Guide to the Jack Hillmer Papers

Waverly Lowell, Lisa Monhoff, Lara Michels

The Bancroft Library

2019

The Bancroft Library

University of California

Berkeley, CA 94720-6000

bancref@library.berkeley.edu

URL: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/libraries/bancroft-library

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.

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Richard Ehrenberger, 2017.

Arrangement

Arranged to the folder level.

Biographical / Historical

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.

Sources:

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

Processing Information

Processed by Waverly Lowell and Lisa Monhoff, 2018

Scope and Contents

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.

Conditions Governing Use

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

Series 1. Personal approximately 1945-2004

Carton 1, folder 1-1A

Biographical and genealogical

Carton 1, folder 2-4

Education

Carton 1, folder 5-6

Theater performances and poetry

Carton 1, folder 7

Jack's floral

Carton 1, folder 8

Family photographs

Carton 1, folder 9

Texas property

Carton 1, folder 10

Theodore W. Hillmer (father)

Carton 1, folder 11

Family correspondence 1945-1963

Carton 1, folder 12

Organizations 1994-1995

Carton 1, folder 15-20

Personal correspondence 1959-1998

Carton 1, folder 21-25

Personal photographs

Carton 1, folder 26-30

Personal travel

Carton 1, folder 31-32

Personal--interiors and landscapes

box 1, folder 1-2

Hillmer vs. Roy Flamm (photographer) 1962-1966

box 1, folder 11

Two unidentified 8mm film reels

Physical Description: 2 film reel 8mm; 50 feet

Series 2. Professional 1948-2000

carton 1, folder 33-34

Correspondence 1948-1993

carton 1, folder 35-36

Exhibitions 1949-1962

box 1, folder 3

Exhibitions: A Completely Integrated House (Legion of Honor) 1955

carton 1, folder 37-38

Publications about Hillmer 1948-2004

box 1, folder 4

Published references on Ludekins House approximately 1950-1989

carton 1, folder 39-42

Exhibitions 1963-1993

carton 1, folder 43

Awards 1943

carton 1, folder 44

Book manuscripts

carton 1, folder 45

Architectural Forum interview 1951

carton 1, folder 46

Presentations

carton 1, folder 47

Research on Vernon DeMars 1987

carton 1, folder 48

Professional sample specifications--research

carton 1, folder 49

Assorted research

carton 1, folder 50

Research on Fred Langhorst's Horowitz House

carton 1, folder 51-52

Professional miscellany

carton 2, folder 1-8

Planners 1948-2000

carton 2, folder 9-15

Friends of Kebyar 1986-1995

box 1, folder 10

Unidentified photographs undated

oversize-folder 69

Unidentified photographs undated

Series 3. Educator 1952-1973

carton 2, folder 16

Employment

carton 2, folder 17

William Wurster correspondence 1958-1963

carton 2, folder 18-26

UC Berkeley, Department of Architecture files 1951-1959

carton 3, folder 1-5

UC Berkeley, Department of Architecture files 1960-1973

carton 3, folder 6

Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture 1959-1961

carton 3, folder 7

References 1954-1968

carton 3, folder 8

UC Berkeley, Department of Architecture Exhibit Committee 1960

carton 3, folder 9

University of Oklahoma, Focus on Fine Arts Festival (lecture) 1963

carton 3, folder 10

New Design College 1953-1959

carton 3, folder 11

Committee on Student Relations 1960-1961

carton 3, folder 12

UC Berkeley, Department of Architecture research 1959-1961

carton 3, folder 13

College of Environmental Design, space utilization 1961-1962

carton 3, folder 14-32

Course files (syllabi, etc.) 1952-1964

carton 3, folder 33-41

UC Extension materials 1965-1969

Series 4. Projects 1948-1994

carton 4, folder 1

734 Bay Street (San Francisco, Calif.) 1977

oversize_box 1

425 Bush Street, San Francisco 1946

Carton 4, folder 2

Baghdad Opera House Competition, Baghdad, Iraq 1962-1963

carton 4, folder 3

Barnes, Cecil, addition (Palo Alto, Calif.) undated

oversize_folder 5

Barnes, Cecil, addition (Palo Alto, Calif.) undated

Carton 4, folder 4

Brown, Don, remodel (San Francisco, Calif.) 1977

oversize_folder 6-7

Brown, Don, remodel (San Francisco, Calif.) 1977

box 1, folder 5

Brown, Don, remodel (San Francisco, Calif.) 1977

carton 4

Bush Street Penthouse (San Francisco, Calif.) undated

carton 4, folder 6-15

Cagliostro, Dominick (I) (Berkeley, Calif.) 1972-1979

oversize_folder 8-12

Cagliostro, Dominick (I) (Berkeley, Calif.) 1972-1979

tube 1

Cagliostro, Dominick (I) (Berkeley, Calif.) 1972-1979

box 1, folder 6

Cagliostro, Dominick (I) (Berkeley, Calif.) 1972-1979

Carton 4, folder 16-23

Cagliostro, Dominick (II) (Berkeley, Calif.) 1992

oversize_folder 13-14

Cagliostro, Dominick (II) (Berkeley, Calif.) 1992

oversize_folder 15

California Arts Center competition (Berkeley, Calif.) undated

oversize_box 1

Case Study House undated

oversize_folder 16

Chong, Arthur and Flora, kitchen remodel 1994-1996

Carton 4, folder 24

Chong, Arthur and Flora, kitchen remodel 1994-1996

Carton 4, folder 25

Chong, Arthur (office) undated

oversize_folder 17

Chong, Arthur (office) undated

oversize_folder 18

Collins, Robertson E. undated

Scope and Contents

Jacksonville, Oregon

carton 4, folder 26

Crane, Philip 1962-1964

Scope and Contents

Kent Woodlands

oversize_folder 19

Crane, Philip 1962-1964

Scope and Contents

Kent Woodlands, Calif.

oversize_folder 20

Crane, Philip 1962-1964

Scope and Contents

Kent Woodlands, Calif.

carton 4, folder 27

Daugherty, Pat: sideboard undated

oversize_folder 4

Daugherty, Pat: sideboard undated

carton 4, folder 28-29

Dodson, Jack & Caroly 1949

Scope and Contents

San Anselmo, Calif.

oversize_folder 21

Dodson, Jack & Carolyn 1949

Scope and Contents

San Anselmo, Calif.

carton 4, folder 30

East Bay Regional Parks 1966

Scope and Contents

Oakland, Calif.

oversize_folder 22

East Bay Regional Parks 1966

Scope and Contents

Oakland, Calif.

Carton 4, folder 31

Exhibit Designs undated

carton 4, folder 32

First Church Christ Science: remodel 1973-1974

Scope and Contents

Berkeley, Calif.

oversize_folder 23

First Church Christ Science: remodel undated

Scope and Contents

Berkeley, Calif.

carton 4, folder 33

Gonzalez, Amado & Mary 1946

Scope and Contents

Marin County, Calif.

oversize_folder 24

Gonzalez, Amado & Mary 1946

Scope and Contents

Marin County, Calif.

carton 4, folder 34-36

Hall, Haines & Betty 1946-1948

Scope and Contents

Kent Woodlands; Callister, Warren (architect)

oversize_folder 25

Hall, Haines & Betty 1947-1984

Scope and Contents

Kent Woodlands

oversize_folder 26

Hall, Haines & Betty 1947-1984

Scope and Contents

Kent Woodlands

oversize_box 1

Hall, Haines & Betty 1947-1984

Scope and Contents

Kent Woodlands

carton 5, folder 1-2

Heavenly Valley Village: models 1970

Scope and Contents

South Lake Tahoe, Calif.; Flood, David J. (architect)

carton 5, folder 3-4

Hergel, Eugene & Hedwig: school & residence 1957

Scope and Contents

San Francisco, Calif.

oversize_folder 27

Hergel, Eugene & Hedwig: school & residence 1957

Scope and Contents

San Francisco, Calif.

oversize_folder 28

Hergel, Eugene & Hedwig: school & residence 1957

Scope and Contents

San Francisco, Calif.

oversize_folder 4

Hillmer, Jack: darkroom undated

oversize_folder 4

Horn, Erling 1957

Scope and Contents

Oakland, Calif.

carton 5, folder 5

Hozz, Abe 1952-1955

Scope and Contents

Kent Woodlands

oversize_folder 29

Hozz, Abe 1952-1955

Scope and Contents

Kent Woodlands

carton 5, folder 6

Hudson, Dr: remodel undated

Scope and Contents

San Francisco, Calif.

oversize_folder 4

Lathrop Baths: remodel undated

Scope and Contents

Maybec, Bernard (original architect)

carton 5, folder 7

Kaynar Mfg, Inc 1955-1956

Scope and Contents

Los Angeles, Calif.

oversize_folder 30

Kaynar Mfg, Inc 1955-1956

Scope and Contents

Los Angeles, Calif.; Pei, I.M (architect, engineer)

oversize_folder 31

Kaynar Mfg, Inc 1955-1956

Scope and Contents

Los Angeles, Calif.; Pei, I.M (architect, engineer)

carton 5, folder 8

Lathrop, Welland: remodel 1970

Scope and Contents

San Francisco, Calif.; Maybec, Bernard (original architect)

carton 5, folder 9

Low, Howard 1959

oversize_folder 4

Low, Howard 1959

carton 5, folder 10

Low, Jerry Han Mon (residence and office remodel) 1978-1979

Scope and Contents

San Francisco, Calif.

oversize_folder 32

Low, Jerry Han Mon (residence and office remodel) 1978-1979

Scope and Contents

San Francisco, Calif.

carton 5, folder 11-12