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Overview

University of California Berkeley Professor of Architecture William C. Hays produced this fascinating amalgam of a shingled Berkeley "simple house" with an Italian Renaissance farm house to create the elegant and understated John S. Thomas House of 1914.

Building History

A commercial real estate website for the Gunderson Group provided some historical background on the Thomas House: "Built in 1914 by UC Berkeley professor of architecture William Charles Hays, 2753 Buena Vista Way was designed as a shingle palazzo situated in the North Berkeley Hills alongside many homes from the leading leading architects of the early and mid 20th century. Its original character has been preserved over the last century by a series of renowned local architects: Having survived the 1923 Berkeley hills fire, it was later remodeled in an award-winning restoration done in 1984 by William Turnbull Jr., an architect of the beloved Sea Ranch community further up the coast. It was during this renovation that the galley kitchen’s windows and dutch doors were installed to facilitate the indoor-outdoor living that the Bay Area is known for. French doors to the backyard were also added to the living room, making the space feel even larger still. The arched breezeway and adjacent addition was designed by UC Berkeley architecture student David Trachtenberg in 2004, expanding the living space to include a large primary suite and lower-level guest suite. All of these updates to the home were intentionally designed to appear as if they had always been there, in keeping with Berkeley’s coveted architectural traditions." (See the Gunderson Group.com, "The John S. Thomas House: A Sublime Berkeley Masterwork," accessed 09/25/2025.)

Alteration

The noted UCB Architecture Professor William Turnbull supervised renovations of this historic house in 1984.

A sizeable, but not overpowering addition was designed by a UCB architecture student, David Trachtenberg, twenty years later.

PCAD id: 25855