Cathy Garrett lectures on cultural landscapes

The Oakland Heritage Alliance presents Cathy Garrett, principal of PGAdesign Landscape Architects, in a lecture about cultural landscapes.

Thursday, 8 January 2009, at 7:30 pm
Chapel of the Chimes
4499 Piedmont Avenue
Oakland

Admission: OHA members $8; general $10

In Catalina, beauty off the beaten track

A rainbow over Isthmus Cove, Two Harbors (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2008)

The island of Santa Catalina receives over a million visitors per year, but the vast majority of them go in summer and never set foot outside the principal town of Avalon. Twenty-one miles long and eight miles wide at its widest point, the island offers much more than day-tripper cotton candy and kitschy souvenirs. And if you go in winter, the place is all yours—especially if you choose to stay on the western and less frequented side of Catalina, where a half-mile isthmus separates two natural and scenic back-to-back harbors.

Read the complete article here.

Measure LL defeated at the polls

Measure LL, which would have replaced Berkeley’s 1974 Landmarks Preservation Ordinance with a developer-friendly version, went down to deafeat in the 4 Nov. 2008 election with a 56.76% majority.

BAHA thanks all Berkeleyans who voted NO on LL.

Landmarks Preservation Ordinance: taking stock of 34 years

One of the two threatened Warren Cheney houses on the U.C. campus (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2006)

How did Berkeley’s Landmarks Preservation Ordinance come about? What did it do for Berkeley? The article Landmarks Preservation Ordinance: taking stock of 34 years examines the history of preservation in Berkeley and the city’s successes and failures in saving historic resources.

Greening Your Historic Building

Heywood Apartments, 2119 Addison St. (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2008)

Thursday, 6 November 2008, 7:00 pm
North Berkeley Senior Center
1901 Hearst Avenue, Main Room

Come learn about the City of Berkeley’s efforts in green building and how green building methods can be applied to your historic building. Join the City of Berkeley and the Landmarks Preservation Commission for this discussion. Presentations by Billi Romain, City Sustainability Coordinator and Thomas Dufurrena, Principal at Page & Turnbull and expert in preservation and sustainable design. RSVP (510) 981-7488.

A corrected history of the Heywood family

Charles W. Heywood House, 1808 Fifth Street (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2008)

Legendary Berkeley pioneer Zimri Brewer Heywood and his many sons, who included two Berkeley mayors and a California Assembly member, have accumulated a comet-like tail of stories and quasi-histories, repeated long enough to be taken for fact.

A new fortnightly series of articles on the Heywoods, published in the Berkeley Daily Planet and on the BAHA website, reconstructs the Heywood family’s history from original documents and newspaper reports, setting the record straight on what actually happened, and when.

Three articles have been published so far:

Zimri Brewer Heywood: Separating Fact From Myth

On the Trail of Zimri Brewer Heywood’s Residence

Will the Real William Heywood Stand Up?

More will follow.

BAHA fall lectures

All lectures begin at 7:30 pm and are held at the
Hillside Club
2286 Cedar Street
Berkeley, CA 94709


Ocean View Historic District (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2004)

Thursday, 16 October 2008
Preservation Works!
Free event!
How the Berkeley community was able to save architectural and cultural treasures, and what we need to do to ensure that we will be able to save others in the future. Panelists for this illustrated talk include Susan Cerny, Stephanie Manning, Arlene Silk, Marie Bowman, and others. Donations to No on Measure LL will be gratefully accepted.



Alameda County Courthouse before and after the 1868 Earthquake
(photos courtesy of San Leandro Public Library & the Bancroft Library, U.C. via USGS)

Thursday, 30 October 2008
Richard Schwartz: East Bay Stories of the 1868 Hayward Fault Earthquake
21 October 2008 marks the 140th anniversary of the last “Big One” on the Hayward Fault, one of the most destructive in California history. USGS scientists describe this fault as a tectonic time bomb, due anytime for another magnitude 6.8-to-7.0 earthquake. Historian Richard Schwartz’s lecture will include first-hand accounts by people who experienced the shock, little-known facts about the quake, what the people learned from the quake, and a survey of buildings that survived the 1868 earthquake and are still standing. Tickets $15




Thursday, 13 November 2008
Hannah Sigur: The Influence of Japanese Art on Design
An illuminating examination of Japanese art and America’s journey to modern architecture and design in the Gilded Age, from the Centennial of 1876 through the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Tickets $15

To order tickets, send a check made out to BAHA and a stamped, self-addressed envelope to:
BAHA
Fall Lectures
P.O. Box 1137
Berkeley, CA 94701

You can also pay for tickets by credit card via PayPal. Please specify lectures date[s] and number of tickets in the Description field.

The end for Memorial Grove

Photo: Daniella Thompon, 5 September 2008

Preservation news around town

A view of Grizzly Peak from Canyon Road in Strawberry Canyon
(postcard published by Edward H. Mitchell c. 1905)

From the Summer 2008 edition of the BAHA Newsletter:

Strawberry Canyon

The scenic vista of Strawberry Canyon, a swath of green open space, is threatened by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s 20 year plan to further develop its hillside location. The proposed construction of nearly one million gross square feet of new buildings in both Strawberry Canyon and Blackberry canyons includes the recently announced 140,000-gsf Helios Energy Research Facility and a 50-car parking lot planned for undeveloped land within Strawberry Canyon. Instead of using the existing Blackberry Gate entrance at the top of Hearst Avenue, an additional entry road would be built from centennial Drive in Strawberry Canyon These planned encroachments threaten the historical balance between research and development activities in the Berkeley hills and less intense activities with smaller footprints. 

Strawberry Canyon should be designated a Cultural Landscape for its historical connections to (among other events) Frederic Law Olmsted’s writings about the canyon and his vision of residential life in Berkeley; the headwaters and the system of engineered water resources during the University’s early years; the tradition of tree plantations in memory of University luminaries (e.g., the groves dedicated to Stephen Mather and Woodbridge Metcalf); the University Botanical Garden; the development of the East Bay Regional Park District; and the creation of the University’s Ecological Study Area. Earlier generations expressed their aesthetic, social, recreation, biological, and academic values in the canyon, which live on today in this culturally significant landscape.


Memorial Stadium oak grove (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2007)

Oak Grove

Speculation about Native American burial grounds and memorials to World War I soldiers aside, the oak grove west of Memorial Stadium is a contributing feature in the stadium’s landmark designation (listed in the National Register of Historic Places, 2006). The application submitted by BAHA includes two basic resources: the stadium itself and its site (including the rock walls and the grove). The stadium’s original “oak grove” landscaping visually connects the site to such pre-development landscape features still found in Strawberry Canyon as the oak-bay woodland on the north-facing slope and the riparian ecosystem of Strawberry Creek. The oaks also gracefully screen residential Piedmont Avenue, designed by Frederic Law Olmsted, from the massive stadium structure.


The proposed North Shattuck Safeway

Safeway

Safeway’s proposal to replace their vintage supermarkets with larger “lifestyle stores” has been in the news. This will be the second “makeover” for the venerable local retailer, the first being the replacement of their small 1930s stores, beginning in the 1950s, with the present low, suburban-style supermarkets, designed by none other than the firm of Wurster, Bernardi & Emmons (see image). Berkeley’s lone Safeway store, 1400 Shattuck Avenue, with its expanse of glass, curved front gable, and blue mosaic tile, was built in 1965 and will be affected by the new plan. Now that you know that the building is the work of a major Bay Area architect, you may want to give it a second, more critical look.


Armstrong College (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2004)

Armstrong College

Berkeley’s Judah L. Magnes Museum, owner of the downtown Armstrong College Building (Walter H. Ratcliff, Jr., 1926, Landmark #184), 2222 Harold Way, recently presented renovation plans to the Landmarks Preservation Commission. This will be the new home of the museum, now located at 2911 Russell Street. Plans call for the removal of Ratcliff’s distinctive front door, a change that is under the LPC’s purview, and which was approved at the 10 July meeting. Also indicated on the plans is the almost complete removal of the interior (except for the second floor auditorium). This major loss of historic fabric is not subject to LPC review, as interiors of privately owned structures are not protected by landmark designation.

Standing up for our LPO

Delaware Street Historic District (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2004)

This November, we’re up against the most important preservation challenge we’ve ever faced.

For the past several years, development forces have attempted to take control over our community’s cultural, historical, archeological, and nature resources. Lamentably, the City of Berkeley has turned from a national leader in historic preservation to a roadblock in the way of preservation.

As a result, the citizens of Berkeley are in real danger of losing control over the designation and protection of historic resources.

If you are concerned about the fate of our resources, read the Message from the Vice-President, published in the current issue of the BAHA Newsletter.

Historic Albany-Berkeley border walking tour

Lueders House, Peralta Park (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2006)

The Albany and Berkeley historical societies are planning a joint boundary walk on Saturday, 6 September 2008. This commemorative walk marks the 30th anniversary of the Berkeley Historical Society and the 100th anniversary of the city of Albany. It starts at the eastern boundary between Albany and Berkeley and ends at the western boundary.

Learn about the antics of M.B. Curtis, famous star of Sam’l of Posen, and his upscale community on the Albany-Berkeley border. Visit historic churches and families, members who have attended church there for generations. See where Codornices Creek is being daylighted, visit the homes of Albany’s most famous developer, Charles M. MacGregor, and revisit the site of the infamous Garbage Wars.

The walk will last about two hours, starting at 10 am. Participation is limited and reservations are on a first-come, first-served basis. The cost is $10. To register, mail a check for $10 per person to the Berkeley Historical Society, Walking Tours, PO Box 1190, Berkeley, CA 94701-1190. Include your name, address, phone number, and e-mail address so we can send you a reservation confirmation and the location of the beginning of the walk. The History Center phone number is (510) 848-0181.

Oscar Wilde, Joseph Worcester, and the English Arts & Crafts Movement

Rev. Joseph Worcester’s Piedmont cottage (detail from a painting by William Keith)

What did the dandy aesthete Oscar Wilde and the Swedenborgian minister Joseph Worcester have in common? They both lectured in the Bay Area in 1882. While both discussed art and its role in life, their viewpoints were diametrically opposed.

Leslie M. Freudenheim, author of Building with Nature: Inspiration for the Arts and Crafts Home and a Worcester champion, brings these opposing world views head-to-head while reviewing original documents recently retrieved from storage by the Swedenborgian House of Studies Library.

Her article, “Oscar Wilde, Joseph Worcester, and the English Arts & Crafts Movement,” is published in BAHA’s Essays & Stories section.

As Ms. Freudenheim suggests, “For those interested in the growth of the English Arts & Crafts Movement in America, its manifestations in California, and the influence of Joseph Worcester in the Bay Area, this information is eye-opening.”

Dona Spring, champion of preservation

Dona Spring at a Save the Oaks rally, 9 Nov. 2006 (photo: Daniella Thompson)

With the untimely death of Dona Spring, Berkeley preservationists lost their staunchest advocate on the City Council. As a Councilmember, Dona consistently appointed preservationists to the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

In 2006, Dona was only one of two Councilmembers who endorsed Measure J, the citizens’ LPO update.

Dona’s 2006 Candidate Statement devoted a sizable paragraph to Measure J. She wrote:

Vote yes on Measure J to save our Landmarks Preservation Ordinance. Historic preservation advocates collected signatures to save the structure-of-merit designation which the mayor wanted to eliminate. This change would have wiped out almost all future protections for saving historic resources in Berkeley’s neighborhoods. It was only after the signatures had been submitted that the mayor tried to make a compromise which restored the structure-of-merit designation. But once signatures have been submitted for a ballot measure, they cannot be withdrawn. Contrary to ballot arguments against Measures J, it was not a long public process leading to the Bates proposal. In fact, over 50 people living in all of Berkeley’s neighborhoods testified against the mayor’s proposal to gut the current ordinance. In addition, there have not been legal problems with the current ordinance. The State Historic Office has found that Berkeley’s current Landmark Preservation Ordinance is compliant with all state laws. A vote for Measure J is a vote to preserve our affordable housing stock. Many rent control units are in older buildings and houses. If those buildings can be easily demolished instead of restored and expanded, then we lose rent-controlled housing and get expensive market rent housing in their place. Also, it is environmentally friendly to reuse the buildings instead of demolishing and land filling them. (One of the biggest portions of our landfill is going to construction and demolition debris.) Reusing buildings also helps conserve natural resources including trees.

To the San Francisco Chronicle, Dona made this statement:

“It’s extremely important that we pass this,” said Councilwoman Dona Spring. “Without Measure J, there’s no way to save anything unless it’s designed by a famous architect. Any owner who wants to demolish a house can do it.”

Until her very final days, Dona fought bravely to save the Memorial Stadium Oak Grove, putting her frail body on the line against U.C. police.

Dona, we love you and miss you. Where will we find another champion like you?

Hymn festivals in historic Berkeley churches

First Church of Christ, Scientist (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2007)

The Hymn Society in the U.S. and Canada will hold its conference, Congregational Song and the Arts, in Berkeley on 13–17 July 2008.

As part of the conference, the following free performances will be offered.

Sunday, 13 July, 4:00 pm
Sanctuary, First Congregational Church of Berkeley
Organ Recital
Sandra Soderlund

Sunday, 13 July, 7:30 pm
First Church of Christ, Scientist
“Way Out West: A Festival of California Hymn Writers”
Dan Damon, Eileen Johnson & Beverly Howard

Monday, 14 July, 7:30 pm
Sanctuary, First Congregational Church of Berkeley
“Let Every Instrument Be Tuned for Praise”
Larry Marietta, Mitchell Covington & John Walko

Tuesday, 15 July, 7:30 pm
Sanctuary, First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley
“The Gift of African American Song”
D. Mark Wilson & Ann Jefferson

Wednesday, 16 July, 7:30 pm
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
“Dios está aquí: Latino Hymns Witness ot God’s Faithfulness”
Juan Pedro Gaffney Rivera, Eleazar Cortés & Francisco Herrera

Was Gustav Stickley a Modernist?

The American Decorative Arts Forum of Northern California, an affiliate of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, invites you to a slide lecture.

Was Gustav Stickley a Modernist? New Views on Early Experimental Masterworks

A slide lecture by Joe Cunningham, PhD, ADA 1900 Foundation
Tuesday, 10 June, 8:00 pm
Koret Auditorium, de Young Museum
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
ADAF members free; $15 general public

7:15 pm — Members’ mini-exhibition of Arts and Crafts metalwork, textiles and ceramics. Enter from Level B1 of parking garage.

For more information about the Forum, membership, other lectures
call (415) 249-9234 or visit adafca.org.

2008 Preservation Awards

The Fountain at the Circle (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2004)

Visit our 2008 Preservation Awards pages to see which buildings, houses, and sites were singled out for distinction this year.

Historic preservation summer course at U.C. Berkeley

Are you interested in the fate of your neighborhood or community? A popular 8-week U.C. Berkeley course on historic preservation is being offered this summer. Enrollment is open to the general public at a cost of $810.

The class is taught by Helaine Kaplan Prentice, ASLA, an author and lecturer in City Planning who brings to the classroom 30 years’ experience as a city planner, with numerous awards.

She promises “Great field trips. Guest speakers. Seminar atmosphere. No exams,” and describes the course as follows:

Preservation plays an increasingly prominent role in planning decisions and architecture practice. Yet much opinion is based on stereotypes and superficial information. Here’s a chance to really understand the issues, and how historic designation can benefit city life. I stress preservation as a planning strategy.

Preservation brings funding, good design and cultural identity. This class is an excellent way to learn an important facet of the profession, and to discuss urban issues with architects and landscape architects. Our reading is accessible and worthwhile. Assignments build visual skills, too.

City and Regional Planning
Course CY PLAN 190
Advanced Topics in Urban Studies: Historic Preservation in California
23 June–13 August 2008
Mon & Wed 1–4 pm, 214B Wurster Hall

For additional information, contact Helaine Kaplan Prentice.

Free Downtown Oakland Walking Tours

From May through October, the City of Oakland offers 90-minute walking tours through the downtown districts. Choose from eight different tour itineraries:

Tour 1: Old Oakland
Tour 2: City Center
Tour 3: Uptown to the Lake
Tour 4: Preservation Park
Tour 5: Oakland Chinatown
Tour 6: Waterfront
Tour 7: Churches & Temples
Tour 8: New Era | New Politics

To make reservations, please call (510) 238-3234 or e-mail aallen@oaklandnet.com. Please specify which tour and date you are requesting in your message.

Spring House Tour photo gallery

Did you miss our Spring House Tour? See the houses and the people who went in our photo gallery.

Last-minute House Tour tickets

The House Tour ticket booth will open tomorrow at noon on Stuart St. mid-block between College and Benvenue Avenues (see map).

Public transit: Take AC Transit bus line 51 northbound from Rockridge BART to College & Stuart or southbound from Downtown Berkeley BART to College & Russell. You can also walk from either station.

Parking: Underhill Parking Facility and Anna Head West lot open at 1 pm. They charge $1 per hour.

Bernard Maybeck: An Arts and Crafts Architect in California

Pre-tour lecture by
Sissel Hamre Dagsland
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
8:00 pm
The Hillside Club
2286 Cedar Street, Berkeley
$15 at the door

Sissel Hamre Dagsland is visiting from Norway, where her book Bernard Maybeck: en arts and crafts-arkitekt was recently published by Bodoni Forlag.

As she writes in the book’s introduction, “Berkeley was [...] my own city for ten important younger years, including most of my school years [...]. Through a number of later visits to close relatives in Berkeley my own interest in Maybeck has increased. This growing interest is also influenced by my numerous years as a journalist in the cultural department of the Bergen newspaper Bergens Tidende. An important part of my work there has concerned architecture, older building styles, cultural history, and problems of conservation and restoration of buildings. ...[In my book on Maybeck] I have concentrated on important background material as well as what I personally have observed and experienced. In a final chapter I have tried to clarify resemblances and possible connections between Maybeck’s work and Norwegian traditions. This includes the relationship between Maybeck’s architecture and Norwegian stave churches, as well as inspiration from the Arts and Crafts movement which is a common feature for Maybeck and the so-called Bergen school of architects.”

This lecture is being offered in conjunction with our Spring House Tour.

Heinz Emigholz: Architecture as Autobiography

Here is a film series that no architecture lover would want to miss. It’s beginning tomorrow evening, 1 April, at the Pacific Film Archive with Goff in the Desert, an examination of the work of Kansas-born architect Bruce Goff.

Yet to come are Schindler’s Houses (15 April), Sullivan’s Banks and Loos Ornamental (17 April). Visit the BAM/PFA website for additional information.

BAHA Spring House Tour

Westenberg House (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2007)

Sunday, 4 May 2008, 1 to 5 pm. See details.

South Berkeley Community Church in the National Register

Photo: Daniella Thompson, 2004

Volume 1, Issue 1 (Winter 2008) of Preservation Matters, the newsletter of the California Office of Historic Preservation, reports that the South Berkeley Community Church (Hugo W. Storch, 1912) was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on 15 November 2007.

The church was listed at the local leverl for its architectural qualities and for its important role as one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s first integrated churches.

Camron-Stanford House is looking for docents

Camron-Stanford House, the celebrated Victorian house museum on the shore of Oakland’s Lake Merritt, is looking for volunteers to join its docent program.

Docents undergo an intensive training process, which teaches good communicative and interpretive skills, and provides thorough learning about the house’s historical significance and its collections. Reading lists are provided to add to the information offered during training. Experienced docents assist and give feedback as new docents develop and practice their tours before ultimately conducting a tour on their own. A graduation celebration will be held at the conclusion of the training.

The training course lasts 9 weeks, beginning 27 February 2008 (makeup classes are available on video). Classes take place at the Camron-Stanford House on Wednesdays at 6:30 pm. Each class lasts two to two-and-a-half hours. There is also one Saturday morning optional field trip. Docent training requires the purchase of a $35 annual membership and a one-time course fee of $65.

To apply for the docent program, download an application form (pdf format). You can then either print, fill out, and fax it it to (510) 595-0886 or copy the contents to a word-processing document or your e-mail program, fill it out, and e-mail it to cshousedocent@yahoo.com.

If you have questions, contact Valerie Corvin, Docent Training Coordinator, (510) 604-0078.

Outings on Fridays

Our popular series of guided tours, organized by Sally Sachs, returns this spring and summer. The tours take place on the first Friday of the month at 11:00 am (we meet at the tour location at 10:45 am). Lunch is optional.
$15 per tour or $40 for all three

Friday, 4 April 2008
Charles S. Greene Library,
now African-American Museum & Library of Oakland

Courtesy of Oakland California Landmarks

This Beaux-Arts Carnegie library was designed in 1900 by Bliss & Faville, with murals by Arthur Matthews. Designated Oakland Landmark #43, the building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. Since 2002, the library has been the home of the African-American Museum & Library of Oakland, dedicated “to discover, preserve, interpret and share the historical and cultural experiences of African Americans in California and the West for present and future generations.”
Lunch in Old Oakland.

Friday, 2 May 2008
U.S. Court of Appeals Building
Seventh & Mission Streets, San Francisco

Courtesy of som.com

This imposing granite edifice was designed in the 1890s by James Knox Taylor, chief architect for the U.S. Treasury Department, to house the federal courts and the main San Francisco post office. When it opened in 1905, Sunset magazine called it the Versailles of the West. This tour is free but requires a reservation before 30 April.
Lunch in San Francisco.

Friday, 6 June 2008
Blake Garden Sold out
Kensington


The Anson S. Blake House (Walter Bliss, 1920s) serves as the home of the Univesity of California president. The extensive landscaped grounds surrounding the house, which we will tour, are used as a teaching facility for the U.C. Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning.
Lunch in Kensington.

Friday, 11 & 25 July 2008
Tao House
Danville


The Eugene and Carlotta O’Neill House (Frederick Confer, 1937) has a Spanish Colonial Revival exterior, but its interior reflects the O’Neills’ passion for Oriental thought, art, and design. This National Historic Site is administered by the National Park Service. The tour will last approximately 2 hours. The 11 July tour is sold out. Tickets are still available for the 25th.
Lunch in downtown Danville.

To order tickets, send a check made out to BAHA and a stamped, self-addressed envelope to:
BAHA
Outings on Fridays
P.O. Box 1137
Berkeley, CA 94701

You can also pay for tickets by credit card via PayPal. Please specify your outing date[s].

Downtown Berkeley: Black and White and Green

Tupper & Reed Building (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2007)

Tuesday, 26 February 2008
8 pm
2213 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley

BAHA board members Austene Hall and Carrie Olson will hold a discussion and conduct you on a photographer’s look through our historic downtown.

Learn about some of the newer buildings and find out about the cost of teardowns and the value of green preservation.

This event is part of the Berkeley Arts Festival 2008.

Richard Moe to speak on climate change

[If you missed the lecture, the text of Mr. Moe’s speech may be read here.]

Thursday, 27 March 2008
7:30 pm
First Church of Christ Scientist
2619 Dwight Way, Berkeley
Opening remarks by Jon Carroll, SF Chronicle
Minimum donation: $20

Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and recipient of the 2007 Vincent Scully Prize, is calling attention to historic preservation’s essential role in fighting climate change.

In his Scully Prize acceptance speech, delivered on 13 December 2007, Moe noted that construction and operation of buildings contributes 48% of America’s greenhouse gases—nearly double that of cars, trucks, trains and airplanes—and even construction of the greenest new building contributes to global warming. Despite that, Moe said, the most talked about solution to global warming is building new, greener buildings, often destroying an old one in the process.

“it takes approximately 65 years for a green, energy-efficient new office building to recover the energy lost in demolishing an existing building,” said Moe. “And let’s face it: Most new buildings aren’t designed to last anywhere near 65 years. [...] It all comes down to this simple fact: We can’t build our way out of the global warming crisis. We have to conserve our way out. That means we have to make better, wiser use of what we’ve already built.”

“No matter how much green technology is employed in its design and construction, any new building represents a new impact on the environment. The bottom line is that the greenest building is one that already exists”

On Thursday, 27 March 2008, BAHA will co-sponsor a lecture by Mr. Moe on the topic “Sustainable Stewardship: Historic Preservation’s Essential Role in Fighting Climate Change.”

The lecture will be held in the sanctuary of the First Church of Christ, Scientist. A reception will follow. Parking ($1/hr) is available at the nearby Underhill Parking Facility and the Anna Head West Parking Lot.

To order tickets, send a check made out to BAHA and a stamped, self-addressed envelope to:
BAHA
Richard Moe Lecture
P.O. Box 1137
Berkeley, CA 94701

You can also pay for tickets by credit card via PayPal (please specify Richard Moe Lecture):
BAHA is co-sponsoring this event with Friends of First Church, Berkeley, the American Institute of Architects, the California Preservation Foundation, San Francisco Architectural Heritage, Oakland Heritage Alliance, and the Landmarks Heritage Foundation.

Benefit concert with Pacific Boychoir and organist William Ludtke

The Pacific Boychoir at First Church of Christ Scientist, 2005 (courtesy of Friends of First Church, Berkeley)

Sunday, 2 March 2008, 3 pm
First Church of Christ Scientist
2619 Dwight Way, Berkeley

$25 advance; $30 at the door

The Grammy Award–winning Pacific Boychoir will sing selections ranging from choral masterworks to American spirituals and include highlights from their coming tour to Argentina. Organist and composer William Ludtke will play Cesar Franck’s Third Chorale and a Walther Concerto.

The concert is sponsored by the Friends of First Church, Berkeley, and proceeds will benefit the Roof Fund. The roof of the 1910 Auditorium has already been replaced, and the critical seismic work completed. Roof and seismic work is now needed in the 1929 Sunday School addition. Recent heavy rains revealed major leaks, and funds are needed for this critical work. Seismic work includes strengthening of the south “Bubblestone” wall of the Sunday School. This urgent seismic work is presently underway.

Info: (925) 376-3908 or Friends of First Church.

2008 Preservation Awards: call for entries

Kueffer House, before

Kueffer House, after

BAHA invites the nomination of outstanding projects that have renewed the life of historic properties and neighborhoods in the city of Berkeley. Entries will be judged according to such criteria as aesthetic quality, historic significance, and contribution to the fabric of the city.

How to submit nominations? Go to the Call for Entries page for instructions.