A new residential project has been proposed at 1915 Berryman Street in Berkeley. The project proposal includes the development of four-story townhomes on a site that presently houses a three-story two-unit home that was built 132 years ago. Plans call for the demolition of the single-family home on the site. The home was wasn’t deemed worthy of landmark status in May 2020.
Gunkel Architecture is responsible for the design concepts.
1915 Berryman Street via Google Maps
The new townhome project will bring a four-story building, offering eleven units. Three of the total units will be marketed as affordable housing units at low housing or for households earning 80% of the area’s median income. The construction of three low-income units will allow the demolition of three existing rent-controlled units, which are currently vacant. Plans were updated from a ten-unit townhouse complex to an eleven-unit townhouse complex, with four ground-floor flats, six townhomes above, and one fourth-floor penthouse, at the corner of Bonita Avenue and Berryman Street.
Construction firm Lord & Boynton built the residence 132 years ago as a single-family home for William Payson, the co-founder of the First Unitarian Church of Berkeley. Two families owned it until 2019 when they sold the property to Sunnyvale developer Alon Danino.
Gunkel Architecture filed a proposal to convert the home into six townhouses with ten units in May 2020, and local historian Daniella Thompson of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association soon after applied to landmark the home, rallied by local preservationists. The landmarks commission and the City Council both ultimately shot down attempts to preserve the building, first in August 2020 and then in January of this year.
An estimated construction timeline has not been announced yet.
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It’s apparent that Berkeley’s city government does not care about Berkeley’s history.