The Fall 2014 issue of American Bungalow magazine is out now, and my article about the restoration of the Bernard Maybeck-designed George H. Boke House (below) can be found on page 28. There are actually two articles about the house in the issue, one by Arts & Crafts historian and scholar, Robert Winter, who focuses on the home’s original owner, George Boke, the architect Bernard Maybeck, and the history of the house itself.
My article, which accompanies Robert Winter’s, concentrates on the husband and wife team of Warren & Lorna Byrne, who purchased the Berkeley, California home in 1980 from the estate of the widowed wife of the home’s second owner, Clifton Price. Over the last 34 years, Warren and Lorna have meticulously restored it back to its original glory – which was a substantial undertaking, considering the largely dilapidated condition that the home was in when they bought it.
© Alexander Vertikoff and American Bungalow. Image Used with Permission.
“The home was in a terrible state of deferred maintenance when we first went to see it,” Lorna says. “It happened to be raining that day and there was water pouring into the dining room!” Along with repairing the roof, the Byrnes rebuilt the foundation, as well as replacing much of the rotted exterior siding. On the inside, the redwood in the first floor living room (below) remains pretty much today as it did originally. But in the upstairs bedrooms, at some point all of the redwood had unfortunately been painted in bright “Easter egg” colors.
© Alexander Vertikoff and American Bungalow. Image Used with Permission.
Warren & Lorna spent years stripping the wood (where they could) and replaced other parts of the rough-sawn redwood, when stripping it would have irreparably damaged it. The result is dramatic, as evidenced in Alexander Vertikoff’s captivating photography.
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If you’ve read the article, I’d love to get your reaction to it, so please leave a comment below!
