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BLISS & FAVILLE

BAY AREA ARCHITECTS

BLISS & FAVILLE

BIOGRAPHY

Walter D. Bliss
Born: San Francisco | 1873
Educated:
Died: 1956

William B. Faville
Born: California | 1866
Educated: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Died: 1946

SUMMARY

Among the most established and well respected architects in San Francisco in the first quarter of the 20th century

Both men apprenticed at McKim, Mead & White in New York.

They came to San Francisco in 1898 as partners and worked together until 1925, when each continued to practice alone.

Of the two, Faville was somewhat more prominent. He served on the architectural committee of the Panama Pacific International Exposition of 1915, and from 1922 to 1924 was national president of the American Institute of Architects.

Their conservative designs appealed to those seeking to convey a respectable and solid image they were hired to design numerous buildings including an inordinate number of bank buildings

Examples include: the Metropolitan Club (1916 & 1922), the St. Francis Hotel (1904, 1907, 1913), the Bank of California (1907), the Bank of America on Halladie Plaza (1920), the Geary Theater (1909), the Southern Pacific Building (1916), the Matson Building (1921), and the California State Building (1922). They designed the Palace of Education (1915) and many lesser buildings at the Panama Pacific International Exposition.