by Sarah Bender
Peter Berndtson and Cornelia Brierly were influential midcentury modern architects known for their work around Pittsburgh, apprenticing under Frank Lloyd Wright and working on several of his famous projects before going on to start their own private practice in Pennsylvania. Their papers are held in the Carnegie Mellon University Architecture Archives, and were recently made findable and accessible through the University Archives web portal via the open source content management system ArchivesSpace.
The project was spearheaded by University of Pittsburgh graduate student and long-time library and archive professional, Nick Gittins, who joined the Architecture Archives in the fall of 2024 as part of Pitt’s School of Computing and Information MLIS Partners Program. The program offers its Master of Library and Information Science students a unique opportunity to gain real-world experience at a host site, providing them with practical knowledge in the information professions and the chance to begin or, in Gittin’s case, to continue to create a professional network that will sustain them throughout their career.
“Over the course of my time with the Architecture Archives, it’s been amazing to see how interest in the collections has grown,” he said. “People in Pittsburgh love Pittsburgh, and people outside of Pittsburgh love Pittsburgh too. People visit from all over the world to view our materials, and through meeting them and assisting in their research, it’s really driven home that this place has so many connections — that so many threads of existence run through the city. It’s been incredible to help people learn about and celebrate that.”
To migrate information about the Berndtson and Brierly Collection to ArchivesSpace from a legacy finding aid, Gittins didn’t just transfer original metadata exactly as it appeared. He did a deep dive into the collection, assessing which descriptions could be improved to ensure compliance with archiving standards. For example, items originally listed as “miscellaneous documents” or “papers” are now labeled more precisely as “correspondence” or “invoices.” He also ensured that Brierly was credited for her work as often as possible— she was Berndtson’s professional partner as well as his wife, but her contributions were sometimes easy to miss when navigating the original finding aid.
Adding the finding aid to ArchivesSpace means that the collection is more accessible, enabling users to search keywords and subject headings, and allowing them to find content from the collection through the same access points as other University Archive collections. The collection is already well-used — it has been referenced by everyone from geologists studying landscapes to individuals looking to learn the history of their own house. But now researchers have an even clearer glimpse into its contents and a more straightforward and user-friendly way to access them.
“Some of the materials are even digitized, which means that we can easily share digital copies with remote researchers who reach out,” added Arts and Humanities Librarian Lynn Kawaratani, who oversees the Architecture Archives.
Berndtson, who died in 1972, worked prolifically from the 1940s — when he helped Wright design the Guggenheim museum in New York — to the 1970s. Brierly, one of the first five women to study architecture at then-Carnegie Institute of Technology, was also the first female fellow of Wright in his Taliesin Fellowship. Later in her career, she pivoted to focus on landscape architecture, and left Pittsburgh to work in Arizona before passing away in 2012 at the age of 99.
The Berndtson and Brierly Collection is the most comprehensive record of their architectural work, including detailed documentation from their firm — everything from drawings and photographs to invoices and handwritten letters, to advertisements for pools and different fabrics and patterns for curtains and furniture. The collection was donated to the Architecture Archive by Anna Berndtson Coor and Indira Berndtson, daughters of Peter and Cornelia, and documents almost 100 projects — residential as well as commercial and institutional — in more than 1,700 drawings. Projects include churches, an airport, and an unbuilt neighborhood on the Mount Washington hillside. There are even drawings of the entrance to Idlewild Park.
“Some of the materials are incredibly professional drawings — immaculate work by masters of their craft — while others offer you a glimpse into the humanity of these people,” Gittins explained. “I love finding a note from a client’s child that says, ‘Peter, I love the house!’ or a letter from Cornelia to a client that reported that her cat had babies and preferred a simple cardboard box to the fancy little home designed and built by Peter and Cornelia.”
The Architecture Archives collects, conserves, and promotes the use of architectural records that document the architects and architecture of Carnegie Mellon University, the city of Pittsburgh, and its region. Its collections document thousands of projects and the work of hundreds of designers, including Berndtson and Brierly. They conserve, store, and catalog records for use by Carnegie Mellon students and faculty, scholarly researchers, and the general public. The Architecture Archives can provide crucial sets of drawings for building rehabilitation projects, and primary research materials for books and dissertations. The collections are also available for public exhibition.
In the fall, the Architecture Archives has plans to share the midcentury modern designs in the Berndtson and Brierly Collection even more widely. In September, Kawaratani will participate in the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy annual conference, offering a post-conference tour of the Architecture Archives. She and Gittins also plan to speak at the Churchill Midcentury Modern Home Tour, which highlights midcentury modern designs in the area.
As for Gittins, he plans to continue his work with Kawaratani through December 2025.
“Learning about the tangled knots of history and the information that archivists have to unravel in order to share resources has been eye-opening,” he said. “The support I’ve received from Lynn and the other archivists with the University Archives at CMU and at Pitt, and from my professors in the MLIS program at Pitt has been incredible. Between the ArchivesSpace project, doing research with Lynn and the community, and working together to present at conferences and teaching visiting students about archives and archival work, this experience has done so much to help me develop skills and competencies and continue to grow in my career as an information professional.”
To view the Berndtson and Brierly Collection or other materials from the Architecture Archives, reach out to Kawaratani at lkawarat@andrew.cmu.edu.