John Baumann

1920 - 2016

John Edward (Patrick) Baumann

John Edward (Patrick) Baumann was born on St Patrick's Day, March 17th 1920. His mother Joan Essner was a nurse at St Mary's Hospital and father H.C. (Mike) Baumann was a prominent San Francisco architect. The family house where John and his sister Joan grew up still stands at 822 Noe Street in San Francisco.

John attended James Lick Jr. High School and Mission High School. He did not care much for school but did excel in both Track and Soccer where he earned the award of "All City" in each activity. The childhood friends that he made in school and in this blue collar neighborhood he kept throughout his life. At a young age John wanted to be a cartoonist. He enjoyed drawing and took mail order classes refining his skills. His Mission High School year book from the class of 1939 is full of his artwork.

In the midst of the depression the family moved to the gold country where his father purchased a strip mine and was appointed county sheriff.

As a teenager John worked in his father's design studio at 251 Kearny where he used his art skills to produce numerous renderings of his father buildings.

When the war broke everyone he knew joined the service. Unfortunately many of his childhood friends never made it back home.

The military quickly recognized his drafting skills and sent him to Fort Mason where he spent over 5 years re-designing commercial vessels to military use. After the war he worked for a time at Bethelam Steel Works and then went back to his father's thriving office taking on extra projects that HC was too busy to handle.

He soon carved out his own niche working with Hayman, Dolger, Gellert, Green & Kaufmann, Sangiacomo, Meyer, Epps, Perego, Occhipinti, Gaehwiler, Diasano and Rousseau.

At about this same time he met the love of his life Victoria. They were married and happily spent their entire lives together, over sixty years.

After his father passed away in 1960 John continued his Builder's Drafting Service by teaming up with several structural engineers including E F McKeon, Val Schaaf, Robert Gefken, P.Q Chin and Sam Schneider. This is when he became active in the American Institute of Building Design AIBD and received their accreditation as a Registered Professional Building Designer.

The business flourished yet he always remained a sole practitioner. John prepared the plans and Vickie ran the office. Records indicate several years where he prepared plans and obtained permits for over 100 new buildings in San Francisco annually. These ranged from houses to flats from smaller to medium sized apartment buildings.

For the most part during the 1950, 1960s and 1970s business thrived and he worked for different waves of immigrant builders but by the 1970s the most prominent were the Irish builders. John had great respect for these hard working men that took huge risks and worked around the clock to complete a project. Many of these properties were in the Richmond and Sunset districts. In fact there were so many constructed along Arguello in such a short period of time that it became known as Baumann Boulevard.

John was a design wizard skilled in squeezing as much square footage into San Francisco's most difficult lots. Whenever there were code changes proposed, city officials would call him to discuss any potential impacts on his designs. His parking layouts were included in workshops at UC Berkeley School of Architecture when they were adopting new Planning Code requirements. Lenders and real estate professionals would send their clients to John's office because they knew they would get the best product.

As construction became political John helped with the establishment of the Residential Builders Association an organization that promoted housing and jobs. He eventually became an architect when the State Licensing board phased out Building Designers. John however always considered himself a draftsman providing service to the builder and helping them to get through the process by providing them an efficiently designed building that would provide exactly what the market demanded. He did the same for himself designing and constructing several multifamily buildings in San Francisco. He went broke several times in the middle of construction but always remembered what he learned from his long term friend Angelo "sell nothing and do whatever you can to keep them all", which he did.

John had many hobbies. He remained physically active his entire life studying the Martial Arts for over 50 years and earning a third degree blackbelt in Shaolin Kempo Karate. There was even a punching bag hanging in the office, next to pool table and the bar which was surrounded by four walls from floor to ceiling of jazz records and tapes. He had an extensive collection of music from the 1930s and 1940s and traded music tapes with jazz enthusiasts all over the world. There were many late nights in his office where he and his friends would spend the night drinking vodka, smoking, playing pool and listening to the likes of Ellington, Goodman, Miller and Holliday.

He also loved his 1964 Impala super sport and drove that car nearly 25 years. It still remains in the family. He never traveled but did go to Russian River every summer with his childhood friends from Noe Valley. He lived in San Francisco his entire life in the same neighborhood. The last several years after Vickie passed away John lived at The Avenue, an assisted care facility in San Francisco, where he was well cared for and was able to live out the rest of his life with dignity.

John was a humble, kind and caring man who established a very successful career that lasted over 60 years. During his career he designed well over a thousand buildings in San Francisco. There is not a neighborhood in San Francisco where there isn't a Baumann Building. Those who knew him or worked with him will never forget him.

John is survived by his sister Joan Malone, his son Bruce, wife Sheila and their two adult children Jackie and Stephen.

Donations in his honor can be made to San Francisco Performances, 500 Sutter Street #710, San Francisco, 94102.