Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Cardwell, Kenneth Collection
2010.-01
No online items
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
University of California, Berkeley. College of Environmental Design. Environmental Design Archives
Title: Kenneth Cardwell Collection
Creator:
Cardwell, Kenneth H., 1920-2010
Identifier/Call Number: 2010.-01
Physical Description:
5 Linear Feet:
4 cartons, 1 legal sized document box, 1 shoebox, 1 card file box
Date (inclusive): 1941-1994
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], Kenneth Cardwell Collection, Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley.
Longtime resident of Berkeley, Kenneth H. Cardwell (1920 – 2010) was born in Los Angeles, California. He attended Occidental
College for two years before transferring to UC Berkeley (UCB) in 1939 to study architecture. During World War II, Cardwell
took a break in his studies and enlisted in the U.S. (Army) Air Force in the South Pacific from 1941-1945. After an honorable
discharge, he returned to UC Berkeley and completed his BA in Architecture in 1947. He worked in the firms of Thomsen and
Wilson of San Francisco; Michael Goodman, and Winfield Scott Wellington in Berkeley; Kolbeck, Cardwell & Christopherson in
Oakland; and Hall, Goodhue, and Haisley. Early in his professional career, he also worked as a historical preservationist
and reconstruction consultant with his wife, Mary (Sullivan) Cardwell, also a UCB graduate.
Early in the 1940s, Cardwell became friends with Bernard and Annie Maybeck, beginning his lifelong fascination and scholarly
research on Maybeck. He worked alongside Maybeck to catalogue the homes designed by Maybeck throughout Berkeley. Out of his
research of and with Maybeck, Cardwell published Bernard Maybeck: Artisan, Architect, Artist in 1977, republished in 1996;
a groundbreaking book that brought Maybeck's name to the forefront of architectural history.
In 1949 Cardwell began teaching at the University of California, Berkeley and retired as a full professor in 1982. He created
and taught the University's first course in Historic Preservation, which integrated the cultural and literary heritage of
the West with the development of its physical environment. While at Berkeley, Cardwell also began collecting many architectural
records relating to Bay Area Architectural History, developing what would become the College of Environmental Design Archives.
He collected the works of Bernard Maybeck, Julia Morgan, John Galen Howard, Willis Polk, and Charles Greene.
In 1976, Kenneth Cardwell joined the firm Hall, Goodhue, and Haisley where he worked as an architectural preservationist and
in community conservation. At this firm, he used his knowledge of architectural styles, construction techniques, and biographical
information of individual architects to most accurately report and restore northern Californian historical sites. Important
projects he surveyed, restored, and consulted on during this time include: the Historical American Buildings Survey on the
U.S. Mint and Montgomery Block of San Francisco, the Sanchez Adobe building, the Cooper-Molera Adobe, the U.S. Customs House
and U.S. Post Office, and South Hall at the University of California, Berkeley.
Upon retirement in 1982 he received the University of Berkeley Citation for Distinguished Teaching. Kenneth Cardwell was elected
a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. A civic-minded citizen, he served on Berkeley's Civic Art Commission and
the Board of Adjustments.
Sources:
Kenneth Cardwell, Curriculum Vitae
Kenneth Cardwell Obituary, East Bay Times from Jan. 14 to Jan. 16, 2010
"In Memoriam," by S. Tobriner 2011,
https://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/inmemoriam/html/kennethhcardwell.html
The collection is organized in six series: Personal Papers, Professional Papers, Faculty Papers, Project Records, Historical
Preservation Records, and Maybeck Records. Within each series, order has been imposed by the archivist where original order
was not evident.
The Kenneth Cardwell Collections spans the years from 1941-1994, and includes files created by Cardwell, the firms he worked
for, and records pertinent to his research and teaching materials. This collection mainly documents his work as an architect,
preservationist, and researcher.
Series I: Personal Papers (1941-1982) contains biographical information and photographs from Cardwell's time serving in the
U.S. military during WWII when he was stationed in New Guinea and England.
Series II: Professional Papers (1955-1991) contains correspondence relating to Cardwell's time as faculty of the College of
Environmental Design and the publishing of his book Bernard Maybeck: Artisan, Architect, Artist; unpublished writings, such
as histories of places and biographies of individual architects; presentations; and various office records from the firm Hall,
Goodhue, and Haisley.
Series III: Faculty Papers (1955-1965) contains teaching materials and work done by his students during his time as a professor
at the Department of Architecture at UC Berkeley. Classes he taught include Housing Facilities (co-taught with Vernon DeMars),
Neighborhood Health Centers, and Architectural Preservation and Documentation.
Series IV: Project Records (1949-1985) contains documents, drawings, and photographs of architectural projects designed by
Cardwell. These projects, mostly residential, done for private clients in the Bay Area during the 1950s and 1960s and include
additions and remodeling. These projects were done during the time that Cardwell worked for the firms Kolbeck, Cardwell, Christopherson,
and for himself under the name K. Cardwell Architects.
Series V: Historical Preservation Records (1953-1994) consists of documents, surveys, drawings, and photographs relating to
Cardwell's work as an architectural preservationist and a historic architecture consultant. This includes work done as a private
consultant for governmental agencies such as the Department of Park and Recreation, Department of Transportation (Caltrans),
the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the firm Hall, Goodhue, and Hailsey where he worked on many historic architectural
sites throughout Northern California creating historic evaluations, surveys, and structural reports. The Historical Preservation
Records contains documents (such as reports, descriptive site evaluations, and research files pertaining to paint colors,
vernacular designs, and other design notes), drawings, and photographs (from either archival sources, or taken by Cardwell).
Series VI: Maybeck, contains reference images relating to Cardwell's lifelong research on Bernard Maybeck, teaching materials,
and his book Bernard Maybeck: Artisan, Architect, Artist. These images include photographs, negatives, positives, and glass
slides taken by Cardwell and others. This series also contains three sounds recordings from an interview done by Bernard Maybeck
and Robert Schutz done in 1953 titled, "Men and Issues."
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Architects -- California.
Architectural preservation
Architects -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area.
Historic preservation