Last month we tagged along on an architectural tour of Westlake, the midcentury neighborhood of Daly City where we live. It was sponsored by the Northern California chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians, and the guest star was our friend and Westlake author Rob Keil. (His book is the excellent Little Boxes: The Architecture of a Classic Midcentury Suburb, and a related documentary is in the works.)
The talk and tour happened to take place on a gorgeous, sunny Saturday, and it was neat to see our neighborhood in yet a new light. Here were people from all over the Bay Area to see and appreciate our little slice of the coast. We even stopped at my elementary school, Marjorie H. Tobias (originally called Vista Mar). Designed by Mario Ciampi and built in the late 1950s, it’s known locally for its signature round shape, with classrooms surrounding a central courtyard (Google Maps). Here’s one of Thom’s photos from the tour, of me standing by the plaques at the entrance:
Though I drive past the school pretty frequently now on the way to the local shopping center, the last time I’d actually been on the grounds could very well have been when I was in the sixth grade! (I need to find some old class pictures and scan them.) Another neat thing about the tour is that Ed Hageman and his wife Betty were there. They’re such a delightful couple. Ed — who is now in his early nineties, but still as sharp as a tack — was instrumental in the development of Westlake, as he designed most of the houses here. It was great to meet them and think, fifty years ago he worked on the house we live in!
2 replies on “Westlake tour”
Cool school! It does have kind of that classic 50’s look to it… what is that smaller round building?
TK, the smaller building is the multi-use room, which serves as the cafeteria, assembly hall, etc. Some of the public schools in Daly City are similarly open-air, which to me was “normal.” When I was a kid and would see schools on sitcoms, they seemed really different. I’d be like, hey, they have hallways!