Walter Danforth Bliss was born in Nevada. William Baker Faville was born in San Andreas, California. They met while attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

They left MIT in 1895 to work for McKim, Mead & White in New York City. In 1898, they moved to San Francisco and formed a partnership.

The partnership often imitated buildings designed by McKim, Mead & White. In those days, architectural critics did not fetishize originality for its own sake. Appropriation was praised rather than condemned:

"The general resemblance of the [Bank of California to] the Knickerbocker Trust Company in New York will, of course, strike everyone who is familiar with the latter building; but the architects are to be congratulated rather than condemned for their frank and intelligent attempt to make under happier conditions a revised version of a good thing." (Architectural Record 1906: 471)

Bliss and Faville terminated their partnership amicably in 1925.

Five Bliss & Faville buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places: the Geary Theater near Union Square, the Rialto Building in the Financial District, the #79000470Oakland Hotel and the Oakland Public Library in Alameda County, the Hellman-Ehrman Mansion on the west shore of Lake Tahoe.

Three Bliss & Faville buildings are San Francisco Landmarks: the Bourdette Building in SoMa, the Bank of California in the Financial District, the Geary Theater near Union Square, the Savings Union Bank on Market Street

You can view buildings designed by Bliss & Faville in chronological order here, or use a link in the following table to visit a specific property.