More Heart Than Ego

James and Gillian Servais build- and live - by putting comfort over status.

Photography by Cody Pickens

(page 1 of 2)

You may have spotted the distinctive pale adobe facades of homes designed by Gillian and James Servais in the hills above Berkeley and Oakland, or then again, you may not have. One of the couple’s trademarks is designing homes that blend into their surroundings.

With their dirt-colored stucco and discreet positioning, the 25 structures have been referred to as “stealth homes.” They are the antithesis of the architecturally strident “statement” houses that some people chose to build in the aftermath of the 1991 East Bay hills fire, which destroyed seven Servais-designed properties, including their own home.

The house they built in its place nine years ago, perched high on Grand View Drive in Berkeley and reached by a steep, winding driveway, enshrines the couple’s home-building philosophy and showcases their distinctive shared aesthetic.

Both are big fans of the teachings of UC Berkeley architecture professor Christopher Alexander, whose fundamental interest is in what makes human beings comfortable, James explains. The emphasis is less on image, style, or status, and more on the psychology of architecture and a belief in “timeless architecture.”

The mood at the Servais home is set the moment you arrive at the partially enclosed front entrance. A sandstone and steel fountain created by James flanks the front door, which is protected from the elements by the roof.

Just inside the entry, a relaxing, decompressing effect stems from the airy open-plan design of the interior. The look is rustic elegant, with limestone on the floor, slabs of sandstone as hearths, and beautiful old wood for the exposed beams and doors. The influences are Mediterranean and early Monterey with a dash of Southwest. Friends have nicknamed their approach Turbo Pueblo and Zuni Maybeck, but the pair say their style is evolving all the time. “We have gravitated toward a Californian look,” says Gillian.

The couple were ahead of the curve in using recycled materials. “We’ve been sourcing old wood and secondhand fixtures for more than 30 years,” says James, who followed his father into the construction business after deciding against a career as an artist and teacher. A favorite source in Santa Fe, as well as Urban Ore in Berkeley and C&K Salvage in Oakland, turns up choice pieces of mesquite and redwood. They visit quarries in the Western desert to find the perfect slab of sandstone for a fireplace and might wait to locate just the right intricately carved antique door from India or Mexico before creating a walk-in pantry around it. They say they find it soothing to be surrounded by all these gorgeous, gently worn natural materials.

The Servais’ kitchen, the heart of their house, serves to illustrate Alexander’s thinking. Appliances and counter spaces have been carefully designed with the natural sequence of prepping and cooking in mind. A collection of pots, pans, and copper molds is strung over a large kitchen table next to a traditional dresser that houses dishes and stemware. It’s a scene encountered in depictions of kitchens through the ages and across continents. All that’s missing is the open fire on which to roast that day’s meal.

Gillian honed her kitchen design skills at Cookworks, the north Berkeley store she co-owned from 1977 to 1982. “I became known as the kitchen doctor because clients would come in with their architect’s plans and say they didn’t like the way the drawers were positioned, so could I help,” she says.
Despite their patent enthusiasm and expertise for the home-building craft, Gillian and James are taking a sabbatical to focus on their art. Both studied art in college, but only now, after three decades of being somewhat sidetracked, are they pursuing their artistic passions. James creates modernistic sculptures inspired by Joan Miró and Alexander Calder, and Gillian is painting again after focusing on photography.

James’ sculpture garden offers hill views and features his striking pieces inspired by small-particle physics and the movement of dancers. Above his workshop—a cavelike space full of welding tools and partially worked chunks of marble—is Gillian’s studio. Photographic prints on the walls reveal her fascination with pattern, light, and texture—one shows an assemblage of darting koi, another a tortoise’s skeleton.