Description
Vernon DeMars was an architect, a founder of Telesis, and Professor Emeritus at the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design. Born in San Francisco in 1908, he received a bachelor's degree in architecture from UC Berkeley in 1931. From 1936 to 1942, DeMars was a district architect for the Farm Security Administration's regional office in San Francisco, where he made lasting contributions to the field of affordable housing design. After returning from teaching as visitor professor at MIT, DeMars became a professor of Architecture at Cal. In 1939, he founded Telesis with a group of other Bay Area architects. In this interview, DeMars discusses his childhood in California, UC Berkeley's School of Architecture, the beginnings of Telesis, and memorable architects.