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Hillmer (Jack) Papers
BANC MSS 2017/228
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
The Bancroft Library
Title: Jack Hillmer Papers
Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 2017/228
Physical Description:
15 linear feet
(5 cartons, 1 box, 1 flat box, 2 tubes, 69 oversize folders)
Date (inclusive): 1946-2000
Abstract: The Jack Hillmer Papers contain records related to the professional career of architect/educator Jack Pershing Hillmer (1918-2007).
These records include manuscript materials, drawings, photographs clippings, and publications. They document Hillmer’s education,
architectural designs, and teaching.
Physical Location: Many of the Bancroft Library collections are stored offsite and advance notice may be required for use. For current information
on the location of these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Collection is open for research.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Richard Ehrenberger, 2017.
Arranged to the folder level.
Jack Pershing Hillmer (1918-2007) was born and raised in Columbus, Texas to Sheriff Theodore William “Jack” and Nora Ethel
Woodfin Hillmer. His father also had a produce business and his mother was proprietor of the Live Oak Hotel and Dining Room,
which was built for “travelers arriving by train.” According to his autobiography, he read the entre Encyclopedia Britannica,
two daily newspapers, and Time Magazine to compensate for the lack of books in his high school library. Following his graduation
from Columbus High School in 1936, he received a scholarship to attend the University of Texas. He chose architecture because
“it was the closest program he could find to fine arts,” graduating with a 5-year Bachelor of Architecture. His future partner,
Warren Callister, was a year ahead of him. Graduating in 1941 just before the United States entered World War II, Hillmer
had to put his career on hold while he designed bomber interiors in San Diego for Consolidated Voltee Aircraft Corp. Airplane
wing-style trusses later turned up in his Ludekens house and wings also inspired his love of cantilevers.
While in San Diego, he used his leave to explore the new modernist buildings being built in southern California, including
renting a room in the Pueblo Ribera Apartments by R. M. Schindler, and living for a time in the La Jolla Art Center (formerly
the Ellen Scripps residence) by Irving Gill. Toward the end of the war, Hillmer visited Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesen West
in Scottsdale, Arizona and was invited by Wright to join his Taliesen Fellowship, but Hillmer declined despite his appreciation
for Wright's work.
Hillmer first visited the San Francisco Bay Area in 1945, when he was transferred to “Consairways” a branch of Voltee that
operated out of Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California. Callister and Hillmer drove to San Francisco after the war
where they built a penthouse office on Bush St. The office became a meeting room for Telesis, a group of idealistic architects
and planners. "One of our major interests was to make the world better," Hillmer says. "There was an excitement to it. It
seemed like anything was possible."
Hillmer and Callister's first commission was the 1947 Hall house, a house with an abstract geometry built from redwood boards
that were reclaimed from a dismantled barn on the property. Shortly after the Hall house was published in Life Magazine, Callister
and Hillmer dissolved their partnership and established individual practices. During this period Hillmer met photographer
Roy Flamm. They lived together from the end of 1949 until the beginning of 1962. Hillmer's first commission was for the Munger
house in Napa in 1948, but his most well-known project was for graphic artist Fred Ludekens, who wanted a studio/residence,
guest house, and garage built in Belvedere (1950) in Marin County. Arguably Hillmer's most successful design, the Ludekens
house featured redwood walls and airplane wing-like ceilings that soared above the walls of the building, seemingly supported
only by glass. Although he never applied for an architecture license, his commissions during the next three decades included,
the Stebbins house in Kent Woodlands (1960), the Wright house in Inverness (1962), and the Cagliostro house in Berkeley (1972-1979)
as well as its reconstruction following the 1991 Oakland/Berkeley firestorm. In 1955 Engineer TY Lin subcontracted Hillmer
for architectural and structural design for a factory for the Kayner Manufacturing Co. in Los Angeles. He was replaced with
John Lautner in 1956 because, as Lin wrote, they “were considerably behind schedule”. He collaborated with Vernon DeMars and
Peitro Belluschi on a proposed San Francisco performing arts building (1974) and also worked on a fewprojects for Wurster
Bernardi & Emmons. Hillmer’s work was shown in a number of exhibitions including Modern Architecture of the San Francisco
Bay Region at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1950.
In the early 1950s, Hillmer was invited to teach as a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley by William Wurster,
Dean of the Architecture School, and in the 1960s by Architecture Department Chair Charles Moore. Hillmer earned a reputation
as a perfectionist, and by 1960 Architectural Forum summarized his career as "20 years of practice (that) have produced few
buildings but very expressive ones." Although Hillmer produced fewer than 10 finished homes they have been recognized for
their purity and beauty.
- Dave Weinstein. “APPRECIATION / Jack Hillmer Practiced Architecture as Fine Art.” San Francisco Chronicle, April 28, 2007
- Autobiographical notes within Jack P. Hillmer Papers, The Bancroft Library.
- Wikipedia, accessed March 3, 2018
Processed by Waverly Lowell and Lisa Monhoff, 2018
The Jack Hillmer Papers contain records related to the professional career of architect/educator Jack Hillmer (1918-2007)
and the Department/College of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. These records include manuscript materials,
photographs, drawings, publications, and clippings. They document Hillmer’s personal life, architectural career, and teaching,
as well as his involvement with professional organizations.
The Jack Hillmer Papers are organized into four series: Personal, Professional, Educator, and Projects.
The Personal Papers (carton 1, OVF 1-2) contain biographical material, files related to Hillmer’s education, theater performances,
writings, and artwork. They also include family correspondence and photographs, personal correspondence and photographs,
and travel slides. Also included are the files of a court case resulting from the dissolution of assets resulting from the
end of his relationship with architectural photographer Roy Flamm (box 1). Professional Papers (cartons 1-2, box 1) consist
of correspondence, files on exhibitions and articles that are about or include Hillmer’s design work, particularly the Ludekens
House, awards, his writings, presentations, and research; calendars and day planners (1940s-2000), unidentified photographs
of Marin County, and publications and event material generated by the Friends of Kebyar (1984-1996), a group that focuses
on Bruce Goff and organic architecture. The Educator Papers (cartons 2-3) comprises records of Hillmer’s employment at the
University of California, Berkeley (1951-1962, 1973-1974) and later the UC Extension. They consist of records of faculty meetings
and committees; courses he taught, student papers, and the formation of the College of Environmental Design and its new building.
Project Records (cartons 4-5, box 1, flat box, tubes 1-2, oversize_folders 4-68) include correspondence, specifications, contracts,
sketches, drawings, photographs, and slides from designs for architectural projects including residences, commercial, educational,
and religious properties. Hillmer designed a limited number of innovative residences in the Bay Region style as well as remodels
and additions for existing structures. This series also contains records for projects he worked on with Warren Callister and
two homes he rebuilt after the 1991 Oakland/Berkeley Firestorm of 1991, one of which he had completed for the client barely
a decade earlier; as well as drawings he created while working for other architects such as Wurster, Bernardi and Emmons,
and Vernon DeMars.
Some materials in these collections may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). In addition, the reproduction
of some materials may be restricted by terms of University of California gift or purchase agreements, donor restrictions,
privacy and publicity rights, licensing and trademarks. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond
that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be
commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
For additional information about the University of California, Berkeley Library's permissions policy please see: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/about/permissions-policies