Joseph Esherick

Joseph Esherick (1914 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – December 17, 1998) was an American architect.

Graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1937, Esherick set up practice in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1953 and taught at University of California, Berkeley for many years. He was awarded the AIA Gold Medal in 1989.

Inheriting the Bay Area architectural tradition of figures like Bernard Maybeck and William Wurster, Esherick's designs for hundreds of houses through his career centered on attention to regional traditions, site requirements, and user needs.

In 1959, Esherick was the co-founder, along with William Wurster and Vernon DeMars, 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, Catherine Bauer, Galen Cranz, Donlyn Lyndon, Roger Montgomery, Charles Moore, and William Wilson Wurster.

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 firm continues today as EHDD Architects.

Esherick was the nephew of American sculptor Wharton Esherick.

Work

*House at Kentwoodlands, Kent Woodlands, California, 1957
*Cary House, at Mill Valley, California, 1960
*Harold E. Jones Child Study Center, at University of California, Berkeley, 1960
*Six Sea Ranch Demonstration Houses (now called The Hedgerow Homes) (in collaboration with Lawrence Halprin and Charles Moore), Sonoma County, California, 1967
*The Cannery, at San Francisco, California, 1968
*Garfield School, at San Francisco, California, 1981
*Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, at University of California, Berkeley, 1981
*Silver Lake Lodge, at Deer Valley, Utah, 1982
*Monterey Bay Aquarium, at Monterey, California, 1984
*Hermitage Condominiums, San Francisco, California, 1984
*Aquarium of the Pacific, Long Beach, California, 1998
*Tenderloin Community School, 1999