Architecture and Regional Identity in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1870-1970

This work examines the creation and expression of the San Francisco Bay Area's sense of regional identity, which it expressed through its unique architectural idiom - the Bay Tradition. In the late nineteenth century, Bay Area elites developed a sense of what Bay Area living meant, based on contact with and appreciation of the region's attractive landscapes and mild climate, and from this emerged an architectural style that expressed eclecticism, cultivation, and appreciation for the physical environment.