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On Sunday afternoon, architecture and history buffs will have the chance for a unique first-hand look at some works by the most famous names in architecture from Bernard Maybeck to Frank Lloyd Wright. 

The Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association is hosting its 30th annual Spring House Tour and Garden Reception on Panoramic Hill, an area which was recently unanimously nominated by the State Historic Preservation Commission for the status of a National Historic District. 

The tour, which runs from 1-5 p.m., features stunning homes offering what Los Angeles real estate agents call “jetliner views” of Berkeley and the Bay Area. 

One of the most visually intriguing homes on the tour is a 12-room two-story home on Orchard Lane, dominated by a three-story octagonal tower featuring uniquely framed windows that offer expansive views of Berkeley and the bay beyond. 

In addition to its sheer visual appeal, the home also embodies a love affair. It was designed by Walter T. Steilberg, an UC Berkeley graduate who worked for a decade under the legendary Julia Morgan—the designer of another home on the Panoramic Hill tour. 

Steilberg built the home for the mother of Elizabeth Ferguson, a UC Berkeley research assistant. The architect and the daughter fell in love, marrying the following year. Two other Steilberg homes are also on the tour. 

Berkeley’s pre-eminent architect, Bernard Maybeck, designed one of the more unusual homes on the tour, described from the start as a Swiss chalet. 

Internationally renowned as an exemplar of the Arts and Crafts movement, Maybeck designed the city’s first and most widely recognized landmark, the First Church of Christ, Scientist at the northeast corner of Dwight Way and Bowditch Street. 

The chalet on Panoramic Hill was designed for George H. Boke, a UC Berkeley law professor, who was one of the great reformers of the Progressive Era. 

Another home on the tour was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, whose most famous homes embody a continuation of the Arts and Crafts style. The home in the Berkeley hills was designed for a different locale, the Hollywood Hills, in 1939. High construction costs shelved the plans for 25 years, when the architect’s designs were sold to attorney Joseph Feldman along with furniture Wright had designed for the home. 

The furnishings were donated to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London four years later. 

Other homes on the tour feature designs by Walter H. Ratcliff Jr., Mabel Baird, William Wurster, Harwell Hamilton Harris and A.H. Broad—who designed many of Berkeley’s schools. 

From the start, the Panoramic Hills neighborhood has harbored a unique collection of residents and residences, including a sizable collection of UC Berkeley faculty. 

The State Historic Preservation Commission nominated the site for the National Registry of Historic Places in May. 

Marilyn Lortie, the state historian assigned to the Office of Historic Preservation Commission, sang the praises of the district and of the 61 homes singled out in the nomination. “In my 20 years with the office, this is one of the nicest residential districts I’ve ever seen,” she said. “It has all of the stars of California architecture, everyone from Maybeck to William Wurster. It’s really quite beautiful.” 

Tour tickets are $30 for the general public and $25 for BAHA members and guests. Tickets go on sale Sunday at a ticket booth which opens at noon at the entrance to the UC Memorial Stadium parking lot at the north end of Prospect Street one block north of Channing Way. 

Tickets may also be purchased online at the BAHA website at www.berkeleyheritage.com/housetours/2005_spring_house_tour.html.o