{"nrhp_refnum":"05000597","name":"Havens, Weston, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"255 Panoramic Way","address_restricted":false,"city":"Berkeley","county":"Alameda County","state":"CA","lat":37.87081847500008,"lon":-122.24843513499997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2008-06-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A single-family modern house on Panoramic Way in the hills above Berkeley, California, designed by Harwell Hamilton Harris for client Weston Havens and completed in December 1941.","why_significant":"The nomination text presents it as one of the most important works of American mid-century modern residential architecture and the high point of Harris's career. It was featured in an exhibit at the San Francisco World's Fair, ranked alongside Neutra's Lovell House by the AIA, and compared to Falling Water for its response to a steep site. It is described as a leading domestic expression of San Francisco Bay Area regional modernism, shaped by a close architect-client partnership.","narrative":"Set high in the Berkeley hills along Panoramic Way, this house was designed by Harwell Hamilton Harris for Weston Havens and finished in December 1941. From the street it shows little more than an ivy-covered wall with a garage opening, while the house itself blends into a steep, wooded slope. Havens, heir to a Berkeley pioneer family and a patron of the arts, took an active part in the design. Their collaboration produced what the source calls one of the most important works of American mid-century modern residential architecture. The house appeared in an exhibit at the San Francisco World's Fair and drew wide coverage in magazines such as House Beautiful. In 1957 an Architectural Record survey placed it in a tie for ninth among the most significant works of architecture in the United States, alongside Richard Neutra's Lovell Health House. One juror compared its response to its site with that of Falling Water. Its reputation later faded from the architectural canon.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Harwell Hamilton Harris (architect)","architectural_style":"Modern (mid-century modern, Bay Area regionalism)","criteria":[],"status_note":"The text says the house was still occupied by its original client until his death in 2001; its current condition and use are not stated.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:29.669969-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/05000597.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05000597/0d607c2ab1-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05000597/0d607c2ab1-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Mariano Simone","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Weston_Havens_House_from_downhill.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Mariano Simone</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Weston_Havens_House_from_downhill.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123858240","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weston_Havens_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q123280913"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/alameda-county/havens-weston-house-05000597/"}