Church, Thomas Dolliver 1902-1978

Biography

Thomas "Tommy" Dolliver Church was born in Boston but grew up in San Francisco, where he worked as a landscape architect for more than fifty years. He is credited with being the creator of the "modern garden." He was educated at the University of California, Berkeley and Harvard. Following graduation in 1922, he traveled extensively in Europe on a Sheldon Travelling Fellowship. Upon his return to the United States, he began teaching landscape architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned to practice in 1929 and three years later opened his own office in San Francisco at 402 Jackson Street where he practiced until his retirement in 1977. During the 1930s, Church and his wife Betsy also ran Cargoes, a retail furniture store in San Francisco which featured the designs of their friend Alvar Aalto.

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