Archinect - News

'Hobbit Revival' Enclave dormitory in Berkeley now completed

2020-09-15T18:11:00-04:00

Even with everything else going on right now, the crazed excess of the newest building on Berkeley’s Telegraph Avenue is guaranteed to stop you in your tracks.

The Chronicle’s urban design critic, John King, reviews the now-completed and very much style-agnostic Enclave dormitory in Downtown Berkeley. "It's as if Harry Potter and Fred Flintstone decided to build a McMansion. On acid."

Image courtesy of LCA Architects.

"The design mimics a Moorish palace and is inspired by numerous other
muses such as Tibetan forts, Italian hill towns, and the rock-cut
façades of Petra," states the project description from LCA Architects, the architect of record.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by LCA ARCHITECTS (@lca.architects) on Aug 12, 2020 at 5:07pm PDT

The seven-story student housing project, designed by Kirk E. Peterson & Associates, first appeared on Archinect last summer.

Hobbit Revival dormitory headed to Berkeley

2019-08-09T06:09:00-04:00

A proposed dormitory block headed to Downtown Berkeley has a few people scratching their heads.

The beguiling, 254-bed student housing project, known as the Enclave and designed by Kirk E. Peterson & Associates, will bring 55 dormitory units to a site located just across from Berkeley's People's Park.

Mission Revival on top, cave dwelling on the bottom. Image courtesy of LCA Architects.

If you look only at the top three or four floors of the peculiar seven-story complex, it might be hard to notice anything out-of-hand. A series of Mission Revival-inspired faux bell towers, for example, punctuate the project's upper levels, where handsome red tile roof and blue-green tile accents round out an otherwise stucco-and-brick apartment tower.

Aerial view of Enclave. Image courtesy of LCA Architects.

The building's lower levels, however, are something else entirely. Renderings for the project depict the five-over-two-style podium building's three lower levels wrapped in what the project ...

The Top 10 Pieces Of Folly Architecture

2011-11-14T20:58:04-05:00

Folly architecture, from the French word for 'foolish,' is eccentric and extravagant architecture with an appearance that far overshadows its purpose. Often, its appearance is its sole purpose. The architectural marvels below take many forms, made all around the world from the 19th century to the 90's. There are underground tunnels, an upside down church and a giant banana.