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BAHA Fall House Tour: Berkeley Mid-Century Modern
Date & Time:  Sunday, September 28, 2025 • 1 - 5pm PDT

Tickets:
General Admission: $45
BAHA Member: $35
Student: $20

[ BUY TICKETS ONLINE ]

You can also send a check, made out to BAHA, to P.O. Box 1137, Berkeley, California 94701


The Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association’s 2025 fall tour will present a group of twentieth-century mid-century modern houses built in the North Berkeley Hills. Featuring works designed by William Wurster, John Funk, Charles Warren Callister, John Ekin Dinwiddie, and other seminal Bay Area architects, this tour is the most comprehensive of its kind to date. It will survey the range of work known as the Second Bay Tradition, the modernist continuation of the woodsy regionally-specific works originated by Bernard Maybeck, Ernest Coxhead, and A.C. Schweinfurth.When the historian Lewis Mumford first examined the “Bay Region Style” in a 1947 New Yorker column, the ensuing bicoastal debate highlighted the Bay Area’s tendency to humanize modernism and California’s independence from the pretensions so typical of “white box” modernism. Tour attendees will be invited to experience a significant selection of Berkeley’s modern houses, all of which support the assertion that architectural modernism on the West Coast was, indeed, different.  The range of houses featured on the tour samples the progression of Berkeley’s modernism over the mid-twentieth century, from Wurster’s evolution from traditional styles to the exuberant designs of the 1960s. Including a selection of modern structures and gardens united by an interest in tradition and views, this tour seeks to make the case that local modernism is characterized by sunlight, wood, and an embrace of nature.

The tour is a self-guided tour and all houses will be located within a one-mile walking radius. Homes will have interiors, exteriors, and gardens open. The homes will be open from 1pm to 5pm and staffed with BAHA volunteers. Please wear walking shoes, bring water, and understand that the North Berkeley Hills can be steep. Street parking is available in the neighborhood, and it is recommended to park along larger streets (including Euclid Ave, La Loma Ave, and Buena Vista Way) and walk to the start of the tour. Please do not attempt to drive to individual houses and/or enter driveways.

Do you wish to volunteer for this tour?
Volunteers work for half the time and receive complimentary admission to all the houses during the other half. E
mail BAHA at [email protected].

The 2025 BAHA Preservation Awards

BAHA is pleased to announce the 2023 winners of the annual Awards Program. A many-year tradition, the Awards Program exists to recognize, honor, and educate the public about projects and activities that exemplify a historic preservation ethic, and serve to enhance, restore and/or recover the built environment of Berkeley. With appreciation of the outstanding efforts made by owners, architects, designers, contractors, craftspeople, and preservation advocates, BAHA congratulates the Award recipients for the 2023 awards season.

LEARN MORE (PDF)

BAHA’s 50th Anniversary Celebration
January 19, 2025

Effective June 19, 2024, the public office hours for the BAHA office are closed.

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Call for Preservation Award Nominations

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