BAHA Preservation Awards 2017

Part One

Awards


2100 Fifth Street (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2017)

Food products factory for Roland & Hilton
(now Holton Studio Frame-Makers)
2100 Fifth Street
(Irwin Johnson, architect, 1946)

Awarded for Rehabilitation

Designer & Builder: Timothy Holton

The architect Irwin Johnson is, perhaps, best known for his residential work, such as Earl Warren’s home in Piedmont. This wood-frame industrial building, built just after World War II, is thought to have been originally used as an orange-juice plant, and has had a number of uses over the years including making educational models. The current tenants, Holton Studio Frame-Makers, did the renovations themselves. They removed coverings over the original industrial steel-sash windows and added one window from their previous location, in order to reuse its handsome gold leaf signage. The light and airy display rooms were minimally changed inside with carefully crafted wood trim that echoes the Arts & Crafts wares on display.






Fischel & Bauml Shop Building, 1939 (Ormsby Donogh files, BAHA archives)

The restored building, 2018 (Google Street View)

Fischel & Bauml Shop Building
2071 University Avenue
(John Spencer, designer, 1906)

Awarded for Restoration and Rehabilitation

Fa�ade Architect: Trachtenberg Architects
Interior Architect: Studio KDA
General Contractor: Holland & Harley
Custom steel window fabrication: Local Metal
Composite foam decorative cornice: American Moulding

This shop building was one of many downtown projects built by Simon Fischel, who immigrated from Bohemia to New York in 1865, and by 1878 was established as a butcher in Berkeley. With his brother-in-law Jacob Bauml (also a butcher), he owned and developed much of the block northwest of Shattuck and University avenues including this building.


The building in 2011 (Google Street View)

The current owners of the building removed the metal fa�ade of the former Taiwan Restaurant and carefully restored the original yellow brick. A new black metal storefront was fabricated, using modern steel elements to mimic the classic clerestory storefronts of the original and to bring generous light into the new restaurant, Tender Greens. In the rear, the owners created a handsome landscaped outdoor eating area and provided a ramp from the adjacent parking area.

Inside, the owners of Tender Greens exposed the original structural brick side wall and wooden ceiling joists (patterned with the marks of the lath and plaster that once covered them) and suspended simple lighting fixtures that visually lower the high ceiling to create a more intimate atmosphere over the tables.






The Blood (left) & Woolley Houses (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2017)

John Woolley House, Ellen Blood House, Bonnet Box
2506 Dwight Way & 2508 Regent Street
(1876; R. Gray Frise, architect, 1891; c. 1900)
City of Berkeley Landmarks No. 126 (Woolley) and No. 219 (Blood)

Awarded for Rehabilitation

Architects: Siegel & Strain Architects, Burton Edwards & Lindsay Moder
Interior Design: Jane Wise
General Contractor: Kaufmann Construction, Inc.
Lighting Designer: Tom Mourant
House Movers: Fisher Bros.

For 123 years, the Ellen Blood House, a Queen Anne Victorian and a designated City of Berkeley Structure of Merit, was a fixture at 2526 Durant Avenue. Designed by the architect Robert Gray Frise in 1891, the Blood House was the only 19th-century building—and the only single-family home—remaining on the 2500 bloock of Durant Avenue.

In 2003, developers Ruegg & Ellsworth sought a demolition permit for the Blood House. The Landmarks Preservation Commission denied the permit, and the Zoning Adjustments Board followed suit.

A few years later, John Gordon and Janis Mitchell stepped in, offering to receive the Blood house on an empty lot they owned on the corner of Dwight Way and Regent Street and to rehabilitate it. The relocation scheme also included similar plans for the John Woolley House (1876), a City of Berkeley Landmark located at 2509 Haste Street and owned by Ken Sarachan.

After 11 years of negotiations, the Blood House was finally moved to its new Regent Street location on Saturday, 16 August 2014. The Woolley House followed on 8 November. Here they were rehabilitated, and the tiny “Bonnet Box,” which had stood on that corner since at least 1903 and was surrounded by a parking lot, was moved to the rear of the Blood House as a bedroom addition. The restored houses join four designated landmarks across Regent Street and three adjacent landmarks on Dwight Way to form a de facto historic district, recreating the look and feel of a neighborhood that had been ravaged over time.



Part Two
Awards 2017


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