AIC's 43rd Annual Meeting

Completed in 1941, the Weston Havens House is architect Harwell Hamilton Harris's most significant work – and a masterpiece of modernist architecture.  The house was listed on the National Register in 2006 and is an important landmark in Northern California.  Weston Havens lived in the house until his death in 2001, after which it was gifted to the University of California, Berkeley.  The house exemplifies Harris’s take on the California Modern style, drawing on the regional vernacular architecture of the San Francisco Bay.  The primary materials of the Havens House are redwood, glass, concrete and brick, with the redwood being the predominant material used.  This paper will focus on the conservation of redwood at the Havens House.

In 2000 Mr. Havens hired conservator Molly Lambert to treat much of the tannic acid migration (tidelines) on the aged unfinished redwood walls in the interior of the house. Lambert treated much more of the redwood interior again in 2005 after storm damage to the roof cause a much greater amount of severe tannin migration. She will describe the treatment as a tip-session.

Over the past several years, Architectural Resources Group has worked with the College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley to develop a Restoration Study and a Historic Structure Report, and to execute the most pressing of several phases of work required for full rehabilitation of the house that is perched on a steep hillside overlooking the Bay Area. The Restoration Study provided a comprehensive overview of the repair and rehabilitation needs of the house, along with priority levels and cost estimates for each phase of work.  The Historic Structure Report summarizes the history of the house, places it in the context of the California Modern movement, and identifies the original features and furniture in the house, in addition to making recommendations for treatment. 

Kitty Vieth will present issues that are most challenging to planning for and preserving architecture of modern design and materials.