Donald Olsen’s Classic Modernism In Berkeley, $1.425M

by Philip Ferrato

The 1950s were heady times in Berkeley. World War II was over, building materials were no longer rationed, and new enthusiasm for Modernist architecture was taking hold. Seven decades later, the East Bay hills remain a trove of dwellings influenced by this period of European modernism. One of the most important and well-preserved examples came on the market this past week—the Kip House that was designed in 1952 by one of the area’s most underappreciated minimalists, Donald Olsen, for the eminent American experimental physicist Arthur F. Kip.

Kip had recently joined the faculty at UC Berkeley, and while he had a long career as an educator, his primary contribution was the groundbreaking development of semiconductors, those tiny devices that now power almost everything we touch, including the device you’re reading this on. The two men remained life-long friends and neighbors, with Olsen’s own residence on the adjacent site; the Kip House was recently the subject of an extensive feature in the New York Times. Olsen, often thought of as an architect’s architect, was a protege of Bauhaus co-founder Walter Gropius at Harvard, and had a long academic career as a founder of UC Berkeley’s School of Environmental Design; his buildings reflect a deep commitment to International Style aesthetics and precision, perhaps with a heavy dose of contemporaneous Italian Neo-Rationalism.

There are no hallways in the Kip House—it’s a superbly crafted orthogonal composition of light-filled volumes joined by a central open staircase. it’s worth noting that under current building codes, one could not specify open railings, a critical element of Olsen’s design here.

Visit the listing for additional details, images and a video that really tells the story best. The Kip House is an exceptional opportunity to own a piece of American architectural history in superb original condition, represented by Anna Bellomo of District Homes.