Speaking at OWA – EastBay AIA joint meeting

TUESDAY   February 12, 2013 at 6pm                          The Public is Welcome
Memoirs About Place

East Bay AIA Office
1405 Clay St Oakland, CA 94612
Phone 510 464-3600

Wendy Bertrand, architect/author with Clare Cooper Marcus, well-known landscape architect/educator/author will be speaking about, reading from, and discussing from their careers and memoirs:

Iona Dreaming: The Healing Power of Place (Nicolas Hays, Inc, Lake Worth FL, 2010) www.ionadreaming.com
Enamored with Place: As Woman + As Architect (Eyeonplace Press, San Francisco, CA, 2012) www.youtube.com/user/enamoredwithplace

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Book signing at Florey’s Book Co. Pacifica

Saturday, December 15, 2012, 2-4 pm
Florey’s Book Co.
2120 Palmetto Ave.
Pacifica

Wendy Bertrand, author & Erwin, bookstore owner

Join me at for an informal reading, discussion, and signing of
Enamored with Place: As Woman + As Architect
(Eyeonplace Press, San Francisco, September 2012)

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Review by Zara Raab: Professional & Domestic Designs

Review by Zara Raab in Professional & Domestic Designs for The Mirror of the Mechanics’ Institute Library:

September 2012 Excerpt:
“The young Bertrand, recently graduated from Berkeley’s architectural degree program, soon begins a long career in government, overseeing architectural projects for the Navy, while all the time single-handedly raising her daughter. So her daughter can attend the French-American Bilingual School in San Francisco, Bertrand buys a charming, weathered “Workers’ Victorian” on a steep hill in San Francisco in 1975, calling it her maisonette. Bertrand is passionate, throwing herself into both her career and maisonette on 27th Street, with its vistas of the Bay and East Bay hills. From the moment she moves in, this house becomes one of two true loves of her life. (The second is a cabin in Gasquet in remote Northern California.) “I slowly engaged in a tenderly curious acquaintance with my living space,” Bertrand writes, “exploring the limitations and opportunities” of the space, as “preening and nesting became an integral part” of her San Francisco life [207]. Bertrand pays attention to her space as she might to a lover or as a mother attends her child. Like any artist, she undertakes the house in large part because she sees its possibilities. “How could I hold on to the house’s century-old character while still making the place contemporary? “What could be done to catch the country feeling in the city—with modesty and elegance?” [210].”

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Book signing at Phoenix Book Store in Noe Valley

Tuesday, November 6, 2012, 5-6 pm
Phoenix Book Store
3957 24th Street
San Francisco

Visit this beautiful bookstore to turn the pages and feel the delight of my memoir,
Enamored with Place: As Woman + As Architect
(Eyeonplace Press, San Francisco, September 2012)

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ForeWord Review by Maria Siano

Review by Maria Siano in ForeWord Review, August 21, 2012:

“In this engaging personal account of her professional and personal life, Bertrand shares her experiences as an architect, as well as a world traveler, wife, and mother.

Tracing her life in detail, she provides a summary of her childhood in La Jolla, California, and then offers a year-by-year description of her adult life, beginning with her early college studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1959. Unsure of the career path she wanted to take, she left college after a year to travel the world—including Europe, Africa, and India—before returning to her studies for another year. Soon after that she met a fellow from France and decided to travel with him across the US and to France. They married three years later and moved to China, where he was studying and teaching, and they had a child a year later. All the while, she still felt the pull of a career in architecture. Ultimately her decision to study in California created friction in her marriage. Undeterred, she embarked on her quest to become an architect, at a time when the profession was fundamentally male-dominated. She also became a single, working mother to her young daughter.

This comprehensive recounting of her work life, romantic relationships, and the joys and challenges raising her daughter has a two-fold result: It welcomes the reader into every aspect of her unique life. Color photos scattered throughout the book, many of them personal family photos, further engage readers and take them along on her personal journey. However, because so many details are included, no single event stands out. If the book were limited to fewer events, the most significant and life-changing moments would be better highlighted.

Bertrand’s experiences will be most relatable to women who faced similar struggles entering male-dominated professions in the 1970s at the height of the women’s movement. Her approach to architecture will also be of interest to peers, as she describes how she combined her interest in social issues with architectural principles to improve building design for users; issues she addressed included naval families, women in the workplace, and people using the Bay Area Rapid Transit system stations in the early 1970s.

By the end of the book, readers will feel they know Bertrand well, and will likely marvel at her adventurous spirit, and her determination and resolve.”

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Book Signing at Warwick’s Bookstore in La Jolla

Sunday October 7, 2012 – Noon to 2pm

Meet Wendy Bertrand, who grew up in La Jolla,  during weekends with the locals
at he long time bookstore Warwick’s at 7812 Girard Avenue, La Jolla.  She will be signing Enamored With Place: As Woman + As Architect ( Eyeonplace Press, San Francisco, Sept 2012)

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Writers’ Conference September 21-22, 2012

Wendy Bertrand will be a presenter at the twelfth annual North Coast Redwoods Writers’ Conference (www.ncrwc.org) to be held at the College of the Redwoods, Del Norte in Crescent City, California. She attended her first College of the Redwoods conference in 2001, and in September 2012, she will launch her memoir: Enamored with Place: As Woman + As Architect.

Reading Friday September 21, 2012 at 7:15
Shaping Memoir Workshop September 22, 2012 from 9:45-11:15
Panel on Publishing September 22, 2012 from 2:00 to 3:30

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Book signing at Humboldt State University

Wednesday, September 12, 2012, Noon-1 pm
Humboldt State University
Arcata, California
(2nd floor of the HSU Library in the Fishbowl)

Join Wendy Bertrand for reading and signing of her memoir
Enamored with Place: As Woman + As Architect.
Organized by the Special Events Coordinator for the HSU Bookstore, Krystle Peay

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