Collection Guide
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Liebermann, Daniel Collection
2016-10
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
University of California, Berkeley. College of Environmental Design. Environmental Design Archives
Title: Daniel Liebermann Collection
creator:
Liebermann, Daniel, 1930-2015
Identifier/Call Number: 2016-10
Physical Description:
17 Cubic Feet
2 document boxes, 25 flat file folders, and 9 tubes
Date (inclusive): 1953-2003
Abstract: The Liebermann Collection primarily consists of drawings and photographs documenting the single-family homes he designed during
the course of his career. The collection is arranged in two series: Professional Papers and Project Records spanning the dates
1957 to 1996.
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 materaials in the collection should be discussed with the
Curator.
[Identification of Item], Daniel Liebermann Collection, Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley.
Arrangement and description of this collection was funded by a grant from The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.
Daniel Judah Liebermann was born in South Orange, New Jersey in 1930 to engineer Morton and Dr. Shulamith Liebermann. He attended
New York's prestigious and private Fieldston School prior to receiving an undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins University.
Following graduation, he spent more than a year in the master of architecture program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design,
before leaving for a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture at the University of Colorado, Boulder. From 1956 to 1958 he was a member
of the Frank Lloyd Wright Fellowship at Taliesen, in Scottsdale, AZ and Spring Green, WI. In 1959 he moved to California first
working with landscape architect Thomas Church and then with Aaron Green Associates, Wright's associate for the Marin County
Civic Center project. Apart from a nine-year span in Northern Europe, he lived and practiced architecture in Northern California
for the remainder of his life. He passed away in 2015
In 1960, Liebermann began working for a landscape architecture firm in Marin County where he met his future wife, Eva, a
landscape architect from Germany who earned her master's degree in Hanover and worked for the Frankfurt Planning Office. Liebermann
established his own practice in 1961 designing (or co-designing) more than three dozen single-family homes in the San Francisco
Bay Area. His modest yet spacious houses made of wood, concrete, glass, and recycled materials explore an architectural philosophy
that integrated ideas from Wright, John Lautner, Bruce Goff, Knut Knutsen, Paolo Soleri, Pier Luigi Nervi, Félix Candela's
thin concrete shells, and the 300-year old Dutch Farm House he lived in as a child, in New Jersey.
His work bridges "organic" architecture and California mid-century modernism. His buildings are conceived as coherent whole
forms with continuous open interiors. He was an early proponent of ecological architecture, believing that houses should create
a harmonious relationship between humans and nature. The houses are typically organized around a central sculptural column,
constructed of different materials including woven steel rods, cast-in-place concrete, and interlocking brick arches, with
wooden beams radiating outward to define the building periphery. His designs incorporate passive solar strategies, thermal
mass, radiant-heat flooring, reused building materials, and found objects such as thick polycarbonate airplane windows used
as horizontal light tubes in masonry walls.
Daniel Liebermann taught at The Technical University in Trondheim, Norway, at the San Francisco Institute of Architecture,
and UC Berkeley Extension. His work has been published in Architectural Design, L'Architettura, California Home + Design,
The New York Times, Hand Made Houses: A Century of Earth-Friendly Home Design and New Organic Architecture: The Breaking Wave,
among others.
Sources:
Evans, Ben.
Daniel Liebermann Obituary. Point Reyes Light, 2015 https://www.ptreyeslight.com/article/daniel-liebermann-architect-dies-84 Accessed 11 April 2017
The collection is organized into two series: Professional Papers spanning the dates circa 1957-1996, and Project Records spanning
the dates 1953-2003.
This collection documents the professional architectural career of Daniel Liebermann. Organized into two series: Professional
Papers and Project records; this collection spans 17 cubic feet and dates from 1953 through 2003. Professional Papers include
Liebermann's curriculum vitae, photographs from when he attended Taliesin West, his epoxy work, and clippings regarding his
designs. The collection in comprised primarily of Project Records including architectural drawings, photographs, and some
manuscript material documenting 62 different projects designed over the course of his career.
The Liebermann records remained in his custody until his death when they were donated to the Environmental Design Archives.
The following is a list of architectural projects from the Daniel Liebermann Collection. For more complete information about
collection contents for each project download the complete
Project Index in an Excel spreadsheet format by going to
Daniel Liebermann i-Page . For instructions on interpreting the Project Index, see
The Guide to the Project Index.
The project list below, derived from the Project Index, is arranged alphabetically by Project/Client Name and contains information,
where available, about the location, date, project type, collaborators, photographers, and formats for each project in the
collection.
Project/Client Name (location, date, project type) Collaborator (role), Photographer [Format - Ms=Manuscripts, Dr=Drawings,
Ph=Photographs]
- Adams, Douglas G. Remodel ( Inverness , CA ; 1993-94 ; residential ) [Dr]
- Alexandar, James and Camilla ( Berkeley , CA ; 1989 ; residential ) [Dr, Ph, Sl]
- Barbour, Allen ( San Mateo , CA ; 1964 ; residential ) [Dr, Ph, Sl]
- Bernie, Norman and Barbara ( Hillsborough , CA ; 1980 ; residential ) [Dr]
- Carver, Eugene ( San Rafael , CA ; 1961 ; residential ) [Dr]
- Chatman, Seymour ( Berkeley , CA ; 1980-1981 ; residential ) [Dr]
- Competition: New England Holocaust Memorial ( Boston , MA ; 1979-1980 ; cultural ) [Dr]
- Competition: Progressive Architecture ( 1992 ; competition ) [Ms]
- Del Bosque, Hugo ( Sausalito , CA ; 1960 ; residential ) [Dr]
- Design: A-Frame Cabin ( Mammouth , CA ; n.d. ; residential ) [Dr]
- Design: Cruise Passenger Ship ( Helsinki , Finland ; n.d. ; recreational ) [Dr]
- Design: Epoxy ( 1970 ; furnishings ) [Dr]
- Design: Summer Communal Dwelling ( n.d. ; residential ) [Dr]
- Durra, Joe ( Sausalito , CA ; 1963 ; residential ) [Dr]
- Eldred, Roy ( Belvedere , CA ; n.d. ; residential ) [Dr]
- Estrellita, Raleigh ( Oakland , CA ; 2000 ; residential ) [Dr]
- Flynn, Raymond ( San Rafael , CA ; 1984-85 ; residential ) [Dr, Ph]
- Graf, Edward A. ( Foster City , CA ; 1978-1979 ; residential ) [Dr]
- Harlow ( 1953 ; residential ) [Dr]
- Hastings, Norton ( Mill Valley , CA ; 1965 ; residential ) [Dr]
- Hawley, J. Vernon ( Mill Valley , CA ; 1965 ; residential ) [Dr]
- Holmgren, Norah ( Mill Valley , CA ; n.d. ; residential ) [Dr]
- Hunt, E & W ( Muir Beach , CA ; 1977 ; residential ) [Dr]
- Hunt, E & W ( Tiburon , CA ; 1976-1977 ; residential ) [Dr]
- Jacobs, Dr. Arnold Clinic ( Santa Cruz , CA ; 1963 ; medical ) [Dr]
- Jones, Pirkle ( 1966 ; residential ) [Dr]
- Kramer, John ( Sausalito , CA ; n.d. ; residential ) [Dr]
- Lando, Ellis A. ( Mill Valley , CA ; 1960 ; residential ) [Dr]
- Liebermann, Daniel Drafting Room addition ( Mill Valley , CA ; n.d. ; commerical ) [Dr]
- Liebermann, M.W. and S.B. (Pine I) ( Mill Valley , CA ; 1959 ; residential ) [Dr, Ph]
- Little III, Philip ( Mill Valley , CA ; circa 1960 ; residential ) [Ph]
- Los Angeles County and State Arboretum ( Los Angeles , CA ; 1958 ; recreational ) [Dr]
- Magnes Memorial Museum, The Judah ( Berkeley , CA ; 1978 ; cultural ) [Dr]
- McCone-Flynn ( San Rafael , CA ; 1962-1987 ; residential ) [Dr, Ph]
- McGrath, James and Penelope ( Piedmont , CA ; 1982 ; residential ) [Dr, Ph]
- Meents, Robert K. ( Tiburon , CA ; 1963 ; residential ) [Dr]
- Metropolitan Furniture Corporation ( San Francisco , CA ; 1971-1973 ; commerical ) [Dr]
- Meyer, Samuel ( Sausalito , CA ; n.d. ; residential ) [Dr]
- Nadler, Jacques ( Mill Valley , CA ; n.d. ; residential ) [Dr]
- Ongaro, Quinn ( Belvedere Heights , CA ; 1960 ; residential ) [Dr]
- Pinea II ( Mill Valley , CA ; 1958, 1962 ; residential ) [Dr, Ph, Sl]
- Pingree, Dr. and Mrs. J.D. ( Berkeley , CA ; 1960 ; residential ) [Dr]
- Putzel, Robert ( Santa Barbara , CA ; 1965 ; residential ) [Dr]
- Rakonitz, George and Elenor ( Menlo Park , CA ; 1978-1979 ; residential ) [Dr]
- Red Hill Appartment Complex ( Tiburon , CA ; 1960 ; multi-residential ) [Dr]
- Rosenblatt, Robert ( San Rafael , CA ; 1964 ; residential ) [Dr]
- Rubinfien, David ( Palo Alto , CA ; 1981 ; residential ) [Dr]
- Simpson / Lieberman (Pine IV) ( Inverness , CA ; 1997, 2003 ; residential ) [Dr, Ph]
- Sloss, Peter F. ( Sausalito , CA ; 1953 ; residential ) [Dr]
- Small, McC. ( Los Altos , CA ; 1953 ; residential ) [Ph, Sl]
- Smith, Roland ( Mill Valley , CA ; 1976 ; residential ) [Dr]
- Soloman, Arnold ( Kentfield , CA ; circa 1963 ; residential ) [Ph]
- Somerville, John ( Mill Valley , CA ; 1964 ; residential ) [Dr]
- Swearingen, John and Prema ( Junction City , CA ; 1990 ; residential ) [Dr]
- Taft-Naparstak ( Mill Valley , CA ; 1964 ; residential ) [Dr, Ph]
- Tamalpais Motel ( Tamalpais , CA ; n.d. ; commerical ) [Dr]
- Thomas, John and Violet ( Mill Valley , CA ; 1985 ; residential ) [Dr]
- Unidentified projects - various ( n.d. ; residential ) [Dr, Ph]
- Vandermale, Jack and Helen ( Sausalito , CA ; 1961-1962 ; residential ) [Dr]
- William Nelson Apartments ( Belvedere Heights , CA ; 1960 ; multi-residential ) [Dr]
- Wright, Lawrence ( Novato , CA ; n.d. ; residential ) [Dr]
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Architecture -- California.
Architecture, Modern--20th century--California--San Francisco Bay Area.
Dwellings--Design and construction.
Liebermann, Daniel, 1930-2015