First Church of Christ Scientist, Berkeley: Bernard Maybeck

by Edward R. Bosley

Bernard Maybeck is one of the pivotal figures in the regionalist architecture of the San Francisco Bay area. He was also an architect in the tradition of the versatile, colourful, inventive and eclectic. With First Church of Christ, Scientist, Berkeley, Maybeck was drawn by his client's sincere demand to have a church which expressed the congregation's deep-seated faith, and looked not only to Romanesque, Gothic and Byzantine forms, but also to contemporary Arts and Crafts philosophies to create an edifice which would evoke the 'reinstatement of primitive Christianity', a guiding objective of Christian Science. Maybeck's design has a convincing unity which contains and far transcends its sources. Massive concrete piers are in counterpoint to large expanses of translucent industrial sash, and the rich, Medieval interior comes to brilliant life through a hierarchy of intricately applied colour. The reverence for detail is complete, from carved beams to delicate pew lamps and gilded tracery.

60 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Edward R. Bosley has a BA in Art History from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
While at Berkeley, Bosley was first exposed to Greene and Greene when he lived in the William R. Thorsen house, designed by the brothers. He is the Director of The Gamble House in Pasadena, CA and a recognized authority on Greene and Greene. He has written the following books in Phaidon's Architecture in Detail series: First Church of Christ Scientist, Gamble
House and University of Pennsylvania Library.