Exhibition spotlighting Asian American architects and landscape architects and their contributions to postwar modernism opens at UC Berkeley
On view October 1, 2025, to February 1, 2026
Environmental Design Library
210 Bauer Wurster Hall, UC Berkeley
A new exhibition is opening at the Environmental Design Library on the UC Berkeley campus, focusing on six Asian American designers. Titled Modern Vernacular: Asian American Architects and the Built Environment of Postwar Northern California, the exhibition interweaves professional drawings with personal documents to elevate the often-overlooked contributions of Asian American architects and landscape architects to the development of mid-century modernism in Northern California. Materials are drawn from the collections of the Environmental Design Archives.
The exhibition features the work of six designers, all but one alums of UC Berkeley: architects Kinji Imada (1927–2005), Roger Yuen Lee, BA Architecture 1941 (1920–1981), Terry Tong, BA Architecture 1949 (1921–2016), and Worley Wong, BA Architecture 1936 (1912–1985) and landscape architects Mai Kitazawa Arbegast, MS Landscape Architecture, 1953 (1922–2012) and Casey Kawamoto, BA Landscape Architecture 1949 (1919–2010).
Modern Vernacular explores how these designers incorporated the language of California regionalism in the mid-20th century in their professional practices, developing new yet familiar architectural and landscape expressions that we still encounter today.
More than a survey of their professional achievements, this exhibition aims to contextualize their design practices within the highly racialized history of the Asian American experience in the mid-20th century by interweaving their professional drawings with personal documents, ranging from encampment photos and family portraits to diaries and personal correspondence.
Also, don’t miss Docomomo-US/NOCA’s Roger Lee: Modernism for the Masses Multi-Unit Housing Walking Tour on Saturday, November 8. See Eventbrite for Tickets.
Visit Details
The exhibition is free and open to the public during Environmental Design Library hours. Hours during the semester: Mondays–Thursdays 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Fridays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturdays 1 to 5 p.m., Sundays 1 to 10 p.m. Hours vary during university holidays. Confirm hours in advance of visiting on the library website.
About the Environmental Design Archives
The Environmental Design Archives is a nonprofit research facility within the College of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley. It is committed to raising awareness of the architectural, landscape, and design heritage of Northern California and beyond through collecting, preserving, and providing access to primary records of the built and designed environment. The work of many San Francisco Bay region’s historically significant architects, landscape architects, planners, and designers are represented in its collections of more than 200 individuals and firms. These collections contain drawings, plans, specifications, photographs, audiotapes, personal papers, business records, furniture, art, models, and artifacts. Visit their website for more information.