Directories, such as those listed below, can be helpful in finding information about architects who have practiced in the Bay Area. You can also search the library catalogs, newspapers and periodical Indexes for individual architects or architectural firms. For example, you can search under corporate author or corporate name, e.g. Maybeck and White, or Anshen and Allen. If there is no book devoted entirely to the architect or firm you are researching, check the library catalogs for collective biographies of California architects under these sample subject headings:
Architects--California--Biography
Architects--California--Bibliography
Architects--California--Directories
Architects--California--Berkeley
California--Biography--Dictionaries
- AIA East Bay Chapter Membership Directory. 1973- . Chapter has existed since 1947.
- AIA Membership Directory. 1910-1981.Continued by ProFile
- AIA California Council. Architectural handbook (Directory). San Francisco: CCAIA. 1977-1978.
- AIA San Francisco Chapter Directory. 1986/87-. Chapter has existed since 1881. Their archives are housed in the Environmental Design Archives.
- AIA San Francisco Chapter. Centennial Directory. History and officers of the chapter from beginning to 1982.
- Avery Obituary Index. Covers 1890-1979. Also included in online Avery Index. Use Avery Index for 1980-present.
- Biographical Dictionary of American Architects, Deceased. By Henry Withey & Elsie Rathburn Withey. Los Angeles, New Age Pub. Co. [c1956]. Valuable for its listing of local and regional architects. Bibliographic references in each entry are often incomplete.
- Biography and Genealogy Master Index Indexes current, readily available reference sources and important retrospective works that cover nationally known individuals, both living and deceased.
- Biography index. N.Y., H.W. Wilson, 1946-present. Citations for biographical material on nationally-known people appear in more than 3,000 periodicals, 2,500 current books (annually) of individual and collective biography, and incidental biographical material in otherwise non-biographical books.
- Contemporary architects. Editor, Muriel Emanuel. 3rd ed. New York : St. James Press, 1994. Biographical information, plus list of works and bibliography for architects with national reputation.
- Current Biography. HW Wilson Co. Contains biographies and obituaries of nationally known people from all of the print volumes of Current Biography Yearbook from 1940 to the present. Searchable by name, profession, title, place of origin, gender, race/ethnicity, titles of works, date of birth, date of death, and keyword.
- Davis' Commercial Encyclopedia of the Pacific Southwest: California …, by Ellis A. Davis. Berkeley: Davis. Chapter on Bay Area architects and engineers. 1911, 1914, 1915.
- Index to the Biographies in 19th Century California County Histories, by J. Carlyle Parker. Detroit: Gale, 1979.
- Index to architects' license certificates: records of the California State Board of Examiners (from the California State Archives files) 1901(?)-1928(?). [Sacramento, Calif. : The Board, 199-?].
- List of architects holding certificates to practice in the State of California, Northern District. Sacramento: California State Board of Architectural Examiners, California State Printing Office, 1918.
- Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects. Adolf K. Placzek, editor in chief. New York: Free Press; London: Collier Macmillan, 1982. 4 vols. Index in vol. 4. Only nationally-known architects.
- Official directory of the State Association of California Architects. Pocket ed. Los Angeles: Cornell T. Malone. Vol. 2:4 (Jan 1930). "A ready reference work of architects certified to practice architecture in the state of California."
- Pacific Coast Architecture Database (Alan Michelson, Head of the Architecture and Urban Planning Library, University of Washington, Seattle). Includes a range of information on the buildings and designers of California, Oregon and Washington. Professionals in other fields related to architecture have also been included, such as landscape architects, interior designer, developers, and building contractors. Building records are tied to those of their creators (when known) and include historical and geographical information and images. Bibliographical information, such as magazine citations, book citations and web sites, has also been linked for creators and structures.
- Roster, Licensed Architects. California State Board of Architectural Examiners, 1940-present. Architects (not firms) currently licensed to practice in California can be identified in the California Architects Board. Earlier vols have title Report, California State Board of Architectural Examiners.
