First Bay Tradition (also known as First Bay Area Tradition or San Francisco Bay Region Tradition) was an

architectural style An architectural style is a set of characteristics and features that make a building or other structure notable or historically identifiable. It is a sub-class of style in the visual arts generally, and most styles in architecture relate closely ...

from the period of the 1880s to early 1920s. Sometimes considered a regional interpretation of the Eastern Shingle Style, it came as a reaction to the classicism of

Beaux-Arts architecture Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorp ...

. Its characteristics included a link to nature, and use of locally sourced materials such as redwood. It included an emphasis on craftsmanship, volume, form, and asymmetry. The tradition was rooted in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

and the greater Bay Area. The Environmental Design Archives at 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 ...

house a repository of drawings and specifications associated with the tradition. Joseph Worcester, a minister, mystic, and amateur architect, is believed to have developed the First Bay Tradition in its early stages. The style was later popularized by the architects

Bernard Maybeck Bernard Ralph Maybeck (February 7, 1862 – October 3, 1957) was an American architect in the Arts and Crafts Movement of the early 20th century. He was an instructor at University of California, Berkeley. Most of his major buildings were in ...

and

Willis Polk Willis Jefferson Polk (October 3, 1867 – September 10, 1924) was an American architect, best known for his work in San Francisco, California. For ten years, he was the West Coast representative of D.H. Burnham & Company. In 1915, Polk oversaw t ...

. Other architects associated with the tradition included A. Page Brown, Ernest Coxhead,

John Galen Howard John Galen Howard (May 8, 1864 in Chelmsford, Massachusetts – July 18, 1931 in San Francisco, California) was an American architect and educator who began his career in New York before moving to California. He was the principal architect at in ...

Julia Morgan Julia Morgan (January 20, 1872 – February 2, 1957) was an American architect and engineer. She designed more than 700 buildings in California during a long and prolific career.Erica Reder"Julia Morgan was a local in ''The New Fillmore'', 1 Febr ...

, Louis Christian Mullgardt, and A. C. Schweinfurth. Polk, Maybeck, and Schweinfurth had previously worked in Brown's office. The tradition influenced later styles such as the

Modernists Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

of the follow-on

Second Bay Tradition The Second Bay Tradition (or Second Bay Area Tradition) is an architectural style from the period of 1928 through 1942 that was rooted in San Francisco and the greater Bay Area. Also referred to as "redwood post and beam", the style is characterize ...

. Transitional architects associated with the bridge between these two traditions were Henry Higby Gutterson and

John Hudson Thomas John Hudson Thomas (1878-1945) was an American architect who practiced in the northern California area. Biography John H. Thomas was born in Nevada in 1878. His family relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area when he was still young. He attended Y ...

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