Category Archives: Architect-Designed

872 Arlington, Berkeley

This charming First Bay Region residence is an early and fairly understated design by Julia Morgan. The exterior is an interesting combination of Prairie and Shingle styles with what looks like a bit of Tudor half timbering for good measure. … Continue reading

Rate this:

Posted in Architect-Designed, First Bay Region Style, Julia Morgan, Shingle | Leave a comment

1815 Manzanita, Oakland

Today we feature a truly impressive Third Bay Region residence by one of our favorite local design-builders, Martin Davis. Davis’ homes tend to be highly vertical with particularly expressive massing and interesting geometries, and this example does not disappoint. It … Continue reading

Rate this:

Posted in Martin Davis, Third Bay Region Style | Leave a comment

171 San Marcos, San Francisco

Our featured home today is across the bridge in San Francisco but it was designed by two UC Berkeley alumni so we don’t feel like we have strayed too far from our stated purpose. Irving and Gertrude Morrow are perhaps … Continue reading

Rate this:

Posted in Architect-Designed, Art Moderne, Morrow & Morrow | 3 Comments

4536 Hillsborough, Castro Valley

This intriguing Castro Valley mid-century was designed by local San Francisco architect and kung fu grandmaster Henry Luck. Luck grew up in both China and California and then went on to study architecture at Berkeley. He is probably best known … Continue reading

Rate this:

Posted in Architect-Designed, Henry Luck, Mid-Century | Leave a comment

1655 Arrowhead, Oakland

Today we feature a great Oakland Hills A-frame/dome hybrid attributed to Robert Blunk of Blunk Associates. One of the downsides of the standard A-frame form is that there is generally only room for windows on the ends of the structure. … Continue reading

Rate this:

Posted in A-Frame, Architect-Designed, Geodesic Dome, Mid-Century | 3 Comments

3101 Gibbons, Alameda

After the immense success of the Homes of Tomorrow exhibition at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933, General Electric decided to replicate the program across the country by cooperating with local utilities and architects to create GE Model Homes that … Continue reading

Rate this:

Posted in Architect-Designed, Art Moderne, Francis Harvey Slocombe | 1 Comment

8 Sunnyside, Orinda

Our featured home today is an extremely late design by perennial Bay Region favorite Beverley David Thorne. Thorne would move away from his trademark steel structures as the years passed and tastes changed. Here he uses large glulam beams to … Continue reading

Rate this:

Posted in Architect-Designed, Beverley David Thorne | Leave a comment

3256 Garfield, Alameda

Today we feature another beautifully preserved Victorian. This one is the long-time home of Alameda Museum curator George Gunn and it shows. It is a lovely raised basement Queen Anne cottage designed by respected local architect Charles Shaner in 1894 … Continue reading

Rate this:

Posted in Architect-Designed, Charles Shaner, Queen Anne, Victorian | Leave a comment

6201 Westwood, Oakland

This thoughtfully composed Oakland Hills new modern residence is the work of local architect Robert Swatt of Swatt Miers Architects. Swatt has been designing residences in the East Bay for over a quarter of a century and the purity of … Continue reading

Rate this:

Posted in Architect-Designed, New Modern, Robert Swatt | 1 Comment

6948 Norfolk, Berkeley

Our featured home today is a showy new modern residence designed by Karman Ng formerly of Cantilever Design. Ng designed the home for himself and used it as a launch pad for his career as an independent practitioner. As such … Continue reading

Rate this:

Posted in Karman Ng, New Modern | Leave a comment