The Bull Collection is comprised of four series: Personal Papers, Professional Papers, Office Records, and Project Records. The small amount of Personal Papers contains a student project and correspondence. The Professional Papers include correspondence with clients, colleagues and the public and articles written by Bull regarding architectural practice and building techniques. Office records are comprised of general correspondence, public relations brochures and portfolios, a firm award and portfolios documenting single projects assembled as award submissions, tear sheets and clippings for different projects, and photographs, drawings and documents of projects for use in publication, public relations or presentation material. The Project Records contain design documents, correspondence, and drawings for work done independently and with his partnerships and firms.

Henrik Helkand Bull (1929, New York City - d. 2013, Berkeley, CA) was the only child of Johan Bull (1893–1945) and Sonja Geelmuyden Bull (1898–1992). Johan Bull, a native of Norway, was an illustrator who had regularly contributed to New Yorker magazine. A cousin of Bull's grandfather, also named Henrik Bull, designed several of Oslo's landmark civic buildings at the end of the 19th century. Bull began his studies at MIT in aeronautical engineering, and switched to architecture after the first year. While at MIT he studied with Ralph Rapson, Buckminster Fuller, and Alvar Aalto. Prior to his graduation from MIT in 1952, Bull worked the summer of 1951 in San Francisco with architect Mario Corbett. As a first lieutenant in the USAF, Bull was stationed at MIT Lincoln Laboratory and worked with Buckminster Fuller on developing the geodesic radar domes for the Distant Early Warning Line (DEW Line) system at the north slope of Alaska. He built an early A-frame ski cabin in the United States with his friend John Flender in Stowe, Vermont in 1953. In 1954, Bull returned to San Francisco to work again with Mario Corbett. On the basis of being commissioned to design several ski cabins, Bull opened his own architectural office in 1956. His early practice included homes, condominiums and later hotels and institutional buildings. In the 1950s and the 1960s, Bull designed several prefabricated or kit cabins. In 1962, he was chosen to design the Sunset Magazine Discovery House: a "dream house" limited to 2,000 square feet. Bull designed the home as a series of four sky lit pavilions built around an enclosed courtyard. It was the first home built in the newly established town of El Dorado Hills. In 1967, Henrik Bull, John Field, Sherwood Stockwell and Daniel Volkmann formed Bull Field Volkmann Stockwell. Their first large project together was the planning and architecture for Northstar at Tahoe, a new four season resort. [7] The firm continued under the following names: Bull Field Volkmann Stockwell Bull Volkmann Stockwell Bull Stockwell Allen Bull Stockwell Allen & Ripley Bull Stockwell Allen / BSA Architects.

34 Linear Feet: 3 cartons, 2 tubes, 10 flat file drawers

All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in the collection should be discussed with the Curator.

Collection is open for research.