Built in 1957 for a UC Berkeley psychology professor, this modest post-and-beam house in the Berkeley Hills pairs economical construction with sweeping Bay views. Framestudio’s brief was to adapt the house for contemporary life while preserving its exposed structure, proportions and surviving midcentury details.
The kitchen was opened to the living spaces, two bedrooms combined into a primary suite, and new elements developed from the house’s existing architectural language. Monterey cypress, Heath Ceramics tile and period Robert Long lighting reinforce its distinctly Northern California character.
Concealed seismic upgrades and new all-electric systems improve the house’s performance without changing its essential character. The result is deliberately difficult to date: a 1957 house allowed to evolve on its own terms.