Life
He was born in Jacksonville, Illinois and was related to United States President James Polk. Addison Mizner was one of his apprentices and later a partner.
Willis Polk's early career included work with McKim, Mead & White, as well as Bernard Maybeck. Polk also worked with Daniel Burnham in Chicago, and then moved to San Francisco to establish and direct Burnham's San Francisco office. Before long, Polk started his own firm and spent many years designing highly regarded California commercial and residential architecture.
Polk was a versatile architect, with particular skill in combining classical styles with environmental harmony. He was regarded for his elegant residential work, mainly in mansions and estates, in the Georgian Revival style for wealthy and prominent San Francisco residents.
After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire he was a member of Mayor Eugene Schmitz's Committee of Fifty leaders who undertook ambitious plans to rebuild a world-class city.
In 1917, Polk designed but was not involved in the construction of the single family homes at 831, 837, 843 and 849 Mason Street in the exclusive area of Nob Hill in San Francisco at the intersection with California Street opposite the Mark Hopkins hotel building. 849 Mason Street was redeveloped into four luxury apartments called Four at the Top in 1983 by the restaurateur and wine maker Pat Kuleto.
Though the well-known dictum, "Make no small plans for they have not the power to stir men's minds." has often been attributed to Daniel Burnham in connection with his work on the McMillan Commission, an exhibit at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C. credits this much quoted sentence to Willis Polk.
His papers are held at University of California, Berkeley, and scrapbooks are held at the Archives of American Art.
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