Architect Bernard Maybeck and His Experiments With Concrete in Berkeley

Bernard Maybeck (1864-1954) was not only a great architect (, Berkeley, 1910 and the Palace of Fine Arts. San Francisco, 1915) but he relished experimenting with new materials and methods of construction including the use of concrete.

After Maybeck returned from his studies at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris in 1888 his first job was with Carrere & Hastings of New York who were working on the Ponce de Leon Hotel in St. Augustine, Florida. According to Maybeck biographer Kenneth Cardwell, the hotel was the first “large multi-storied concrete building in the United States” (Bernard Maybeck: Artisan, Architect, Artist by Kenneth Cardwell.)

For the “fireproof” Andrew Lawson House of 1907, Maybeck used concrete walls covered with smooth plaster imbedded with pigment; even the roof was made of concrete. In 1910, for his remarkable First Church of Christ Science, he used cast concrete for the massive pillars supporting the roof trusses in its raw form, enhanced only by decorative painted details. He is also designed massive concrete fireplaces in many of his houses.

After the 1923 North Berkeley fire destroyed his home, Maybeck built a small house using a new form of concrete called “Bubblestone”. The technique used burlap sacks dipped into a frothy mix of concrete and then hung, shingle-style, onto exterior walls.  

In 1937, Maybeck designed a concrete house in Kensington for his son Wallen. Located on the ridge overlooking Wildcat Canyon, Maybeck wanted the house to resist the weather and be fire proof. He used poured-in-place, modular concrete wall panels using a method developed by Arthur E. Troeil (1889-1955) of Oakland that sandwiched insulating material between the concrete. Window and door openings could be inset into the panels. Troeil had obtained a patent for a “System of Concrete Construction” (#619,321) in 1927 that is referenced in many subsequent patents for concrete panels.

It was in this building that Maybeck first used concrete wall panels with an open latticework pattern filled with glass blocks, and it is the first known use of this concrete latticework design in a building in the Bay Area. Maybeck used the lattice-pattern concrete walls for the garage and kitchen. The method of construction, said to have been developed by Maybeck working with Troeil (Thomas Gordon Smith, Fine Homebuilding, April 1981, p. 74-81), used square metal pans to fill the desired openings when the concrete was poured. After the concrete cured the pans were removed and the glass blocks inserted into the holes.

However, history can be a bit slippery — In 1936 Rodney F. Phillips (1880-1962), an Oakland inventor who had earned a degree in Chemistry from the University of California in 1904, applied for a patent — #165,905 for a “Concrete Wall Form”.  Before the patent was issued in July of 1939, Phillips had assigned a half interest to George A. Scott (1871-1945) of Berkeley so the patent belonged to both men. Interestingly, the documentation for this patent contains no reference to Troeil’s earlier wall-form patent even though both techniques resulted in similar looking wall panels.

Scott was a contractor, property owner and businessman. In 1912 Maybeck designed a house for Scott at 2350 Vine Street. Only the concrete fireplace and chimney remained standing after the house was destroyed during the 1923 fire. The surviving chimney was later incorporated in the replacement house that stands today. 

In 1938 Scott built a “Concrete Wall Form” demonstration building at 3075 Telegraph designed by Walter Steilberg an architect also interested in concrete construction and a friend of Maybeck’s. The demonstration building had samples of cylindrical glass and, square glass blocks in a lattice pattern. Notes taken during a 1977 phone interview with George A. Scott’s son-in-law, J. Allen Bray, Bray said: “Barney” Maybeck and Walter Steilberg were consulting architects.

In 2003, 3075 Telegraph was designated a landmark, but the designation was overturned by the City Council and the building demolished in 2005. A few panels (now missing their glass blocks) were retained at the back of the property. However, no professional record was made of its construction method so that information is now lost.

In 1938, the Mobilized Women of Berkeley, a charity organization founded in 1917 as a response to the World War I war effort, engaged Maybeck, whose wife Annie was a long time member, to design a building for them at 1001 University Avenue.  The permit (#45459) was issued in September and the building was complete the end of December. It was described as a 5-room, 1-story building. The architect is listed as Maybeck and the contractor was Ensor H. Buel. The building used the patent-pending “Grid Form Wall” by Rodney F. Phillips and George A. Scott. While Maybeck used a variety of materials for this building, the concrete lattice-work grid form, filled with translucent glass blocks, was its dominant feature. This building was damaged by fire in 1975 and demolished in 1980 after much deliberation because it had been designed by Maybeck.

In 1939, George Scott and the Concrete Grid Form Company were exhibitors at the Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island. Architect & Engineer covered the company’s exhibit in September 1940 and stated: “When anything genuinely new or different is offered the building industry the first question asked is ‘How about the cost?’... something new, something better, something more economical... Experts who have studied this new form of concrete construction describe it as a ‘NEW TOOL to increase better building.’ Its possibilities for low cost, good looking, fireproof homes are recognized.”

After WWII a new and improved gird-form wall panel was developed by Fred Stadelhofer of Berkeley Pump. After some experimenting on a garage in East Contra Costa County he came up with an easier method of construction. The Scott and Rodney method produced walls with empty holes that would be glazed after the concrete set.  Stadelhofer’s method put the glass blocks or small windows into a reinforced wall form before the concrete was poured, making it an all-in one process (patent #2,165,905 filed June 27, 1945; issued Sept. 2, 1947). This was a huge improvement and between 1943-1953 about 20 grid-form buildings were constructed, mostly industrial, in West Berkeley.

In 1949 the Mobilized Women of Berkeley had a second building constructed next to the one they had built in 1938.  This is also a grid-form building and it is still standing at 1007 University Avenue. The Mobilized Women’s Board of Directors minutes of Aug 20., 1947 reported that “Mrs. Gannon (Maybeck’s daughter) showed some very interesting drawings made by Mr. Maybeck of a new addition to 1001 University.” (Mobilized Women of Berkeley records 1917-1969  BANCROFT LIBRARY Collection Number: BANC MSS 70/10 c — Carton 1).

Although Maybeck is not listed as the architect on the building permit of the new building, when it was complete in 1949, a newpaper article noted “...Bernard Maybeck was the architect of the original building and his ideas have been carried out in the new one by Contractor Ensor Buell [sic], Asst. Architect P. L. Coates [sic], and Landscape Architect Phillip Kearney.”

Maybeck’s enthusiasm for new materials and his remarkable ability to use them in unique ways is one of his many legacies. 

On March 4, 2010, the Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously designated 1007 University Avenue a City of Berkeley Landmark. The building has a wonderful new life as Bauman College dedicated to Holistic Nutrition and Culinary Arts. baumancollege.org