Douglas Baylis (January 7, 1915 – November 28, 1971) was a

landscape architect A landscape architect is a person who is educated in the field of landscape architecture. The practice of landscape architecture includes: site analysis, site inventory, site planning, land planning, planting design, grading, storm water manageme ...

often credited as a founder of the "California School" of modern landscape architecture alongside contemporaries Thomas Church,

Garrett Eckbo Garrett Eckbo (November 28, 1910 – May 14, 2000) was an American landscape architect notable for his seminal 1950 book '' Landscape for Living''. Youth He was born in Cooperstown, New York to Axel Eckbo, a businessman, and Theodora Munn Eck ...

, and

Robert Royston Robert N. Royston (1918 – September 19, 2008) was one of America's most distinguished landscape architects, based in the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. His design work and university teaching in the years followi ...

Early life and education

Baylis was born in 1915 in

East Orange, New Jersey East Orange is a City (New Jersey), city in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 69,612. The city was List of municipalities in ...

and moved to California, where he attended high school; he graduated in 1941 from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

with a degree in landscape architecture, minoring in art and architecture. His professors at Berkeley included H. Leland Vaughan, John William Gregg, and Harry Shepherd. Baylis was the first to receive the student award from the

American Society of Landscape Architects The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) is a professional association for landscape architects in the United States. The ASLA's mission is to advance landscape architecture through advocacy, communication, education, and fellowship ...

(ASLA). Baylis met his wife,

graphic designer A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, ...

Maggie (née Hilbiber), after she moved to California and advertised for "hands for hire"; the two were married in 1948. Doug and Maggie's strengths complemented each other and they collaborated successfully, primarily on residential gardens, throughout his career.

Career

After graduation, Baylis worked for Thomas Church for approximately four years before leaving to start his own firm, working from his home office on

Telegraph Hill A telegraph hill is a hill or other natural elevation that is chosen as part of an optical telegraph system. Telegraph Hill may also refer to: England * A high point in the Haldon Hills, Devon * Telegraph Hill, Dorset, a hill in the Dorset Down ...

. Baylis was retained as the supervising landscape architect for the Berkeley campus from 1956 to 1959. He served on the

San Francisco Arts Commission The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) is the City agency that champions the arts as essential to daily life by investing in a vibrant arts community, enlivening the urban environment and shaping innovative cultural policy in San Francisco, Cali ...

in the late 1950s and was appointed a trustee of the ASLA in 1963. Notable commissions include: *

Civic Center Plaza Civic Center Plaza, also known as Joseph Alioto Piazza, is the plaza immediately east of San Francisco City Hall in Civic Center, San Francisco, in the U.S. state of California. Civic Center Plaza occupies two blocks bounded by McAllister, Larkin ...

, San Francisco * Washington Square, San Francisco (1956, with Francis J. McCarthy) *

Monterey Road Monterey Road is a major Silicon Valley thoroughfare that runs from Gilroy north to San Jose, California, in Santa Clara County. It follows the historic route of El Camino Real and is an old alignment of U.S. Route 101. Route description Mon ...

* Gardens at IBM Headquarters, San Jose (1957, with John Savage Bolles) * and stations for

BART Bart is a masculine given name, usually a diminutive of Bartholomew, sometimes of Barton, Bartolomeo, etc. Bart is a Dutch and Ashkenazi Jewish surname, and derives from the name ''Bartholomäus'', a German form of the biblical name ''Barthol ...

(1968–70, with Ernest Born) * Unit-House, Hayward (in collaboration with architect Gordon Drake) Baylis was hired and created conceptual designs for the surface level of

Portsmouth Square Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most densel ...

in the late 1950s while plans were being prepared to excavate an

underground parking garage A multistorey car park (British and Singapore English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistory, parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck or indoor parking, is a build ...

, but later disavowed further work on the site. Douglas and Maggie Baylis worked with the Douglas Fir Plywood Association in the early 1960s to develop the "Play Projects": portable wooden structural units designed for children to stack, climb, and play, including Plyform (later renamed Tri-Tower), Flying Saucer, Tippy-totter, Freeway, Climbing Tower, and Kitty Corner.

Death and legacy

Baylis died in 1971 in San Francisco. A scholarship is named for Baylis, established in 1998 by the Maggie Baylis Revocable Living Trust, for landscape architecture students studying at

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (California Polytechnic State University, Cal Poly"Cal Poly" may also refer to California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt in Arcata, California or California State Polytechnic Univ ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baylis, Douglas 1915 births 1971 deaths 20th-century American artists American landscape architects American landscape and garden designers American designers Architecture in the San Francisco Bay Area California people in design Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area People from East Orange, New Jersey People from Marin County, California University of California, Berkeley alumni