Mai Arbegast was born in San Jose, CA. Her father Gijiu Kitazawa and his brother Buemon started the Kitazawa Seed Company and nursery in 1916. When they split the business a year later, Arbegasts’s father moved the seed brokerage to a downtown San Jose storefront and sold seeds wholesale and retail, adding his own line of Asian vegetables. This became the main seed source for the growing population of Japanese tenant farmers in California and Oregon. In an interview Mai recalled, “I spent much of my early life in boots stomping on particular tomatoes and collecting the seed for further crosses.”

In 1942, Arbegast’s family was packed off to the Heart Mountain internment camp. They got a sponsor and clearance to move to Michigan until World War II ended. In 1945, the business was restarted at which time her father began mail-order sales and shipping.

Arbegast graduated from Oberlin College in 1945 and earned an M.S. degree in Ornamental Horticulture from Cornell University in 1949 as well as an M.S. in Landscape Architecture from Berkeley in 1953. Following graduation, she taught both full and part time at Berkeley in the Department of Landscape Architecture from 1953 to 1967. During that time she maintained a part-time professional practice. In 1967, she gave up teaching to begin a full time professional practice that continued through 2003. During her time as a teacher of plant materials, horticulture, and planting design she inspired and influenced generations of students.

Arbegast specialized in planting design and was involved in the design of large scale residential gardens, estates, and wineries, in addition to commercial, educational and public projects. Her notable projects include the Hearst Castle planting restoration, California Palace of the Legion of Honor renovation, restoration projects at the Oakland Museum and Scripps College, UC Davis Arboretum, Trefethen Vineyard, Shanel Estate, the Great Highway renovation with Michael Painter, and the UC Berkeley Master Plan with ROMA Design Group. She frequently worked as a horticultural consultant to architects including, Herzog & DeMeuron, Robert A.M. Stern, and MLTW/Turnbull Associates, and with other landscape architects such as Pete Walker, Richard Haag, Lawrence Halprin, her husband’s firm Arbegast, Newton, Griffith, and large firms including SWA and EDAW.

In addition to her professional practice, Arbegast was a member and trustee of many boards and foundations. These include: U.C. Berkeley Botanical Garden, Filoli Center Founding Committee, San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission Design Review Board, Saratoga Horticulture Foundation, American Association of Botanic Gardens and Arboreta, and the Strybing Arboretum Society. She also served on the City of Berkeley Planning Commission, Board of Adjustments, and Waterfront Advisory Committee.

Arbegast played a key role in the gift of the Blake Garden to the U.C. Berkeley Department of Landscape Architecture and the transfer of Filoli Gardens to the National Trust. She was largely responsible for the donation of Beatrix Farrand’s Reef Point Collection and Endowments to the U.C. Berkeley Department of Landscape Architecture.

Sources:

"Curriculum Vitae," Mai Kitazawa Arbegast Collection, Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley.