Baylis, Douglas, 1915-1971

Biographical Note

Douglas Baylis was born in 1915 in East Orange, New Jersey. In 1941, he graduated with a Landscape Architecture degree from the University of California, Berkeley. Early influences in Berkeley included teacher Leland ("Punk") Vaughn and mentor Thomas Church. Following graduation, Baylis worked in the Church office for about four years and then started his own firm. He is often credited (with Church, Eckbo, and Royston) as one of the founders of the "California School" of modernism in Landscape Architecture.

Maggie (Margaret) Hilbiber was born in 1912 in Tacoma, Washington. At age 16, she was one of three women in the University of Pennsylvania's entering architecture class. After two years she was forced to return to Washington to look for work because of the Depression. When she moved to San Francisco in the mid-1940s, Hilbiber and a partner opened a graphics studio.

When Doug Baylis responded to Maggie Hilbiber's advertisement of "hands for hire," a decades-long professional and personal partnership began. Doug and Maggie Baylis married in 1948. Together they embraced conservation of the Northern California landscape and the ideals of outdoor living. Maggie's drafting facility complemented Doug's disdain for drafting, and many of the firm's design and publishing projects showcased their teamwork. Their earliest work included many modernist residential garden designs. Many residential clients and friends included collaborators (architects, photographers, and others) from larger public and commercial projects. These friends fondly recall gatherings at the Baylis home-office on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco and their thoughtfully-situated Stinson Beach house.

Some of the most significant Baylis collaborations include work with the architect Gordon Drake. Doug Baylis worked with Drake on a house/garden in Carmel and on the Unit House -- a house based on a 3' module with five distinct zones for California indoor/outdoor living. After Drake's sudden death, Doug and Maggie Baylis both contributed to the book California Houses of Gordon Drake .

In addition to specific site designs, the Baylis team produced many drawings of landscape structures and garden furniture. Many of these details and sketches may be found in built projects, magazine articles, or as kits sold in magazines (such as their plywood play equipment designs). Maggie and Doug Baylis are credited with pioneering a new "how-to" style of garden article writing that was eventually adopted by many popular magazines across the U.S. Their prolific technical instructions, handy tips, and clever ideas for the modern garden appeared - often anonymously - in House Beautiful, Better Homes & Gardens, Sunset, McCall's, and Family Circle .

After her husband's death in 1971, Maggie Baylis continued to illustrate "how-to" articles for magazines and some additional publications including The Purple Thumb and Plant Parenthood . She also continued to be active in conservation of the Northern California landscape through many organizations from her new home in Sonoma, CA until her death in 1997.

Sources: Baylis, Douglas and Joan Parry. California Houses of Gordon Drake. New York: Reinhold Publishing Corp., 1956. Baylis, Maggie: Correspondence & Memories of Doug Baylis. Douglas and Maggie Baylis Collection, (1999-4), Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley. Mann, William. Landscape Architecture: An Illustrated History in Timelines, Site Plans, and Biography. New York: John Wiley and Sons Inc., 1993. Obituary, Memorial, and Related Papers. Douglas and Maggie Baylis Collection, (1999-4), Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley. Pimsleur, J.L. "Obituary-Maggie Baylis." San Francisco Chronicle. (December 24, 1997).

From the guide to the Douglas and Maggie Baylis collection, 1938-1998, (bulk 1943-1971), (Environmental Design Archives. College of Environmental Design.)