Résumé

Draftsman, [Willis A.] Marean and [Albert J.] Norton, Denver, CO, 1898-1900.

Draftsman, Frank E. Edbrooke and Company, Architects, Denver, CO, 1900-1902.

Designer, Charles E. Hodges, Stanford University Architect, Stanford, CA, 1902-1903.

Designer, Meyer and O'Brien, Architects, San Francisco, CA, c. 1903.

Designer, Bliss and Faville, Architect, San Francisco, CA, 1904-1914. Wood became Bliss and Faville's Chief Draftsman by 1912.

Designer, Lewis Hobart, Architect, San Francisco, CA, 1914-1915; As noted in Don Hibbard, Glenn E. Mason, Karen J. Weitze, Hart Wood: Architectural Regionalism in Hawaii, (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2010): In Hobart's office, Wood worked on two main commissions: the $600,000 University of California Hospital in San Francisco, CA, and the $1 million Portland Post Office, Portland, OR. The competition for the post office had been won by Wood's old firm of Bliss and Faville in 1913; due to errors, the competition was reopened, and Lewis Hobart's firm, for whom Wood subsequently worked, won this later contest. (See Don Hibbard, Glenn E. Mason, Karen J. Weitze, Hart Wood: Architectural Regionalism in Hawaii, [Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2010], p. 37.)

Partner, [Horace G.] Simpson and Wood, Architects, 1915-1917. In the build-up to World War I, architectural commissions began to dry up by 1915. This damaged the prospects for Simpson and Wood, and precipitated the dissolution of their partnership in 1917.

Wood became a shipyard worker during World War I to earn a living and participate in the war effort.

Partner, Dickey and Wood, Architects, Honolulu, HI, 1919-1920, 1926-1928.

Principal, Hart Wood, Architect, Honolulu, HI, 1928-1957.

Professional Activities

President, Oakland Architectural Club, Oakland, CA, 1910–1912.

Relocation

Wood lived in several East Bay cities after 1904, first Berkeley, CA, and, subsequently, Oakland, CA, and then Piedmont, CA.

Parents

His father was Thomas Hart Benton Wood.

Spouse

He wed Jessie Spangler on 11/21/1906 in Berkeley, CA. Her family came from the Midwest and the Plains, IL, MO, and KS, where her father, Emmons R. Spangler, ran a hardware business.

Biographical Notes

Wood may have worked on the Rialto Building in the office of Meyer and O'Brian. The Rialto was destroyed by the San Francisco Earthquake of 04/18/1906, and was rebuilt to the original designs by a new firm, Bliss and Faville, for whom Wood worked after 1904. Another Bliss and Faville commission, the Saint Francis Hotels #1 and #2, exerted strong influence over Wood's later approach to design. According to architectural historians Hibbard, Mason and Weitze: "Certainly the size of the St. Francis project must have served as a testing ground for Wood. Yet, more critically, the elaborate interior of the hotel must have opened up new vistas for the architect--vistas of color, materials, and texture. In particularl, the use of heavy timbered ceilings, contrasting woods (mahogany, walnuts, and oaks) stained and stenciled with color (coppers, reds, blues), as well as paneling heavily sandblasted or grained to catch the light, were all design features that would appear in Hart Wood's later work." (See Don Hibbard, Glenn E. Mason, Karen J. Weitze, Hart Wood: Architectural Regionalism in Hawaii, [Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2010], p. 15.)

• Honolulu, HI (Architect's Death)
  Honolulu, HI

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• Philadelphia, PA (Architect's Birth)
  Philadelphia, PA

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