Reay, Sylvia, 1916-2006

Biography

Donald Reay

Donald Reay was born on July 17, 1914, near Liverpool, England. As early as six years of age he showed an interest and talent in drawing. As a teenager he was an exchange student in Germany, and was able to visit cathedrals in France and Italy. His appreciation of beautiful buildings led him to study architecture. After graduating from the University of Liverpool in architecture, he was admitted to the Royal Institute of British Architects as an Associate member (soon later to become elected a Fellow). He was then awarded a distinguished Commonwealth Fellowship and chose to study at Columbia University in New York from 1937 to 1939, where he was one of the first people to receive a Master's Degree in City and Regional Planning. While studying in New York he met Sylvia Shimberg, a fellow Columbia student, and in June 1942 they married.

During World War II Reay was unable to return to the UK, and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in Ottowa. He was first head of the Commonwealth Air Training Program and later became Chief Architect for the RCAF, responsible for building flight training schools and installing camouflage for vital services on the East Coast. He designed and supervised construction of Goose Bay Aerodrome, which was at the time the largest base on the North American Continent, used primarily as a refueling stop for transatlantic flights. After the war he and his family moved from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to the UK, where he joined the Ministry of Town and Country Planning as Regional Planning Officer, involved in preparation of Manuals and legislation setting national planning standards. He was also the technical officer primarily responsible for the initiation, planning, design and construction of New Towns in England and Wales. He later became Chief Architect of the new towns East Kilbride, in Scotland, and Stevenage, England.

In 1955, Jack Kent offered Don Reay a teaching position as a visiting lecturer at UC Berkeley. He accepted and quickly became a professor in the College of Environmental Design. He combined a private practice with the firm of DeMars & Reay with his university work. DeMars & Reay collaborated with other firms to create winning designs for UC Berkeley Student Union and Zellerbach Hall, and the Golden Gateway Project in San Francisco. In 1966 the DeMars & Reay partnership ended and Don established the separate firm Reay Associates. In 1969, the firm became Reay-Tsuruta Associates with principle Kinya Tsuruta. In 1976 Reay Associates was reestablished where Donald and Sylvia Reay worked in partnership. They were directly involved in numerous projects throughout the United States, Australia, and Mexico. Don Reay also continued to consult with San Francisco-based firms Planning Associates and Del Campo & Maru.

The American Institute of Architects elected Don Reay an AIA Fellow in 1985.

Sylvia Reay

Born in New York City on March 7, 1916, Sylvia Shimberg graduated from Barnard College with a degree in mathematics. She went on to earn graduate degrees in architecture from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Columbia University. At Columbia School of Architecture she met her future husband Donald P. Reay, a Commonwealth Fellow from England. After marrying in 1942 the couple lived and worked in Canada and the UK, settling in Berkeley in 1955 where Don taught at the University of California. Sylvia earned her California architect's license and embarked on a successful career mostly designing private residences. She was a corporate member of the American Institute of Architects, where she served as Secretary-Treasurer of the East Bay Chapter from 1974-1976. She was also affiliated with the Organization of Women Architects and Design Professionals and served on the Board of Directors of Berkeley's Civic Art Foundation for many years. She served three years on the Berkeley Board of Adjuctments and was a 1975 founding member of the Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Sources: Biographical clip files, Environmental Design Archives

From the guide to the The Donald and Sylvia Reay collection, 1937-1999, (Environmental Design Archives. College of Environmental Design.)