This handsome gateway, with its overarching pergola, and clever mini Dutch door pairing, is unique, and reflects the design imagination that will be seen throughout the house and gardens.  Located at 4415 Saint Andrews Road in the Sequoyah neighborhood of Oakland, it offers 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms in approximately 1840 sf of living space.  

The home is ideally situated in the hills above Oakland, and not far from the shops and restaurants of Montclair Village.  Just  a short trip to nearby Highways 13 and 580 provides rapid access to Rockridge, Berkeley, Oakland, and on to San Francisco.  The hills above offer numerous hiking and biking trails, and the Chabot Science Center and Knowland Park Zoo just moments away.  

The walkway to the…

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This striking home, located at 22 Roble Road, with its impressive presence and remarkable history, been a part of Berkeley's growth and unique architectural development since its construction in 1925.  It was one of the many distinctive homes that was created in the Claremont area of the Berkeley hills under the careful eye of Duncan McDuffie, who made it his home, and entertained here for many years in his role as a real estate developer in partnership with Joseph Mason, creating the Mason McDuffie Real Estate Firm.  

The home was designed by Willis Polk, a prominent architect in the Bay area who also designed many of the buildings in downtown Piedmont.  The grounds and gardens were created by the world renown Olmstead Brothers.  Because of this…

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DOUGLAS FRIEDMAN

In a January 13th Los Angeles Magazine article, writer Gwynedd Stuart reported on the building of what will be a spec mansion of 105,000 square feet in the Bel-Air section of Los Angeles that is being referred to as "the One" by its developer Nile Niami.    She reveals that its price is rumored to be a stunning $340 million dollars  and said that Naimi, a mega mansion developer, had set out almost 10 years ago with a goal "to build the most expensive house in the urban world."  

As it stands now, the mansion is on its way to being among the top three largest homes in America, with the first being Oheka Castle in New York at 109,000 square feet, and Delaware's Winterhur, at 96,000 square feet.  It was designed by architect Paul…

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