Bull, Henrik, 1929-

Henrik Helkand Bull (1929, New York City) is an architect classified in both the Northern California Modern and the Bay Regional Styles. Educated at MIT in aeronautical engineering and architecture, he studied with Ralph Rapson, Buckminster Fuller, and Alvar Aalto. Along with opening his own firm, Bull also worked with John Field, Sherwood Stockwell and Daniel Volkmann to form Bull Field Volkmann Stockwell, now called Bull Stockwell Allen / BSA Architects. Bull's ideals focus on the sense that a building of quality does not unnecessarily disturb the site and should be comprehensible to everyone and that creating lasting architecture can be achieved by placing priority on client needs and relationship to the site.

Biographical Note

Henrik Helkand Bull (1929, New York City) is the only child of Johan Bull (1893-1945) and Sonja Geelmuyden Bull (1898-1992). Johan Bull, a native of Norway, was an illustrator who had regularly contributed to New Yorker magazine. A cousin of Bull's grandfather, also named Henrik Bull, designed several of Oslo's landmark civic buildings at the end of the 19th century.

Bull began his studies at MIT in aeronautical engineering, and switched to architecture after the first year. While at MIT he studied with Ralph Rapson, Buckminster Fuller, and Alvar Aalto. Prior to his graduation from MIT in 1952, Bull worked the summer of 1951 in San Francisco with architect Mario Corbett. As a first lieutenant in the USAF, Bull was stationed at MIT Lincoln Laboratory and worked with Buckminster Fuller on developing the geodesic radar domes for the Distant Early Warning Line (DEW Line) system at the north slope of Alaska. He built an early A-frame ski cabin in the United States with his friend John Flender in Stowe, Vermont in 1953. In 1954, Bull returned to San Francisco to work again with Mario Corbett.

On the basis of being commissioned to design several ski cabins, Bull opened his own architectural office in 1956. His early practice included homes, condominiums and later hotels and institutional buildings. In the 1950s and the 1960s, Bull designed several prefabricated or kit cabins. In 1962, he was chosen to design the Sunset Magazine Discovery House: a "dream house" limited to 2,000 square feet. Bull designed the home as a series of four sky lit pavilions built around an enclosed courtyard. It was the first home built in the newly established town of El Dorado Hills.

In 1967, Henrik Bull, John Field, Sherwood Stockwell and Daniel Volkmann formed Bull Field Volkmann Stockwell. Their first large project together was the planning and architecture for Northstar at Tahoe, a new four season resort.[7] The firm has continued under the following names: Bull Field Volkmann Stockwell ; Bull Volkmann Stockwell ; Bull Stockwell Allen ; Bull Stockwell Allen & Ripley ; and is now called Bull Stockwell Allen / BSA Architects.

Classified in both the Northern California Modern and the Bay Regional Styles, the question of an appropriate architecture for its location has always been Henrik Bull's main concern. He feels that a building of quality does not unnecessarily disturb the site and should be comprehensible to everyone and that creating lasting architecture can be achieved by placing priority on client needs and relationship to the site.

Bull has been elected Vice President (1967) and President (1968) of the American Institute of Architects / San Francisco Chapter (AIA SF), and elected to Fellowship in National AIA in 1969.

Sources:

Bull, Henrik. Curricula Vitae

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrik_H_Bull [captured 15 June 2011]

Weinstein, Dave. "Signature Style: Henrik Bull: Buildings That Belong." San Francisco Chronicle. 16 September 2006. Online: sfgate.com.