The younger Weston Havens (who always went by his middle name) was raised by his father and grew up in Berkeley, coming to attend the University of California, from which he graduated in 1925 with a degree in economics. After his father’s death in 14 1929, Havens (who was the last in the Shattuck line) came to inherit the family fortune and its extensive real estate holdings in Berkeley and Oakland. He spent his life managing and growing the property holdings, but also became a patron of modern art and architecture. As a young man, Havens had traveled extensively in Europe and developed an avid interest in modernism, apparently meeting Le Corbusier on one such trip in 1938. It was after that 1938 trip that he purchased the a steep hillside 15 parcel off Panoramic Way and hired the modern architect Harwell Hamilton Harris to design him a house in 1939. At that point, Harris was a young but upstart modern architect whose residential works had already been published in magazines like California Arts & Architecture, Architect & Engineer, and Architectural Record.
Completed a week before Pearl Harbor, in December of 1941, Havens’ house quickly became one of the most seminal works of California modernism (see preceding Harris biography) (figs. 5-9) and integral to Havens’ biography. The home, which he lived in until his death in 2001, was filled with Havens’ international collection of modern art and furniture, its walls lined with an extensive library. It became a gathering place for Berkeley’s artists, architects, and intelligentsia. The home, moreover, embodied another key aspect of Havens’ biography: that he was gay. As the architectural historian Annemarie Adams has examined about the home’s “queerness,” its bedrooms were arranged on non-hierarchical plan, the home was sited to maximize privacy and create a “cave-like” character, and Havens tightly controlled the home’s (wide) media circulation, altogether creating a “house that occupied an overlapping space between queer space and dominant, normative space.” 16 Havens maintained a close personal friendship with Harris and his wife Jean Murray Bangs throughout his life, and would commission the architect for other projects in addition to a selection of alterations and renovations to the house. The first of the later projects (detailed in depth below) was a set of Berkeley apartments completed in 1949, and the second was a row of fountains in the median of Shattuck Avenue named the Havens Fountain Plaza (fig. 11). Completed in 1961, Havens had donated the Harris- designed fountains to the City of Berkeley in honor of his father, but they were demolished not long after for the construction of BART. 17 Annemarie Adams, “Sex and the Single Building: The Weston Havens House, 1941-2001,” Buildings & 14 Landscapes 17, no. 1 (Spring 2010), 85.
Adams, Weston Havens, 85. 15
Adams, Weston Havens, 94. 16
“Havens Fountain Plaza Dedication Set Tonight,” The Berkeley Gazette, October 26, 1961; J.R. Ward, “ 17 What in the World…,” The Berkeley Gazette, May 20, 1968. Harris designed another set of fountains to replace the original ones between 1969 and 1970, but they were ultimately unbuilt.
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Havens died in 2001, bequeathing his iconic home to the College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley. The Havens Family Foundation was established to distribute his fortune.
The Building: Havens Apartments
Among the many Berkeley properties that Weston Havens owned was an empty corner at the intersection of Blake and Milvia. It had been part of his grandfather Francis Kittredge Shattuck’s “Shattuck Tract” — among the city’s earliest subdivisions — and had never been developed. In 1948, amidst a building boom that had been provoked by the end of the Second World War, Havens decided to develop the parcel (consisting of three lots and a portion of a fourth) as an income property. For the project, Havens commissioned Harwell Hamilton Harris, who had just designed Havens’ famed hillside home prior to the war.
Harris was tasked with designing a complex of six apartments arranged in an adjoining quadraplex and duplex, with each unit intended to be rentable for $90-100 a month. 18 The neighborhood very much embodied the direction of postwar development in Berkeley, which was seeing to a proliferation of housing types and varieties, and Havens’ decision to develop an apartment complex seemed entirely logical for the neighborhood. The apartments were to be less than a block west of Shattuck Avenue and conveniently located to public transportation (then street cars). As the program explained, “the project must be for apartments as [the] neighborhood is too old for single-family houses, and not yet zoned for business.” Moreover, the units were 19 conceived for families, and each was labeled as a “Family Unit” on the blueprints accordingly.
Havens commissioned Harris in December of 1948, telling him to “go ahead full blast on the plans” so that construction, under Berkeley contractor Bud Reininghaus, could begin in January of 1949 and the units could be completed and rented by June (before Havens’ scheduled trip to Sweden). While such an advanced timeline seems nearly 20 unthinkable, it was not particularly aspirational considering the actual timeline. Harris completed the full set of working drawings by the first week of February, and construction had commenced by the end of the month. Judging by the collection of correspondence in Harris’ papers, the design and construction process seems to have proceeded with almost no interruption or complication. Havens, for his part, did not make any requests to the design proposed by Harris (but was seemingly very concerned and attentive to the upholstery color for his pair of Eero Saarinen-designed Womb Chairs in the same letters). The full set of apartments were completed by July, only one month after Havens’ initial plan, and rented by the end of 1949. “Requirements, Havens Apartments,” ca. 1948, HHH Collection / UT Austin. 18 “Requirements,” 1948. 19
Letter from Weston Havens to Harwell Hamilton Harris, January 6, 1949, HHH Collection / UT Austin. 20 Page of 11 38
Although Harris would become known for his regional, American variation of modernism best seen in his custom-built estates, his design for the Havens apartments exemplified his accompanying and complementary interest in economy and modern materials. Like many other modern architects of the period, delivering thoughtful yet economical architecture for postwar families was an immediate concern (and overwhelming demand), and one that had been previously explored by Harris in projects like his Segmental House, featured as part of Architectural Forum’s “194X” program, and a number of other conceptual works featured in publications like Sunset Magazine, Ladies Home Journal, and Good Housekeeping. A common theme in conceptual postwar domestic architecture was an emphasis on technology, modularity, and standardization (which had certainly been exemplified by Harris' expandable Segmental House), all of which formed the basis of the design for the Havens apartments.
The design of the apartment complex was essentially conceived around the contemporary material Cemesto, a composite cement board (surfaced with asbestos ) 21 manufactured by the Celotex Corporation and beloved by architects for its standard sizes (typically 4’ x 8’) and affordability. Cemesto, which Harris had also used in the Havens house, was a particularly popular building material used in postwar experimental housing, ranging from works of high modern design to mass-produced Minimal Traditional suburban tracts. The very same year that Harris was designing the Havens apartments, Charles and Ray Eames’ Case Study House No. 8 was completed and prominently featured Cemesto panels on its exterior steel grid, and even ten years prior, Richard Neutra had extensively incorporated Cemesto into his design for the Scioberetti house in Berkeley (1939).
For the Havens apartments, Harris essentially designed a wooden frame on a four-foot module into which was inserted either Cemesto panels, doors, and windows, or a combination (fig. 14). (The novel Cemesto system which Harris devised was at first questioned by the City of Berkeley’s building inspector, who ultimately acquiesced. ) 22 Some 398 Cemesto panels — of which 203 were the standard 4’ x 8’ size — were used to construct the core of the two buildings. This modular system was very clearly expressed in the design of the interior and exterior, giving the low-slung complex a clear uniformity. In the quadraplex facing Blake Street, which was the most visible portion of the complex, a set of carports constructed in brick (fig. 19) extended from the building’s core and also provided a service yard/interior courtyard for each unit.
These brick portions of the structure also created an elongated walkway to the front doors which were emphasized by an overhang with cutouts. From the street, these brick volumes appeared nearly hermetic, giving the otherwise simple modular design a The preservation challenges presented by Cemesto, which contains asbestos, has been the subject of 21 a selection of studies. See Cesar Bargues Ballester, Laura Matarese, and Chandler McCoy, Eames House Conservation Project: Cemesto Panels Investigation Phase 1, Research Report (Los Angeles, Getty Conservation Institute, 2023); Kallie Kothmann, Wall Assembly Deterioration: Asbestos-Cement, Modernism, and Panel Construction (Master’s Thesis), University of Pennsylvania, 2019.
Letter from H. S. Neighbor to Harwell Hamilton Harris, January 19, 1949, HHH Collection / UT Austin. 22 Page of 12 38
dramatically austere appearance. Harris also turned the structure inwards (a trick he likely learned from his time spent under Schindler and Neutra) to preserve privacy.
From the street, the primary facade contained very few windows and mostly solid volumes of brick and Cemesto panels. However, the rear facade facing the private gardens inverted to nearly an entire wall of floor-to-ceiling glass, broken up by the even spacing of the wooden frame (fig. 20). In doing so, Harris effectively created a complex that maximized both the usage of space for housing and the needs of privacy.
In addition to the standardized building system, the floor plans of the units also provided further unification. Each “Family Unit” contained a modest living room with attached kitchen (fig. 28), two equally sized bedrooms, one bathroom, and a fenced-in private terrace at the rear (fig. 26). Like the exterior of the structure, the wood frame system was expressed throughout the interior, which was appointed with modern cabinetry, detailing, and appliances (figs. 28, 29). The floor plans were identical within both the quadraplex and duplex, and each unit was less than 1,000 square feet. The quadraplex prominently faced Blake Street, while the duplex was sited on the rear portion of the lot, accessible from Milvia Street, and divided from the quadraplex by an alleyway (fig. 20). Harris also developed a landscape scheme (fig. 18) for the entire site, completed near the end of construction in June of 1949, consisting of beds of ivy bordered by even rows of Japanese cheesewood, a low scheme which emphasized the horizontal nature of the structure.
By the time construction was completed, each unit had cost about $11,000 to build (about $150,000 adjusted for in flation) including Harris’ architect’s fee. The 23 apartments were rented by the end of 1949, and, as intended, a selection of middle- class families and professionals moved in almost immediately. Tenants included a high school librarian, a purchasing agent for a local company, a UC Berkeley instructor in business administration, and an assistant secretary at a local Bank of America branch.
The only documented classified listing for one of the units (advertised by a businesswoman looking for a roommate) described them as “very modernistic.” 24 Shortly after the completion of the apartments, the photographer Rondal Partridge photographed Harris’ design extensively for publication (figs. 19-29). Partridge, the son of famed Group f.64 photographer Imogen Cunningham and assistant to fellow members Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange, worked as a freelance architectural photographer in the late 1940s, photographing works for William Wurster, Thomas Church, Mario Ciampi, and other architectural luminaries of the region. His photographs of the Havens apartments emphasize the low-slung volumes, deep shadows, and finished edges of the precise yet thoughtful modern design. In one particularly evocative image, the sprawling, flat-roofed apartment complex is juxtaposed against a background of two-story homes with hip and gable roofs: a visual Memoranda of Procedure, ca. 1948, HHH Collection / UT Austin; Another document in the Harris 23 papers puts the construction price per apartment at $8,745, although this figure does not seem to account for the architect’s fee among other things.
Classified advertisement for 2002 Blake Street, Berkeley Gazette, January 31, 1950. 24 Page of 13 38
rhetoric which proposes the future of postwar housing. Despite Partridge’s photography — whether he was hired by either Havens or Harris is unclear — the complex was never featured in any documented publications. Architectural Forum requested to publish the project in a January 1950 issue dedicated to apartment housing, but the feature never materialized. Likewise, the company behind Cemesto 25 had requested, even before construction was complete, a set of plans to be used for promotion of the product. Whether they were indeed used by the company remains unclear, although Neutra’s nearby Scioberetti house (1939) was a frequent feature in the company’s advertisements and sales materials.
Despite the lack of recognition, the Havens apartments are a remarkable example of postwar architecture in their dedication to providing good, economical design tailored to the demands for efficient, modern, and livable housing. Moreover, they appear to be Harris’ most successful attempt at realizing (affordable) housing for a popular audience, and their existence accentuates an impulse in many postwar modern architects to deliver that very type of housing.
16. Signifi cance
Architectural Value:
National State County City Neighborhood This nomination for the Havens Apartments posits that the property is eligible for Landmark status under Criteria A: Architectural Merit. It is a surviving and outstanding example of a Mid-Century Modern work by Harwell Hamilton Harris, one of the leading American architects noted locally for the home he designed for the same client, John Weston Havens Jr.
Harris, with an informal education in the offices of seminal emigre architects Richard Neutra and Rudolph Schindler, is noted for pioneering a distinctly American form of modernism which embraced the larger tenets of the movement while using regional materials, forms, and typologies. Harris is a key figure in a small group of modern architects (including such figures as Schindler, Neutra, Gregory Ain, and Raphael Soriano) responsible for California’s prominence in the larger modernism movement, in addition to being oft-cited in any survey of American modernism.
The structure is an outstanding, surviving, and particularly inventive example of Harris’s distinct Mid-Century Modern architecture. His design emphasizes horizontality, is free of adornment, embraces contemporary materials, and features such elements as walls of glass, overhangs, and cutouts. Moreover, his unique use of a four-foot module (no doubt influenced by Neutra) showcases a distinctly postwar concern for economy and Letter from Eleanor Bitterman to Harwell Hamilton Harris, December 1, 1949, HHH Collection / UT 25 Austin.
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technology. As a multi-family structure designed by a noted architect, it also conveys modern architects’ role in envisioning of well-designed, livable housing in the postwar period.
The structure is substantially preserved and continues to convey its architectural merit.
17. Is the property endangered?
While there are no known plans or permits for the Havens Apartments property, it is located in a region of Berkeley that is at high risk of redevelopment. Its current zoning (multi-family residential) and large parcel size puts the property at the particular risk of demolition and redevelopment. Multiple multi-story housing projects have been recently completed or are underway in the immediate two-block vicinity.
18. Historic Photographs and Materials
Figure 1. Portrait of Harwell Hamilton Harris with a sculpture by Constantin Brancusi.
Photograph by Yousuf Karsh, 1944. Reproduced from Los Angeles Modern Auction herein under Fair Use.
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Figure 2. Harris’s first great success: his Fellowship Park home of 1935, published extensively in national architecture journals and exemplifying his regional modernism. Reproduced from Elizabeth Mock, Built in USA — Since 1932 (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1944).
Figure 3. The Lee and Mary Blair residence designed by Harris in 1939. Photograph by Maynard Parker, courtesy of the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
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Figure 4. The Cecil J. Birtcher residence designed by Harris in 1941-42. Photograph by Maynard Parker, courtesy of the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
Figure 5. The Weston Havens house, Harris’s seminal 1939 design in the Berkeley Hills.
Photograph by Maynard Parker, courtesy of the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
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Figure 6. The Havens house perched on the side of Panoramic Hill, labeled by Havens as “Sky House.” Photograph by Maynard Parker, courtesy of the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
Figure 7. The modern interior of the Havens house. Photograph by Maynard Parker, courtesy of the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
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Figure 8. John Weston Havens Jr. seated beside the fireplace inside his iconic Berkeley home designed by Harris. Photograph by Maynard Parker, courtesy of the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
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Figure 9. A section of the Havens house from California Arts & Architecture.
Figure 10. A notable work from Harris’s career in Texas: the Pace Setter House of 1955.
Photograph by Maynard Parker, courtesy of the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
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Figure 11. Unveiling announcement for the Havens Fountain Plaza designed by Harris in 1961, demolished only a few years later for the construction of BART. Reproduced from the Berkeley Gazette, October 26, 1961.
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Figure 12. Harris’s original rendering for the quadraplex facing Black Street. Courtesy of the Harwell Hamilton Harris Collection at the Alexander Architectural Archives, University of Texas, Austin.
Figure 13. Original floor plan for the quadraplex. Courtesy of the Harwell Hamilton Harris Collection at the Alexander Architectural Archives, University of Texas, Austin.
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Figure 14. Schematic detail of the four-foot module system which Harris devised for the Havens Apartments in which Cemesto wall panels, windows, or doors were inserted into a standard frame. Courtesy of the Harwell Hamilton Harris Collection at the Alexander Architectural Archives, University of Texas, Austin.
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Figure 15. Original elevations for the quadraplex. Courtesy of the Harwell Hamilton Harris Collection at the Alexander Architectural Archives, University of Texas, Austin.
Figure 16. Original elevations for the duplex. Courtesy of the Harwell Hamilton Harris Collection at the Alexander Architectural Archives, University of Texas, Austin.
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Figure 17. Complete site plan for the Havens Apartments. Courtesy of the Harwell Hamilton Harris Collection at the Alexander Architectural Archives, University of Texas, Austin.
Figure 18. The landscape plan as designed by Harris. Courtesy of the Harwell Hamilton Harris Collection at the Alexander Architectural Archives, University of Texas, Austin.
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Figure 19. The quadraplex viewed from Blake Street shortly after completion. Photograph by Rondal Partridge, © Rondal Partridge Archive, reproduced herein under Fair Use.
Figure 20. The quadraplex viewed from the rear alleyway shortly after completion. Photograph by Rondal Partridge, © Rondal Partridge Archive, reproduced herein under Fair Use.
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Figure 21. Views of the quadraplex. Photographs by Randal Partridge, © Rondal Partridge Archive, reproduced herein under Fair Use.
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Figure 22. View of the 2000 Blake Street unit in the quadraplex at the corner of Blake and Milvia. Photograph by Rondal Partridge, © Rondal Partridge Archive, reproduced herein under Fair Use.
Figure 23. View of the entryway of the 2004 Blake Street unit in the quadraplex. Photograph by Rondal Partridge, © Rondal Partridge Archive, reproduced herein under Fair Use.
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Figure 24. View of the dramatic entryway standard to every unit in the quadraplex. Photograph by Randal Partridge, © Rondal Partridge Archive, reproduced herein under Fair Use.
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Figure 25. Detail view of the west facade of the quadraplex facing Milvia Street, showing the four-foot module expressed in the structure. Photograph by Rondal Partridge, © Rondal Partridge Archive, reproduced herein under Fair Use.
Figure 26. View of one of the patios at the rear of the quadraplex, featuring floor-to-ceiling glass windows and doors. Photograph by Rondal Partridge, © Rondal Partridge Archive, reproduced herein under Fair Use.
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Figure 27. View of interior courtyard in the quadraplex (with Weiner dog). Photograph by Rondal Partridge, © Rondal Partridge Archive, reproduced herein under Fair Use.
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Figure 28. Interior view of typical kitchen unit. Photograph by Rondal Partridge, © Rondal Partridge Archive, reproduced herein under Fair Use.
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Figure 29. Interior view of living/dining area looking onto private patio, showing the expression of the four-foot module in the interior of the home. Photograph by Rondal Partridge, © Rondal Partridge Archive, reproduced herein under Fair Use.
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19. Contemporary Photographs
View of quadraplex primary (north) facade from Blake Street, looking south.
View of quadraplex primary (north) facade from Blake Street, looking southeast, showing the two protruding brick carport volumes.
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View of quadraplex primary (north) facade from carport area, looking south, showing the four- foot module system constructed of a frame with standard panels.
View of quadraplex walkway on the primary (north) facade, showing the original overhang flanking the length of the brick carport volumes.
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View of the west facade, facing Milvia Street, showing the original four foot module system expressed on the exterior.
View of primary (north) facade, looking southwest, showing brick carport volumes.
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View from Milvia Street of the detached garage for the duplex at rear of the quadraplex, looking southeast.
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20. Bibliography
Annmarie Adams. 2010. “Sex and the Single Building: The Weston Havens House, 1941-2001.” Buildings & Landscapes: Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum 17 (1): 82–97. https://doi.org/10.1353/bdl.0.0032.
Crosse, John. 2010. “California Arts & Architecture: A Steppingstone to Fame: Harwell Hamilton Harris and John Entenza: Two Case Studies.” Southern California Architectural History (blog). May 31, 2010. https://
socalarchhistory.blogspot.com/2010/05/california-arts-architecture.html.
———. 2019. “Harwell Hamilton Harris and Fellowship Park.” Southern California Architectural History (blog). January 3, 2019. https:// socalarchhistory.blogspot.com/2019/01/harwell-hamilton-harris-and- fellowship.html.
Germany, Lisa. 1985. Harwell Hamilton Harris. Austin, TX: Center for the Study of American Architecture, School of Architecture, University of Texas at Austin. ———. 2000. Harwell Hamilton Harris. University of California Press.
Hines, Thomas. 2010. Architecture of the Sun: Los Angeles Modernism 1900-1970.
New York: Rizzoli.
Lowell, Waverly. 2009. Living Modern: A Biography of Greenwood Common. San Francisco: William Stout Publishers.
McCoy, Esther. 1984. The Second Generation. Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith.
Parra-Martínez, José, María-Elia Gutiérrez-Mozo, and Ana-Covadonga Gilsanz-Díaz. 2020. “Queering California Modernism: Architectural Figurations and Media Exposure of Gay Domesticity in the Roosevelt Era.” Architectural Histories 8 (1):
14. https://doi.org/10.5334/ah.382.
Wollenberg, Charles. 2008. Berkeley: A City in History. Berkeley: University of California Press.
21. Recorder
Recorder name: Luke Leuschner
Date: 9 July 2025
Organization: Commissioner, Landmarks Preservation Commission Page of 38 38
From: Luke Leuschner
To: Fu, Boshi
Cc: Riemer, Allison; Hersch, Anne
Subject: Re: Landmark Nomination for 2000 Blake Street / Havens Apartments by Harwell Hamilton Harris Date: Tuesday, August 05, 2025 9:50:39 AM
Attachments: image003.png
image002.png
Hi Boshi,
Thank you again for your help, and glad to hear that we'll be able to hear this at the Sept meeting. Attached is a list of features to be preserved which I've quickly typed out. If anything of them are confusing or too vague, please let me know and I can make amendments. There's a chance I'll want to add something else to them, but I can do so the night of the hearing if necessary.
1. The flat-roofed, one-story height of the quadraplex and duplex, and their location at the corner of Blake and Milvia Street
2. The primary facade of the quadruplex facing Blake Street (north elevation) and facade facing Milvia Street (west elevation), including the preservation of the original symmetrical layout of the four (reversed) units with their brick carports, overhangs, trellises, and clerestory cutouts
3. The rear facade of the quadraplex (south elevation) fronting a private alleyway, complete with original overhangs and a wall of windows and doors, and the side (east facade) of the quadraplex
4. The west elevation of the detached garage for the duplex (fronting Milvia) and the north elevation of the duplex
5. The arrangement and relationship of the quadraplex and duplex, separated with a private alleyway
6. Throughout the quadraplex and duplex, preservation of original details per Harris design: unpainted brick, expression of the four-foot module on the exterior via a painted four-foot board surface with a wooden batten, original steel and wood frame windows, placement and design of existing doors, and placement and design of original roof overhangs and roof volume
7. Landscape design per Harris design: one large planter at each end of carports with low-lying shrubbery, planters beneath windows of primary facade (north elevation), landscaped area at corner of Blake and Milvia Street, and concrete driveway
8. Original planters/ green space: two at front of each carport and below windows
9. Interior courtyards ("service yards") within the quadraplex Many thanks!
Luke
On Mon, Aug 4, 2025 at 7:02 PM Fu, Boshi <[email protected]> wrote:
Good morning Commissioner Leuschner,
No worries at all, appreciate your time on that list especially while out of country.
I believe we should be able to take this at the September 4 LPC meeting. To distribute correspondence to be included in the agenda, items should be submitted by August 27. Late communication inclusion will need to be on September 2, but the August date will be best.
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