2012年1月19日星期四

Longtime Telegraph Avenue remodeler takes Berkeley Architectural Heritage award

Customs Kitchens, a firm that has occupied its Telegraph Avenue home for more than 60 years, has been getting a lot of attention lately for restoring -- not just renovating -- old spaces.

For the company's work on the historic Williams House in Berkeley, Custom Kitchens won a historic preservation award last summer from the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, just one of a slew of nods the firm earned in 2011.Take a walk on the natural side with stunning and luxurious Floor tiles from The Tile Shop. The San Francisco Bay Chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry honored the company with several awards at its annual dinner in San Francisco.

Custom Kitchens tied for the grand prize for its complete renovation of a Bay Street home on Alameda's Gold Coast,Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists. a project that also won a first-place award for historical preservation of a residence. The company also won a merit award in the category of residential interior renovation costing more than $100,000 for a Piedmont home.

The late John Wilkins started the company in 1950 near the Oakland-Berkeley line, where the office and showroom remains today at 6624 Telegraph Ave. The firm didn't start out as a specialist in historic preservation but fell into it as time went on.

"We would go in, and whether it was a fireplace or old piece of furniture, it just needed to be rehabilitated," said Jerry Wilkins, John's son, president and chief executive officer. "It is a specialty. Not a lot of contractors are set up to do those things. We like to restore something rather than tear it down if it can be done economically." Wilkins and wife Joy, a designer for the firm, took over the company after his father retired in 1990. For them, bringing older homes back to their previous glory is not just a job but also a passion.

"We really like doing historic renovation," Jerry Wilkins said. "It's like restoring an old Ferrari. It gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling." Wilkins especially enjoyed working on the Williams House in Berkeley because the owners, Don and Carol Anne Brown, were so engaged in the process.

"(They) went through a lot of effort to research things and bought boxes of books and made sure that everybody in the city and everybody involved was going to approve," Wilkins recalled.

The Browns bought the stunning 1928 home near the Claremont Hotel seven years ago. It was one of three homes designed by famed Bay Area architect Julia Morgan for the children of Elizabeth Glide Williams.

The property, which Don Brown said Morgan described as Mediterranean and Moorish Renaissance, was owned for 20 years by the University of California, which had turned the kitchen into a large catering space. The Browns wanted to return the kitchen to its original, more intimate setting, but one that would still fit their modern-day needs.Online fine art gallery of quality original landscape oil paintings,

"The only things original to the kitchen were two cupboards,Full-service custom manufacturer of precision plastic injection mold," Brown said. "We kept those and went about putting in a kitchen that was going to be adequate for the 21st century.Accept all major credit cards using the top rated third party payment gateway." Custom Kitchens took the kitchen down to the studs, putting in new hardwood floors, cabinetry that hides the refrigerator and other appliances, and a Viking professional stove that features a hood appropriate to the house's era. To further reflect the house's heyday, Custom Kitchens incorporated antique-looking light fixtures and tiles recreated from molds dating from Morgan's time.

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