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2409 College Ave Landmark Application

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2409 College Ave Landmark Application ITEM 6.B, ATT#2 - 2409 COLLEGE AVENUE LPC 02-05-15 Page 1 of 49 CITY OF BERKELEY Ordinance #4694 N.S. LANDMARK APPLICATION Channing Apartments 2409 College Avenue Berkeley, CA 94704 Figure 1. The Channing Apartments, 2014 Figure 2. The Channing Apartments featured in The Architect & Engineer, October 1914 ITEM 6.B, ATT#2 - 2409 COLLEGE AVENUE LPC 02-05-15 Page 2 of 49 1. Street Address: 2409 College Avenue County: Alameda City: Berkeley ZIP: 94704 2. Assessor’s Parcel Number: 55-1868-13 (Ellsworth Tract, lot 13; originally lots 4 & 5) Dimensions: 135 feet x 97.02 feet (13,100 square feet) Cross Streets: Channing Way & Haste Street 3. Is property on the State Historic Resource Inventory? Yes; status code 3S Is property on the Berkeley Urban Conservation Survey? Yes Form #: 17857 4. Application for Landmark Includes: a. Building(s): Yes Garden: Front Yard Other Feature(s): b. Landscape or Open Space: Yes c. Historic Site: No d. District: No e. Other: Entire Property 5. Historic Name: Channing Apartments Commonly Known Name: Channing Apartments 6. Date of Construction: 1913 Factual: Yes Source of Information: Building permit #2829, 19 April 1913 7. Architect: Walter H. Ratcliff, Jr. 8. Builder: John M. Wiley 9. Style: Classic-Mediterranean, 3 stories, stucco clad, clay tile roof 10. Original Owner: Alameda County Home Investment Co. Original Use: Apartment building 11. Present Owner: Bear Haven, LLC 4100 Redwood Road, #311 Oakland, CA 94619 Present Occupant: Tenants 12. Present Use: Apartment building Residential: Multiple units Current Zoning: R-SH Adjacent Property Zoning: R-SH, R-3H, R-SMU 13. Present Condition of Property: Exterior: Fair Interior: Unknown Grounds: Fair Has the property’s exterior been altered? Yes, the rear balconies in the southeast corner were significantly enlarged; four wood-sash windows in the Channing Apartments, 2409 College Avenue Landmark Application Page 2 of 49 ITEM 6.B, ATT#2 - 2409 COLLEGE AVENUE LPC 02-05-15 Page 3 of 49 basement unit on the south façade were replaced with vinyl. In late December 2014, primer was applied over previously unpainted stucco on north and east walls. Figure 3. Assessor’s Block 1868 (Google Maps) Executive Summary The Channing Apartments is the oldest surviving apartment building designed by the important Berkeley architect Walter H. Ratcliff, Jr. The building was constructed in 1913 by the Alameda County Home Investment Company, which was founded by Ratcliff and his partner, Charles Louis McFarland. The building is distinguished by its graceful façade, which echoes that of the Hearst Memorial Mining Building on the University of California campus. It was featured in the October 1914 issue of The Architect and Engineer as part of a 23-page lead article on Ratcliff’s recent work. In the 1920s, Alameda County Home Investment Co. sold the Channing Apartments to John Weston Havens, a nephew of Francis K. Shattuck and heir to his estate. Following Havens’ death in 1929, the building passed into the possession of his only son, John Weston Havens, Jr., who kept it until his own death in 2001. The Havens estate sold the building in 2005 to the current owner, Bear Haven, LLC. When the Channing Apartments were built, the Ellsworth Tract and its neighboring blocks were among the most elegant neighborhoods in Berkeley. Over the decades, campus expansion has brought about the destruction of several residential Southside blocks and the degradation of many surviving buildings. The Channing Apartments now face three institutional blocks that were almost completely cleared of their original buildings for the construction of Unit 1 and Unit 2 residence halls and the Underhill parking structure and athletic field. On its own side of the street, the Channing Apartments building is the only unaltered survivor from the first half of the 20th century. Channing Apartments, 2409 College Avenue Landmark Application Page 3 of 49 ITEM 6.B, ATT#2 - 2409 COLLEGE AVENUE LPC 02-05-15 Page 4 of 49 The building retains integrity of location, design, materials, setting, feeling, and association. 14. Description Figure 4. The Channing Apartments face the UC Underhill Parking & Field. (Google Maps) General Description The Channing Apartments is a three-story building situated in the Ellsworth Tract, which comprises a single city block bounded by College Avenue on the west, Channing Way on the north, Piedmont Avenue on the east, and Haste Street on the south. Rectangular in shape and symmetrical in appearance, the building is clad in rough unpainted gray stucco and surmounted along the north, west, and south façades by gable and shed roofs whose outer slopes are covered in red clay tile. Heavy, dark-stained timber brackets support the roof eaves. Sited on a prominence and set well back from the street, the building is approached via a central red-brick stairway bisecting a landscaped berm. The stairway consists of two sets of six steps each, separated by a landing. It is contained within low, capped brick walls that follow the contour of the steps and end in a semi-circular, brick-paved terrace leading to the front door. The Channing Apartments is one of four buildings on the east side of College Avenue between Haste Street and Channing Way. Directly to its south stand two mid-century modern buildings—the four-story former Values, Inc. apartment building at 2415 College Avenue (Bob Alan Rowe, architect, 1963) and the University Lutheran Chapel at 2425 College Avenue (Wahamaki & Corey, architects, 1956). Directly to the north of the Channing Apartments stand three houses (2700, 2704, and 2708 Channing Way) built in 1906 on a single lot. Channing Apartments, 2409 College Avenue Landmark Application Page 4 of 49 ITEM 6.B, ATT#2 - 2409 COLLEGE AVENUE LPC 02-05-15 Page 5 of 49 Originally single-family, brown-shingle residences, they serve as student rental housing and bear little resemblance to their original appearance. Across the street, the entire block frontage is occupied by the UC Underhill Parking & Field. On the blocks to the north and the south of the Underhill structure stand the university’s Unit 1 and Unit 2 high-rise residence halls. Figure 5. Aerial view, front (Apple Maps) West (front) Façade Figure 6. College Avenue façade Channing Apartments, 2409 College Avenue Landmark Application Page 5 of 49 ITEM 6.B, ATT#2 - 2409 COLLEGE AVENUE LPC 02-05-15 Page 6 of 49 Figure 7. Approach to entrance The front façade is symmetrical and divided into three parts. In the center is a monumental arched portal under a front-facing roof gable. It is flanked on both sides by wall elevations sheltering under cross-gable roofs with deep eaves. The wall on either side contains 18 wood-sash casement windows, each divided into ten (2 over 5) lights. Six of the windows (two per side on each floor) are set in the flat part of the wall, and 12 (four per side on each floor) are set in three-sided, vertically continuous bays. The windows are recessed and have molded wood trim and thick stucco sills that are continuous around the bays. Figure 8. West façade detail Channing Apartments, 2409 College Avenue Landmark Application Page 6 of 49 ITEM 6.B, ATT#2 - 2409 COLLEGE AVENUE LPC 02-05-15 Page 7 of 49 Figure 9. Entrance portal Figure 10. Portal detail The central element in the façade is a monumental, two-story-high arched portal containing an elaborate recessed portico. The arch is decorated with two Channing Apartments, 2409 College Avenue Landmark Application Page 7 of 49 ITEM 6.B, ATT#2 - 2409 COLLEGE AVENUE LPC 02-05-15 Page 8 of 49 bands of ornamental relief; the exterior band consists of a stylized leaf pattern, and the interior band embeds rosettes into a Greek fret pattern. The leaf motif returns in an enlarged form on the exterior of the portico entrance. Figure 11. Bands of ornamental relief on arch exterior (l), arch interior (c), and exterior of portico entrance (r). Two shallow paneled pilasters flank the post-and-lintel portico entrance. Set above the entrance is a recessed balcony articulated by a classic balustrade and supported by two scrolled corbels. Between the corbels under the balcony is a row of dentils. In the rear wall within the balcony, there are three multi-paned windows, the central one being larger than the other two. The portico is reached from the semicircular brick terrace via a series of veined white-gray marble steps. The two external steps are curved and lead to a landing, from which four additional steps reach the front door. Figure 12. Portico interior The portico ceiling is vaulted, and from it hangs a bronze lantern. The door, Channing Apartments, 2409 College Avenue Landmark Application Page 8 of 49 ITEM 6.B, ATT#2 - 2409 COLLEGE AVENUE LPC 02-05-15 Page 9 of 49 elevated one step above the marble floor, is wooden and glazed with eight panes. Two wood-sash sidelights feature four panes each. On either side of the door, there is a notched pilaster. Crown molding runs along the portico walls just above the door. On each of the lateral walls, there is a high-set, horizontal wood- sash interior window with molded wood trim and leaded amber glass with a motif of crossed lozenges emanating from circles. Figure 13. Interior window in portico Figure 14. Window bay and roof eaves detail Channing Apartments, 2409 College Avenue Landmark Application Page 9 of 49 ITEM 6.B, ATT#2 - 2409 COLLEGE AVENUE LPC 02-05-15 Page 10 of 49 Figure 15. Upper façade detail Above the entrance portal, there is a square window divided by two vertical and one horizontal mullions into six unequal parts.
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