Mario Joseph Ciampi (April 27, 1907 – July 6, 2006) was an American architect and urban planner best known for his modern design influence on public spaces and buildings in the
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 ...
.
Biography
Ciampi's parents emigrated from Italy to California in 1906. Guido and Palmira Ciampi travelled on the
SS ''Deutschland'' from
Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...
, arriving at
Ellis Island
Ellis Island is a federally owned island in New York Harbor, situated within the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, that was the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United States. From 1892 to 1954, nearly 12 mi ...
, New York on 3 March 1906. They had friends in San Francisco and arrived there just in time for the great
San Francisco earthquake
At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity sha ...
of April 18. The devastation caused by the earthquake and subsequent fire forced them to live in an Army issue tent on
the Presidio
''The Presidio'' is a 1988 American crime film directed by Peter Hyams and starring Sean Connery and Mark Harmon. Hyams also handled the cinematography and the score was composed by Bruce Broughton.
Plot
At the Presidio Army base in San Franci ...
for several months. Mario was born in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, 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 List of Ca ...
twelve months after the fire, on 27 April 1907.
Soon afterwards the family moved to
Schellville, California
Schellville is an unincorporated community in Sonoma County, California, United States. Schellville was named after Theodore L. Schell, who lived on a ranch nearby. The community is located in the vicinity of the junction of California State Rout ...
near
Sonoma, where Guido became a farmer. The farm had vegetables, fruit trees, animals, and a vineyard which eventually earned bonded winery status. As teenagers, Mario with his brothers Paul and Joe worked on the family vineyard and made extra money making wooden shipping crates for the neighborin
Sebastiani Winery
"From an early age he precociously sketched buildings for fun, and later seriously for Sonoma Valley friends and neighbors, but there was no money to send him to architecture school. So he entered the profession in the old way -- old-fashioned even in 1925 -- by going straight from high school to an apprenticeship in the San Francisco firm of Alexander Cantin and Dodge A. Riedy, who had worked on the great Pacific Telephone Building with
Timothy L. Pflueger.
"Working as a draftsman by day and taking night classes at the San Francisco Architectural Club..., Ciampi soon became a remarkable delineator in the Beaux Arts manner. Like almost all architects of his generation, he was still an eclectic, inspired by historic styles….
"Drawings of this quality won him successive scholarships to the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he was admitted in 1931 and 1932 as a special student (because he had no bachelor's degree).
"He returned to San Francisco after a stint at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and an extensive tour of Europe under a traveling fellowship arranged by Harvard."
Ciampi founded his design firm, M.J.C. and Associates, in 1945. Professional works of Mario Ciampi include the design and construction of university buildings, schools, churches, and commercial buildings including joint ventures with architectural organizations and collaboration with painters, sculptors and artists. He was commissioned to develop the Downtown Plan for San Francisco in 1963 including beautification of
Market Street Market Street may refer to:
*Market Street, Cambridge, England
*Market Street, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia
* Market Street, George Town, Penang, Malaysia
*Market Street, Manchester, England
*Market Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
...
,
Embarcadero,
Hallidie, and
United Nations Plazas. Much of his work was completed under the administrations of
Christopher
Christopher is the English language, English version of a Europe-wide name derived from the Greek language, Greek name Χριστόφορος (''Christophoros'' or ''Christoforos''). The constituent parts are Χριστός (''Christós''), "Jesus ...
,
Shelley,
Alioto,
Moscone, and
Feinstein Feinstein, Finestein ( yi, פֿײַנשטײַן, he, פיינשטיין, russian: Файнштейн, "Fajnsztajn", "Fajnsztejn" in Polish spelling) or anglicized as Finestone, meaning "fine stone", that is gemstone, is a compound surname of Germ ...
.
Ciampi was the urban design consultant for the Golden Gateway, Embarcadero Plaza, Rockefeller Center, Fisherman's Wharf, Yerba Buena Center, and freeway study for San Francisco with CAL TRANS. He developed the master plans for the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and St. Mary's College, Moraga.
"Probably his most important achievement -- prototypically Modern in its 'rational' elegance -- is the breathtaking series of 'air foil' overpasses and interchanges along Interstate 280
aliforniaas it winds down the Peninsula.
"Designed in 1965, after public protest compelled state highway engineers to seek outside help for aesthetics, Ciampi's streamlined concrete structures … transformed a crude preliminary scheme into one of the most gracious freeways in the world."
"Mario Ciampi, FAIA, architect of the extraordinary Berkeley Art Museum, designed numerous innovative schools in the late 1950s and 1960s. Among them are the Westmoor School, with its precast concrete barrel vaults spanning sixty feet; the Fernando Rivera Elementary School, with a prefabricated wood folded plate roof; and the circular Vista Mar School, all in Daly City; and an elementary school for Ciampi's hometown of Sonoma. All are characterized by novel structural systems integrating clerestory lighting, leaving large wall surfaces that incorporate significant artwork in relief."
In 1959, Ciampi received two honor awards from the American Institute of Architects, out of five awards given during that year. "San Francisco architect Mario J. Ciampi's two schools, the Sonoma Elementary School in Sonoma and the Westmoor High School, Daly City
erenamed among five buildings to get First Honor Awards from the American Institute of Architects. He was the only architect to get two top winners and the only one from Northern California to be named in this category or in the Awards of Merit."
Ciampi won the AIA honor award for the Junipero Serra Overpass for Highway 280 near San Francisco, CA.
Ciampi won AIACC's 25-Year Award in 1996 for the Berkeley Art Museum. The AIACC also awarded Ciampi their Maybeck Award in 2000 recognizing his entire body of work.
The cover of ''Fortune'' magazine October 1958 featured one of Mario Ciampi's award-winning schools.
Mario Ciampi received the National Award AIA for construction of plazas and beautification of Market Street, San Francisco. Additionally, he received a Certificate of Appreciation from the Board of Supervisors for the Urban development of Market Street. He received the first Albert J. Exers Award for Urban Design, San Francisco and was the winner of the San Francisco Art Festival Prize with a lifetime exhibition in 1970.
He died age 99 on July 6, 2006, of heart failure in
San Rafael, California
San Rafael ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "Raphael (archangel), St. Raphael", ) is a city and the county seat of Marin County, California, Marin County, California, United States. The city is located in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), ...
. Mario Ciampi was survived by his wife, Carolyn Ciampi of Kentfield, and his nephew, Norman Ciampi of Novato.
The Berkeley Art Museum was opened in 1970 at the UC Berkeley campus with "raw shells of rectangular concrete reflecting the style known as Brutalism, a short-lived architectural style that fell out of favor almost as soon as it arrived on the scene." The closing day of the museum was Sunday, December 21, 2014, and the future of the building is uncertain. The City of Berkeley declared it to be a landmark in 2012.
Education
Ciampi's education in the field of architecture included:
* 1927-29 San Francisco Architectural Club (night college)
* 1925-29 Apprentice draftsman with Alexander Cantin and Dodge A. Riedy, Architects, San Francisco
* 1930-32 Harvard University Graduate School of Architecture. Ciampi won two National Design Competition Scholarships to Harvard in 1930 and 1931.
* 1932-33 Studied Architecture at Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, Paris, France
* 1935 Received Certificate to practice architecture in State of California
Works
*Lawton School (1940) San Francisco, California
*Cresta Auto Parts Building (1948) San Francisco, California (Demolished)
*Mission Street Mixed Use Building (1948) San Francisco, California
*Mission Street Commercial Building (1949) San Francisco, California
*All Souls Catholic School (1949) San Francisco, California
*Corpus Christi Catholic Church (1952) San Francisco, California
*Sassarini Elementary School (1952) Sonoma, California
*San Miguel School Addition (1953) San Francisco, California
*Olimpia School (1954) Daly City, California (now Doelger Art Center)
*War Memorial Community Center (Circa 1955) Daly City, California (Demolished)
*
Westmoor High School
Westmoor High School is a public high school in Daly City, California, United States. It serves grades 9 through 12 as part of the Jefferson Union High School District (JUHSD). It generally serves the residents of Daly City, Pacifica, and Co ...
(1956) Daly City, California (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 ...
).
*Vista Grande School (1958) Daly City, California (Demolished)
* Marjorie H. Tobias (Vista Mar) Elementary School (1958) Daly City, California.
*Fernando Rivera Elementary School (1960) Daly City, California (now Doelger Center)
*
Oceana High School
Oceana High School is a small public high school in northern Pacifica, California. Offering an alternative college preparatory program, the school serves just over 600 students in grades nine through twelve. The school is one of five public s ...
(1962) Pacifica, California
* St. Peter's Church (1964) Pacifica, California (Demolished)
*
Interstate 280 between San Francisco and San Jose, California, including the
Doran Memorial Bridge
The Doran Memorial Bridge is the twin pair of steel girder bridges that carry eight lanes of road traffic on Interstate 280 over San Mateo Creek near Hillsborough, California in San Mateo County.
History
The Doran Memorial Bridge was origin ...
near Hillsborough (1963-1967)
*Newman Hall Holy Spirit Parish (1967) Berkeley, California
*UC Berkeley Bakar Bioenginuity Hub (renovated by
MBH Architects
MBH Architects is an architecture and interior design firm founded in October 1989 by architects John McNulty and Dennis Heath. The firm is headquartered in a LEED Gold certified office in Alameda, California in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Exam ...
in 2022, previously Woo Hon Fai Hall, the
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive) (1970) Berkeley, California
*
Justin Herman Plaza
Embarcadero Plaza, previously known as Justin Herman Plaza from its opening in 1972 until 2017, is a plaza near the intersection of Market and Embarcadero in San Francisco's Financial District, in the U.S. state of California. It is owned by Bos ...
(1971) San Francisco, California (with architects Don Carter,
John Bolles and Lawrence Halprin)
*
Hallidie Plaza (1973) San Francisco, California (with architects
John Carl Warnecke
John Carl Warnecke (February 24, 1919 – April 17, 2010)Brown, "John Carl Warnecke Dies at 91, Designed Kennedy Gravesite," ''Washington Post,'' April 23, 2010.Grimes, "John Carl Warnecke, Architect to Kennedy, Dies at 91," ''New York Times,'' Ap ...
and Lawrence Halprin)
*
United Nations Plaza (1975) San Francisco, California (with architects John Carl Warnecke and Lawrence Halprin)
References
External links
San Francisco Chronicle article on CiampiSan Francisco Chronicle article on Ciampi San Francisco Chronicle obituarypicture by Ciampi of Westmoor High SchoolFinding aid to the Mario J. Ciampi Collection at the Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley* Bennett, Carole, Ed.D. Personal family interview of Mario Ciampi, 95 years old, August 1, 2001.
* Ciampi, Mario J., "Background and Experience -- February 1, 1998," a resume.
Julius Shulman photographs of St. Peter Church in Pacifica, CA. 1964 Julius Shulman photographs of Corpus Christi Church San Francisco, CA. 1955
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ciampi, Mario J.
1907 births
2006 deaths
Harvard Graduate School of Design alumni
Architects from California
20th-century American architects
American people of Italian descent