Donald Olsen (July 23, 1919 - March 21, 2015) was an important mid-20th-century Bay Area architect. He was born in Minnesota. He studied under Walter Gropius at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and established an architecture practice in Berkeley in 1953. In 1954, he designed Olsen House (known as

Donald and Helen Olsen House The Donald and Helen Olsen House, in Berkeley, California, was built in 1954. (26 pages, with multiple photos) It is a Modernist, International-style house designed by architect Donald Olsen. Olsen is a native of Minnesota who studied under ...

) in the

International Style International style may refer to: * International Style (architecture), the early 20th century modern movement in architecture *International style (art), the International Gothic style in medieval art *International Style (dancing), a term used in ...

in Berkeley, California. Olsen was a member of the UC Berkeley School of Architecture faculty, which became the Department of Architecture when the College of Environmental Design was founded in 1959. Along with

Vernon DeMars Vernon Armond DeMars (February 26, 1908 – April 29, 2005) was an American architect and professor at the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design. He specialized in Modernist housing projects and public housing complexes. Biography Vernon ...

and Joseph Esherick, he designed

Wurster Hall The College of Environmental Design, also known as the Berkeley CED, or simply CED, is one of fourteen schools and colleges at the University of California, Berkeley. The school is located in Bauer Wurster Hall on the southeast corner of the mai ...

, which opened in 1964.

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Further reading