Alice Carey (1949-2013)

Alice Ross Carey was born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Toledo, Ohio. Carey worked as a carpenter and had her own small construction firm before completing a master’s degree in architecture at the University of California, Berkeley in 1976. Following graduation, Carey worked for the firms Esherick, Homsey Dodge & Davis (EHDD) and Whisler/Patri. While at EHDD, she became interested in the Bay Region Style of architecture and its architects Joseph Esherick, William Wurster, Charles Moore and William Turnbull. She established her own practice Carey & Co., in 1983 in San Francisco, one of the first woman-owned architectural practices specializing in historic preservation in the United States. She was named to San Francisco’s Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board by 1988. After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, her firm managed the preservation of several San Francisco historically significant civic buildings, including City Hall and the War Memorial Opera House. Her work on these projects earned Carey & Co. nearly three dozen state and national awards. During her career, Carey worked on restoring countless buildings, including San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel, Oakland and Berkeley City Halls, San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts, and the Marin County Civic Center.  She was a founding member of the Friends of Terra Cotta and on the Boards of several organizations including the Association of Advocates for Preservation, San Francisco Heritage, and the Environmental Design Archives at U.C. Berkeley.

The Alice Ross Carrey Collection spans the years 1945-1962, 1982-2005 and includes files created by Carey at her firm. The collection is comprised of Professional Papers and Project Records created at her architectural practice. The records include correspondence, project files, promotional brochures, drawings, photographs, research notes and articles. Carey is well known for her preservation work, which is well documented in this collection.