Tupper & Reed

"Every time a man puts his hand down to cut or carve or chisel or guild a house, he must express his own self."  ---William Raymond Yelland, Architect, 1927

In 1925, Yelland designed a fairytale-like building on Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley.  For the next 80 years,  John C. Tupper and Lawrence Reed operated it as a music store and sometime concert hall.  Today, it's a cocktail bar and live music venue, listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.

North Berkeley Farmers' Market

Controversy and change have surrounded the North Berkeley Farmers' Market this year.  The Ecology Center operates three wonderful year-round markets, including one on Shattuck Avenue at Rose Street on Tuesdays from 3 - 7 p.m.  Due to concerns about disabled access and retail impact, the City of Berkeley required a recent relocation to down the street.  Some think the new configuration lacks a community feeling because the booths are lined up in a row facing a retail strip rather than the stalls facing each other across a grassy meridian.  The Ecology Center staff members say they are "committed to doing our best to make the farmers’ market work in the new location"--including providing chairs and tables near Saul's Restaurant, which will soon have a new parklet on the street in front.

Early in the evening, looking south toward Shattuck and Vine

Later in the evening, looking north toward Rose Street

Four Corners, Berkeley Style

I just returned from a trip that included a stop at Four Corners, the meeting place of the borders of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.  This reminded me that I hadn't finished the set of drawings I had started last year of the four corners of a major intersection in my neighborhood, Shattuck Avenue and Vine Street.  Luckily, our group met there this week to sketch at the Thursday Farmers' Market and Cheeseboard Pizza, and I was able to complete the final sketch.