The Studio Building is a historic building, listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

, and located at 2045

Shattuck Avenue Shattuck Avenue is a major city street running north–south through Berkeley, California, and Oakland, California. At its southern end, the street branches from Telegraph Avenue in Oakland's Temescal district, then ends at Indian Rock Park i ...

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Description and history

The Studio Building dates back to 1905. It stood as the tallest building in

downtown Berkeley Downtown Berkeley is the central business district of the city of Berkeley, California, United States, around the intersection of Shattuck Avenue and Center Street, and extending north to Hearst Avenue, south to Dwight Way, west to Martin Luther Ki ...

in the time of its construction. It was built by Frederick H. Dakin for use by his real estate investment company. The architect was probably Clarence Dakin. An online facsimile of the entire text of Vol. 1 is posted on the Traditional Fine Arts Organization website (). The top floor of the building was designed as artists' studios and included a

gallery Gallery or The Gallery may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Art gallery ** Contemporary art gallery Music * Gallery (band), an American soft rock band of the 1970s Albums * ''Gallery'' (Elaiza album), 2014 album * ''Gallery'' (Gr ...

space. The building was the original location of the

California College of the Arts California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996 it opened a second campus in San ...

, founded by

Frederick Meyer Frederick Heinrich Wilhelm Meyer (November 6, 1872 – January 6, 1961) was a designer and art educator prominent in the Arts and Crafts Movement. He was a long-time resident of the San Francisco Bay Area. Early years Meyer was born near Ha ...

in 1907. The school, known originally as the School of the California Guild of the Arts and Crafts, moved to larger quarters after its first year. Other early tenants of the building included architect

John Hudson Thomas John Hudson Thomas (1878-1945) was an American architect who practiced in the northern California area. Biography John H. Thomas was born in Nevada in 1878. His family relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area when he was still young. He attended Y ...

, painters Henry J. Breuer and Evelyn A. Withrow, and photographers

Oscar Maurer Oscar Maurer (17 July 1870–9 June 1965) was a nationally recognized Pictorialist photographer based in California. His photographs appeared in ''Camera Work'', ''Camera Craft'', '' The Camera,'' and other photography journals. His studio in Berke ...

and Edwin James McCullagh. A school of performing arts opened there in 1910. The building is five stories tall and built of

masonry Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar; the term ''masonry'' can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are bricks, building ...

with a tiled

mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...

and rounded upper floor window bays. The first-floor bays, used as shop fronts, were originally built in the form of a series of alternating rounded and pointed arches, although some of these have since been covered. The building's name is set into the tile floor at the entrance, with the image of an artist's palette created by Frederick's brother, the well-known artist

Edwin Deakin Edwin Deakin (May 21, 1838 – May 11, 1923) was a British-American artist best known for his romantic landscapes as well as his architectural studies, especially the Spanish colonial missions of California. His still lifes are considered to be ...

. By the time of Frederick Dakin's death in 1917 the building was called the Berkeley Hotel. The building was restored in the late 1970s, and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978.

References

Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in California Buildings and structures in Berkeley, California National Register of Historic Places in Berkeley, California Commercial buildings completed in 1905 California College of the Arts 1905 establishments in California {{AlamedaCountyCA-struct-stub