Mar 8th, 2010
by Tracey Taylor.
Fresh on the market, and tucked up in the Berkeley/Claremont hills, is a 1950s home that has been given a modern makeover without taking away from the original aesthetic.
2 Gravatt Drive is set back on a secluded lot and it entrance is reached via a lovely front yard, landscaped with a contemporary pond and pretty paving.
Inside, I particularly liked the home’s flow and the style with which it has been renovated. There’s a living dining area with sliding doors giving onto a deck; and a pleasing combination of stainless steel and blond wood in the large kitchen and in the bathrooms.
There are just two bedrooms and an in-law unit on a lower level.
The master suite (above) is a very good size and has a balcony overlooking the garden. Sitting on the front deck you could believe the Bay view was yours and yours alone.
Price: $1,675,000 (a hefty $687/sq ft). It last sold in 1998 for $721,000.
Posted in: Claremont, Mid-century modern, New listing.
Tagged: 2 Gravatt Drive
Mar 1st, 2010
by Tracey Taylor.
It’s all a mirage of course, but it feels like the old days when stately properties like the one at 2820 Claremont Avenue pop onto the MLS with a price tag nudging $2m.
The 4/4, 3,000 sq ft Colonial is listed at $1,895,000 and last changed hands nine years ago for just over $1m.
There’s an updated kitchen/family room (which one would certainly expect at that price), a finished attic, two sun rooms and a two-car garage. Close to Peet’s, Star Grocery and the Claremont Hotel, it scores a healthy 71/100 on Walk Score.
Posted in: Claremont, berkeley.
Tagged: 2820 Claremont Avenue
Feb 24th, 2010
by Tracey Taylor.
After triumphantly arriving on the market in October with a bullish price tag of $5.5 million, the Margarido House, a Platinum LEED-certified home in upper Rockridge, saw a harsh $705,000 reduction yesterday, bringing the price down to $4,795,000
This makes the proposition marginally more palatable, but still very much out of whack with homes in the neighborhood. The exception is the home of Green Day’s Billie Armstrong which sold swiftly, and for cash we are told, for $4.8 million (on a $4.85m asking) last November.
The 5/5, 4,600 sq ft home at 5950 Margarido Drive has an an open floor plan, a garden roof terrace and Bay views.
Its owner, Mike McDonald, who built the house himself and has garnered plentiful publicity for it, both before and after its completion in 2009, says: “Somebody is going to get this house for a million+ less than what it would cost to replicate.”
Posted in: Architecture, Oakland, Price reductions, Upper Rockridge.
Tagged: Margarido House · Mike McDonald · Price reductions Oakland · Upper Rockridge homes for sale
Feb 22nd, 2010
by Tracey Taylor.
On the market: this classic mid-century modern home on a generous lot in El Cerrito with a $1.15 million price tag. The 3/1.5 house at 1395 Rifle Range Road was designed in 1951 by Roger Lee, an architect whose work I have had the occasion to admire before. It comes with a swimming pool, sauna, as well as the requisite Bay views,
The listing describes the property, which is on half an acre, as an estate and the house as having “walls of glass, a soaring ceiling and gleaming wood”. Which all sounds pretty darn good to me.
Posted in: El Cerrito, Mid-century modern, New listing.
Tagged: 1395 Rifle Range Road
Feb 19th, 2010
by Tracey Taylor.
Newly listed at 123 Fairlawn Drive, a home designed in 1956 by noted modernist architect Donald Olsen.
The four-bedroom house displays Olsen’s penchant for boxy volumes filled with lots of natural light. There’s also indoor-outdoor living possibilities, a more recently added “gourmet” kitchen, as well as views of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Olsen, a former professor at UC’s College of Environmental Design, lives in Berkeley in a house he designed for himself in 1954 on San Diego Drive. His home was landmarked by the city last year.
This one is priced at $925,000, and last sold in 2007 for $799,000.
Posted in: Architecture, Donald Olsen, Mid-century modern, New listing.
Tagged: 123 Fairlawn Drive
Feb 16th, 2010
by Tracey Taylor.
The Judah L. Magnes Museum will be putting its Berkeley property at 2911 Russell Street on the market next month, in anticipation of moving to a new facility in downtown Berkeley in 2011. The 12,000 ft stately home, which is sited on 25,000 sq ft lot, is expected to list for around $3 million.
The Magnes, a museum of art and history focused on the Jewish experience, has been at its current site in the Elmwood neighborhood for more than 40 years. The museum held an informal reception for immediate neighbors on Russell Street on February 9 to present details of the move.
Some minor remodeling of the property will be undertaken before it goes on the market next month. The listing will be handled by Nancy Rothman and Georgia Cornell with Pacific Union.
The 1909 property was originally known as the Burke House as it was owned by the Burke family. Katherine Delmar Burke was the founder of the eponymous girls’ school in San Francisco. The property could revert to a single family home, although the museum is not ruling out a sale to another institution. The site is currently zoned for residential use and the museum operated under a zoning variance.
Posted in: Architecture, New listing, The Elmwood, berkeley.
Tagged: 2911 Russell Street · Magnes Museum
Feb 12th, 2010
by Tracey Taylor.
If you are a fan of mid-century modern architecture (and I count myself in that club), you’ll be interested in a newly listed example of the style at 1175 Spruce Street in north Berkeley [hat-tip: reader Debtpocalypse].
Before even perusing the photos you may be stopped in your tracks by the price. At $399,000 this home in this location must be worth a second look. It patently needs work — but for some people that makes it part of the attraction.
It’s small — 912 sq ft and has just one bedroom — and is described as a “classic 50s moderne” and was designed by architect Karl Kolbeck. It has many of the features one associates with this style of home: slab floors, deep overhangs, walls of glass and a design that allows for passive solar. Also included: three skylights, redwood soffits and clerestory windows.
Reader Debtpocalypse predicts this pad will “go under contract within 10 days with an all-cash buyer paying closer to $500K than $400K for it”.
I think he may be right. It reminds me of a beautifully remodeled mid-century home I visited in San Francisco last year. Much bigger, but the potential was similar.
Illustration by Barbara Tapp.
Posted in: Architecture, Mid-century modern, New listing, North Berkeley.
Tagged: 1175 Spruce Street
Feb 10th, 2010
by Tracey Taylor.
This new Berkeley listing at 2225 Blake Street, west of Telegraph, is one I can’t show my better half because it has a library to die for — and he could make a rash move if he finds out.
The house is a good-looking Victorian which one assumes started off as a single family dwelling, with a few servants thrown in, and was at some point sliced up into a duplex. It has nine bedrooms — yes nine — with five of them on the upper floors along with three bathrooms, that library (left) , a sunporch/office, a dining room, media room and a “parlor”.
Restored in the 1970s, there’s also a garden kitchen and a private rear yard with patio and gazebo. It all sounds terribly civilized. Nearly 4,000 sq ft of living for $1,350,000 ($346/sq ft).
Posted in: New listing, berkeley.
Tagged: 2225 Blake Street
Feb 4th, 2010
by Tracey Taylor.
Just listed: this four-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom home at 161 Avenida Drive up in the north Berkeley hills. Designed by Paul Wang in 2003, it is described as “serene”, “secluded” and “spectacular” all at the same time.
Perhaps most interesting, though, is the price: $1,685,000, which is a not insignificant $240,000 (12.5%) down on the $1,925,000 it changed hands for just three years ago.
Posted in: Architecture, Berkeley Hills, New listing, North Berkeley.
Tagged: 161 Avenida Drive
Feb 2nd, 2010
by Tracey Taylor.
Lotus founder Mitchell Kapor last week secured approval to build a large, contemporary-design home on Rose Street in north Berkeley.
Read about it on the Block today.
Posted in: Uncategorized.
