Page and Turnbull | Bay Area Architects

WILLIS POLK

BAY AREA ARCHITECTS

WILLIS POLK

BIOGRAPHY

Willis Polk
Born: Kentucky | 1867
Educated:
Died: 1924

SUMMARY

Raised in St. Louis, Polk received his first commission, a six-room schoolhouse in Hope, Arkansas, when he was only 15 years old.

Came to San Francisco as an assistant to A. Page Brown , and in 1906 was placed in charge of Daniel Burnham’s San Francisco office.

In 1910 the office was renamed Willis Polk & Company. His contributions to San Francisco include a wide range of public and private commissions ranging from large residences on Russian Hill to downtown office buildings to public utility buildings throughout the Bay Area. Examples include: St. Clement’s Episcopal Church in Berkeley (1907-08); the Sunol Water Temple (1910); Filoli (1916) a large estate in Woodside, and the Hallidie Building in San Francisco (1917), one of the first glass curtain wall skyscrapers in the United States.