco Bay Area.