Mario J. Ciampi
| Mario Joseph Ciampi | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 27, 1907 San Francisco, California |
| Died |
July 6, 2006 (aged 99) San Rafael, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Awards | 1959 and 1961 American Institute of Architects |
| Practice | M.J.C. and Associates |
| Buildings | Berkeley Art Museum, 1970 |
Mario Joseph Ciampi (April 27, 1907 – July 6, 2006) was an American architect and urban planner best known for his modern design influence on public spaces and buildings in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Ciampi's parents emigrated from Italy to California in 1906. Guido and Palmira Ciampi travelled on the SS Deutschland from Genoa, arriving at Ellis Island, New York on 3 March 1906. They had friends in San Francisco and arrived there just in time for the great San Francisco earthquake of April 18. The devastation caused by the earthquake and subsequent fire forced them to live in an Army issue tent on the Presidio for several months. Mario was born in San Francisco twelve months after the fire, on 27 April 1907.
Soon afterwards the family moved to Schellville, California near Sonoma, where Guido became a farmer. The farm had vegetables, fruit trees, animals, and a vineyard which eventually earned bonded winery status. As teenagers, Mario with his brothers Paul and Joe worked on the family vineyard and made extra money making wooden shipping crates for the neighboring Sebastiani Winery.
"From an early age he precociously sketched buildings for fun, and later seriously for Sonoma Valley friends and neighbors, but there was no money to send him to architecture school. So he entered the profession in the old way -- old-fashioned even in 1925 -- by going straight from high school to an apprenticeship in the San Francisco firm of Alexander Cantin and Dodge A. Riedy, who had worked on the great Pacific Telephone Building with Timothy Pfleuger.
"Working as a draftsman by day and taking night classes at the San Francisco Architectural Club..., Ciampi soon became a remarkable delineator in the Beaux Arts manner. Like almost all architects of his generation, he was still an eclectic, inspired by historic styles….
"Drawings of this quality won him successive scholarships to the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he was admitted in 1931 and 1932 as a special student (because he had no bachelor's degree).
"He returned to San Francisco after a stint at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and an extensive tour of Europe under a traveling fellowship arranged by Harvard."
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