Downtown Berkeley Photo Walking Tour Route

Farmers market, deco, terracotta, restaurants, cafes, book stores, musicians, Berkeley’s planetary troika of  - Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Neon, art, theaters, poetry, iron work, and metal/stone/stucco/ceramic lizards, sea horses, rams, spider webs cougars and more!

Terrain

Level, flat, stroller and wheelchair friendly

Distance & Time

The Town portion of the Town & Gown Berkeley Photo Walk is about 1.5 – 2.0 miles, and probably will take around two hours. Keoki may be leading the Gown portion through UC Berkeley and Telegraph Avenue after we finish the town part

Kid Friendly – For Sure

Kids will love the giant fish, lizard climbing a building, poetry on the sidewalk, music and colorful fruits & vegetables at the Saturday Farmer’s Market

Transportation

Berkeley Bike Station

Downtown Berkeley BART

AC Transit Bus

Parking – Berkeley Center Street Garage at 2025 Center Street

Preparations

Recharge your camera batteries and make plenty of room on your memory cards

Create a flickr and youtube account to upload your photos and video, and a twitter account to tweet using the #Berkeley and #BPW hashtags

Architectural Resources

Builder’s Booksource at 1817 4th Street in the Fourth Street neighborhood and William Stout Architectural Books at  1605 Solano Avenue in Thousand Oaks.  I found out about William Stout Book from the berkeleyside.com article

Questions?

Call Ira Serkes 510-526-6668 or cell 510-684-3334 or email ira@berkeleyhomes.com

Here’s the berkeleyside.com link

The William Stout Bookstore in San Francisco, Builders’ Booksource on 4th Street, and  Hennessey & Ingalls in Santa Monica are where I’ve bought just about all my Art Deco, Architecture, and Design Books – they are my three most-favorite bookstores in California (and perhaps the United States)

Welcome to our Thousand Oaks Neighborhood!

Ira

Been using computers since IBM Punchcard Machine on the 4th Floor of Cooper Union’s Engineering Building in the East Village of Manhattan.  Some people think of me as a “techy”.  I’m actually at “toolie” and always inspired to find the right tool for the job.

Brian Copeland, an amazing Realtor in Nashville Tennessee invited me to teach Realtors attending the 10th Annual Certified Residential Specialist Conference in Las Vegas Nevada last week what makes the iPad so special.  Only 4% of the Realtors in the United States have been Certified as Residential Specialists (both Carol and I have been) so it was a particular honor to be asked to speak.

Thinking of getting an iPad and wondering how you can use it for photography, maps, travel, email, project management, satellite views … and more?  Just click on the image below and view a PDF file of my ”iLove my iRa iPad” presentation.

One great thing about visiting Las Vegas is that it really makes you appreciate living in Berkeley in the summer.  It was 99º at midnight one night, and 57º when I returned home to foggy Berkeley.  BerkeleySide.com has some great posts “in praise of fog” today.

Another great thing about Las Vegas is that it gave me a chance to revisit some of my favorite places.  Hoover Dam’s amazing Art Deco Sculptures by Oskar Hansen “Winged Figures of the Republic” and Downtown Las Vegas’ installation from the Neon Museum of Las Vegas.

Want to see the rest of my photo sets?  Simply click on each image and you’ll go directly to my flickr.com/serkes photo sets for Hoover Dam or Fremont Street Neon.

I just learned about a plug-in for my WordPress Blog, so decided to take it for a test drive with this post!

I love taking photographs of Art Deco architecture, and I’m trying out some different ways to present the photos

Uploading and geocoding to Flickr is one way, setting up a web page with all the photos is another, and a javascript page is a third.

Here’s sample of the first two types of presentation – which do you prefer?

Click on the photo mosaic to go to the Flickr Site, the web page link is below it.

Art Deco Architecture - Florida - Fort Myers

And here’s the link to my photo page

The photos were taken in Fort Myers, Florida, and most of them are of the Edison Theater on 1533 Hendry Street.  It’s now offices, but I’m delighted that they preserved the facade.

Oakland Paramount Theatre Grand Lobby

Paramount Theatre in Downtown Oakland is one of the few off-the-charts Art Deco Gems all over the world, joining the Palladium Building in London, Chrysler/Empire State Buildings in NYC, Film Center Lobby also in NYC, and the Boston Avenue United Methodist Church in Tulsa.

We went to film night at the Paramount last night – 30 minute organ concert, the giant Deco Wheel, and a movie.

All for $5

They usually give tours on the 1st & 3rd Saturday mornings. The tour is superb. You’ll go backstage, in addition to seeing the Grand Lobby, Halls, Bathrooms (really) and stunning interior walls and ceiling.

The Oakland Paramount Theatre is simply breathtaking. Here’s how to take the tour.

I just read they have U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Naturalization Ceremonies at the Paramount Theater – what a spectacular setting for a powerful event.

Here’s the link to “365 Things To Do and Places To Go in Berkeley”

I took hundreds of photos of Art Deco Architecture in Miami Beach – here’s a sneak preview for you.

Polarizing filters darken the sky and make the details stand out; I sometimes underexpose a bit too.

In recent years I’ve noticed serendipity seems to create interesting experiences.

I found out that the Richard Avedon exhibit at the San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art was closing today, so told Carol – let’s head to San Francisco for breakfast, then go to the exhibit.  We can be back in Berkeley for our 1:30 appointment with a buyer from Nairobi.

We left Berkeley, drove across the Bay Bridge, headed to the Flower Mart for Breakfast.

However, there was no left turn, so went down to Mariposa Street where we saw a great mural  - then worked our way back to downtown.

Turns out we were near South Park, so drove there – where we saw a delightful bistro open for breakfast - The Butler & The Chef Bistro.  Great Crepes & Egg Dish.

Some signs are just too subtle.

Then off to the museum.

Our entry was at noon – so I went to the 5th floor garden court – and had the most amazing view of the Pacific Telephone Building I’d ever seen.

Pacific Telephone Building From SF MOMA

Went down to the 4th floor – and was immediately greeted with a big hello from a client – who introduced me to his friends and family – and while talking to him, was greeted by a Realtor friend who was with a friend visiting from Paris.

Just as we’re about to leave for Berkeley, our client calls – he’s at a hotel a few blocks away so we picked him up.

Went over the market, saw some homes, drove to Piedmont to show homes and decided to stop by a home on Moraga Avenue.  We’d sold two different homes up the street, so knew the basic layout, and knew it would be good.

I walked inside, and soon heard “Hi Ira” – from another buyer we sold a home to a dozen years ago.  Was able to put both buyers together to share information about schools.

The museum was open till 5:45 pm, the light was  nice – so told my buyer I’d drive him back into the city.

Our buyer was interested in Marin, and asked if we knew any agents who had young kids that he could talk to.  I knew just the person, but I didn’t have her phone number.

But I knew just how to reach her.

D GingerW was all it took.

And in a few minutes, Ginger Wilcox called me back – I drove to the city, while they spoke and set up a time to meet.

Alas the sun set behind Twin Peaks, so didn’t catch the light I wanted, but was able to re-visit the Avedon Exhibit.

You’ve seen his photos in magazines and in print, but nothing prepares you for seeing larger-than-life images. Amazing.

And the crates the photos will be shipped out in – they were a work of art too.

I don’t often ramble, but it was such a delightfully wonderful day, I thought I’d share it with you.

That was my day – how was yours?

Ira