Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Inventory of the William Turnbull, Jr./MLTW Collection, 1959-1997
2000-9
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Description
The collection consists of records of architect William Turnbull Jr. and the Moore, Lyndon, Turnbull, and Whitaker architectural
firm. The majority of the collection documents William Turnbull Jr./MLTW projects between 1958-1997. The Sea Ranch development,
commissioned by Oceanic Properties, is the development that put Turnbull on the architectural map, as well as influenced the
look of developments on the Pacific coastline for decades to come. Of note in the Project Records are those projects that
were either entirely the work of Charles Moore or were instigated by Moore.
Background
William Turnbull, Jr. was born in New York on April 1, 1935 and raised on a farm in Far Hills, New Jersey. Both his father
and great-grandfather were architects: the latter, George B. Post, was the architect of the New York Stock Exchange and planner
of Forest Hills Gardens, and in 1911 won the gold medal from the American Institute of Architects. As was his "birthright,"
Turnbull studied architecture at Princeton and the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. He returned to Princeton to receive his
Master's degree in 1959, studying under Louis I. Kahn and producing a thesis on the redevelopment of Ellis Island. For this
thesis, he received the AIA Student Medal. He befriended Charles Moore, a fellow graduate student at Princeton, and in 1960
moved to San Francisco, where he began working at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. One of his achievements at SOM was as a designer
of the Big Sur Coast Master Plan, which has been written into law and protects nearly 100 miles of pristine California coastline
from development.
Extent
96 cartons, 14 boxes, 2 flat boxes, 13 linear feet mounted and framed material, approximately 700 tubes, 11 artifacts
Restrictions
All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in the collection should be discussed with the
Curator.
Availability
Collection open for research.