Joseph Esherick (December 28, 1914 – December 17, 1998) was an American architect.

Architectural career

Joseph Esherick was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in 1937 with a bachelor's degree in architecture. Esherick worked for

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

architect Gardner Dailey, and, about 1950, began his own practice in the

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

. He taught 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 ...

for many years. Esherick was awarded the

AIA Gold Medal The AIA Gold Medal is awarded by the American Institute of Architects conferred "by the national AIA Board of Directors in recognition of a significant body of work of lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture." It is the Ins ...

in 1989. Following in the tradition of Bay Area architects such as

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

William Wurster William Wilson Wurster (October 20, 1895 – September 19, 1973) was an American architect and architectural teacher at the University of California, Berkeley, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, best known for his residential desig ...

, Esherick designed hundreds of houses, emphasizing regional traditions, site requirements, and user needs. In 1938, Esherick married Rebecca Wood whom he knew from Penn. About ten years later Rebecca designed their own home in Kent Woodlands with Joe consulting. The style of the house with a huge gabled roof and large glass walls is stunningly modern. In 1946, Rebecca earned her architectural license and worked for her husband on a variety of projects while raising their three children. In 1959, Esherick was the co-founder, along with

and

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 ...

, of Berkeley's influential College of Environmental Design (CED). The CED encompassed disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture, environmental planning and city planning, and served as a nexus for figures like

Christopher Alexander Christopher Wolfgang John Alexander (4 October 1936 – 17 March 2022) was an Austrian-born British-American architect and design theorist. He was an emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley. His theories about the nature o ...

Catherine Bauer Catherine Krouse Bauer Wurster (May 11, 1905 – November 21, 1964) was an American public housing advocate and educator of city planners and urban planners. A leading member of the "housers," a group of planners who advocated affordable housi ...

Galen Cranz Galen Cranz is a Professor of the Graduate School, Architecture at the College of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies the social and cultural bases of architectural and urban design. She is a certified teac ...

Donlyn Lyndon Donlyn Lyndon is an American Third Bay Tradition architect and the Eva Li Professor Emeritus of Architecture and Urban Design at the University of California, Berkeley. Lyndon was a co-designer of Sea Ranch, California. Education M.F.A. Archite ...

Roger Montgomery Roger Montgomery (1925–2003) was an American architect, and Professor at Washington University in St. Louis and University of California, Berkeley. Early life and education Roger Montgomery was born in New York City to parents Graham Livings ...

, Charles Moore, and

William Wilson Wurster William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Eng ...

. In 1972, Esherick reorganized his office, turning away from houses to more commercial and academic work, with three longtime associates George Homsey, Peter Dodge and Chuck Davis to form Esherick Homsey Dodge & Davis, the winner of the 1986

Architecture Firm Award The Architecture Firm Award is the highest honor that The American Institute of Architects can bestow on an architecture firm for consistently producing distinguished architecture. Prior recipients of the AIA Architecture Firm Award include: *202 ...

. The firm continues today as

EHDD Esherick Homsey Dodge and Davis (also known as EHDD Architecture) is a United States-based architecture, interiors, planning and urban design firm. EHDD is ranked among the top 20 architecture firms in the San Francisco Bay Area where it is head ...

Architecture. In 1976, Esherick was elected into the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...

as an Associate member, and became a full Academician in 1990. Esherick was the nephew of American sculptor

Wharton Esherick Wharton Esherick (July 15, 1887 – May 6, 1970) was an American sculptor who worked primarily in wood, especially applying the principles of sculpture to common utilitarian objects. Consequently, he is best known for his sculptural furniture a ...

Work (partial list)

* Hubbard House, Dover, Massachusetts, 1957 * House at Kentwoodlands, Kent Woodlands, California, 1957 * Hubbard at end of Spring Road, Ross, CA, April 5, 1959 * Cary House,

Mill Valley Mill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, United States, located about north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge and from Napa Valley. The population was 14,231 at the 2020 census. Mill Valley is located on the western and ...

, California, 1960 * Harold E. Jones Child Study Center, at

, 1960 * Bermak House, Oakland, California, 1963, with architec
Peter Dodge
* Six Sea Ranch Demonstration Houses (now called The Hedgerow Homes) (in collaboration with landscape architect

Lawrence Halprin Lawrence Halprin (July 1, 1916 – October 25, 2009) was an American landscape architect, designer and teacher. Beginning his career in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, in 1949, Halprin often collaborated with a local circle of modernist a ...

, three small scale Demonstration houses called Mini-Mods, as well as other private residences at The Sea Ranch

Sonoma County Sonoma County () is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, its population was 488,863. Its county seat and largest city is Santa Rosa, California, Santa Rosa. It is to the n ...

, California, 1967 * The Cannery, San Francisco, California, 1968 * Mountain House (aka Roscoe House)

Alamo, California Alamo (Spanish: ''Álamo''; meaning "Poplar tree") is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Contra Costa County, California, in the United States. It is a suburb located in the San Francisco Bay Area's East Bay regi ...

, 1972 * Garfield School, San Francisco, California, 1981 *

Flora Lamson Hewlett Library The Flora Lamson Hewlett Library is the central library of the Graduate Theological Union. Located on the summit of the "Holy Hill" area of Berkeley, California, its collections comprise one of the largest collections of theological works in t ...

Graduate Theological Union The Graduate Theological Union (GTU) is a consortium of eight private independent American theological schools and eleven centers and affiliates. Seven of the theological schools are located in Berkeley, California. The GTU was founded in 1962 ...

, Berkeley, 1981 * Silver Lake Lodge,

Deer Valley Deer Valley is an alpine ski resort in the Wasatch Range, located east of Salt Lake City, in Park City, Utah, United States. The resort, known for its upscale amenities, is consistently ranked among the top ski resorts in North America. Deer V ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

, 1982 *

Monterey Bay Aquarium Monterey Bay Aquarium is a nonprofit public aquarium in Monterey, California. Known for its regional focus on the marine habitats of Monterey Bay, it was the first to exhibit a living kelp forest when it opened in October 1984. Its biologists ...

Monterey Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under both ...

, California, 1984 * Hermitage Condominiums, San Francisco, California, 1984 * McGuire house, 268 Seadrift Road,

Stinson Beach, California Stinson Beach is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Marin County, California, on the west coast of the United States. Stinson Beach is located east-southeast of Bolinas, at an elevation of . The population of the Sti ...

, 1987
Henry's Fork Lodge

Island Park, Idaho Island Park is a city in Fremont County, Idaho, United States. The city's population was 286 at the 2010 census, up from 215 in 2000. The city was incorporated by owners of the many lodges and resorts along U.S. Route 20 in 1947, primarily to c ...

, 1991 *

Aquarium of the Pacific The Aquarium of the Pacific (formerly the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific) is a public aquarium on a site on Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach, California, United States. It is situated across the water from the Long Beach Convention Center, Shore ...

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

, 1998 * Tenderloin Community School, 1999

Notes

References

Joseph Esherick. An architectural practice in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1938-1996 : oral history transcript / 1996A Bay Region master: The architecture of Joseph Esherick finally gets its due

External links

*
Finding aid to the Joseph Esherick Collection at the Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley
* https://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/25/arts/joseph-esherick-83-an-acclaimed-architect.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Esherick, Joseph 1914 births 1998 deaths 20th-century American architects University of Pennsylvania School of Design alumni UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design faculty People from the San Francisco Bay Area Architecture in the San Francisco Bay Area Architects from Philadelphia Recipients of the AIA Gold Medal