Theodore C. Bernardi (1903-1990)

Name

Bernardi, Theodore C.

Personal Information

Birth/Death:    1903-1990
Occupation:    American architect
Location (state):    San Francisco, CA

This record has not been verified for accuracy.

AIA Affiliation

Member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) 1944-decease
Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA) 1962

Biographical Sources

American Architects Directories:
Biographical listing in 1956 American Architects Directory
Biographical listing in 1962 American Architects Directory
Biographical listing in 1970 American Architects Directory
Biographical information:
Contributed by the Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley:
Theodore C. Bernardi was born in Korčula,Yugoslavia (then Austria-Hungary), in 1903. A year later, his mother and uncle brought him to the United States to join his father who was already in America. In 1906 the family returned to Yugoslavia where Bernardi attended school until the family once again moved to the U.S. in 1912. Bernardi studied architecture at the University of California, Berkeley; he earned his bachelor's degree in 1924 and stayed at the University for a short time to study at the graduate level. Over the next nine years he complimented his academic studies by working as an architect and draftsman in a number of Bay Area firms, including the office of Timothy Pflueger.
Bernardi obtained his architectural license in 1933, and joined the firm of William W. Wurster the following year where, during the next eight years, he lead the design and construction of major Wurster office projects. Bernardi directed his independent architectural practice in the Wurster office in San Francisco from 1942-1944. During that time his projects included more than a dozen government housing projects. When William Wurster left the Bay Area in 1942 for Harvard University to study and later become Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at MIT from 1944 to 1950, Bernardi directed the Wurster office in San Francisco. In late 1945 Donn Emmons joined Wurster & Bernardi (formed in 1944) establishing the firm Wurster, Bernardi & Emmons (WBE). Bernardi was Principal-in-Charge of many major WBE projects, including the Schuckl Canning Company office building in Sunnyvale (1942), the Master Plan for University of California Santa Cruz (1962), the Ice House renovation in San Francisco's North Waterfront (1967), and the First Unitarian Church of Berkeley (located in Kensington). His own home in Sausalito (1950) won an AIA Award of Merit in 1956.
In addition to his work with WBE, Bernardi was a lecturer in the UC Berkeley Department of Architecture between 1954 and 1971. In 1962 he was elected to Fellowship in the American Institute of Architects, and in 1965 WBE won the AIA Architectural Firm Award Medal. Though his role in the firm became less active during the 1970s, Bernardi continued to work on projects until his death in 1990.

Related Records

Wurster, Bernardi & Emmons (firm)

Archival Holdings

The American Institute of Architects Archives
      Membership file may contain membership application, Fellowship nomination, related correspondence. Contact the AIA Archives at archives@aia.org for further information.

Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley

Collection Number: 1991-1. Extent: 2 boxes, 1 flat file drawer. The Theodore C. Bernardi collection is arranged in three series: Personal Papers, Professional Papers, and Project Records. The bulk of the collection consists of drawings, though some correspondence is also included. The first series, Personal Papers, contains Bernardi's student drawings, including books of basic drawing exercises as well as elaborately rendered presentation boards. Professional papers contains minimal correspondence, drawings of the San Carlos Presidio Church (Monterey) completed as part of the Historic American Buildings Survey and some unidentified competition boards. The final series contains records of residences designed and built for Mr. and Mrs. Russell Giffen by the firm Wurster, Bernardi and Emmons.
Link to online finding aid: http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf8c6007b4

Publications