About 775 San Diego Rd
At 775 San Diego Road, directly across from John Hinkel Park, the Kip House is one of the remarkable early residential works of Berkeley modernist Donald Olsen. Designed in 1952 for UC Berkeley physicist Arthur Frederic Kip, the house belongs to a formative moment in Olsen’s career, when the principles of European modernism — particularly the Bauhaus — were finding a new expression in California. Olsen embraced the Bauhaus’ emphasis on clarity, functional planning and the elimination of unnecessary ornament. An austere simplicity that feels like the way we want to live today. More than seventy years later, it is striking how modern the Kip House feels. Its clean geometry, expanses of glass and remarkably fluid plan still read as contemporary Olsen uses the slope of the site to create a sequence of subtly changing levels. The approach leads to an intermediate level containing the kitchen and dining spaces. The kitchen opens directly to the dining room — and continues outward into a secluded English garden, a backyard that feels like another room of the house. From this central level, the plan rises to a raised living room and study, while two of the bedrooms occupy the lower portion of the house. Large glazed walls bring the surrounding trees into almost every room, dissolving the distinction between interior and exterior. The effect changes constantly through the day as light, foliage and shadow move across the rooms. Against this composition, notice how the red balcony brings a flash of color and geometry, a nod to the use of primary colors and work of Le Corbusier. Directly across the street is John Hinkel Park, giving the house an unusual degree of greenery and quiet despite being only minutes from central Berkeley. Energy Score is 1. At approximately 1,904 square feet, with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a study, the house is exceptionally laid out, with very little wasted circulation and almost no space without a purpose. The Kip House makes the ideas of the past feel relevant today: open living, connection to landscape, efficient use of space, privacy without enclosure and architecture that responds closely to its site. And now, for only the second time in its history, the house awaits its next steward — someone who recognizes its architectural significance, embraces its magic, and comes to love it as deeply as the Kips and its current owner have.
