EcoHouse in the News

The Oakland Tribune
March 12, 1999

Noted landscape architect's love of gardens bears fruit in Berkeley

BERKELEY—For decades, landscape architect Karl Linn designed gardens for the rich and famous. The stunning landscaping inside New York City's renowned Four Seasons restaurant that includes mature trees and exotic foliage is one of his most noted projects.

But Linn is proudest of a trio of humble community gardens here in Berkeley, where he has lived for more than a dozen years. Linn-working with his neighbors reclaimed three long-unused, weed-strewn plots at Peralta Avenue and Hopkins Street.

San Francisco artist Amy Blackstone designed a gate; other artists contributed statues and mosaics, even a fountain. Another artist, Dmitry Grudsky, designed benches based on the fanciful designs of a Barcelona building.

Today, more than 40 gardeners have plots in the gardens, which have become a meeting place for residents of this mixed community of large apartment buildings and small pre-World War II cottages. The gardens have, in fact, created a community: Neighbors have met neighbors, and strangers have become friends.

That, Linn says, is what he wanted: a project that makes life in the city more livable for people of every economic background.

A Jewish refugee from Hitler's Germany, he's seen a lot.

In the 1950s, he quit landscape architecture and became a psychologist. Then he returned to the soil and spent years attempting therapy by introducing his clients to nature. Now Linn and his Berkeley community—with the enthusiastic help of Berkeley City Councilmember Linda Maio—have a new objective. They call it "EcoHouse" and to pull it off they need a little help from their friends.

Time-ravaged target

Their target is a time-ravaged, two-bedroom house at 1305 Hopkins, east of the gardens. The idea, Linn said, is to convert it into a state-of-the-art demonstration house for advances such as solar heating, low-energy appliances, nontoxic insulation and nonsynthetic construction materials.

Laurie Capitelli, chairwoman of the Berkeley Planning Commission, and a couple of friends put a down payment on the house and signed a contract to buy the property for $190,000. The deadline to close escrow is April 10—so time is urgent, said Maio, whose district includes the neighborhood.

"We've raised $95,000 so far," Maio said. "We need to raise $240,000 to buy it and for repairs to make it livable."

"What we're looking for is friends willing to loan us $10,000 each for two years at 5 percent simple interest."

The plan is to rehab the house, rent it for two years and in the meantime seek grants to buy the house and incorporate the latest ecological innovations. The group wants to make EcoHouse into a place where architects, carpenters, homeowners and the public can visit and learn.

"If we can't get the grants, then we'll sell the house and everyone will get their money back that way," Maio said.

The hot Berkeley housing market almost ensures the property will increase in value. But for extra safety for investors, Malo on Tuesday will ask the City Council to have the city guarantee the loans. Linn said everybody is excited about the project. The back yard alone, he said, will double the size of the community garden and allow demonstration plots to show neighbors and children how to grow things.

Sowing the seeds

The gardening idea began in 1993, when friends who knew Linn's love for gardens and subscribed to his ideas about building community with plants dedicated a vacant lot as the Karl Linn Community Garden.

The dedication came on his 70th birthday, and while it brought tears to his eyes, the "garden" was nothing more than a dream. But with $25,000 cash from Berkeley for supplies and thousands of hours of donated labor, the garden has succeeded beyond his expectations.

A couple of weeks ago Vanity Fair magazine wanted to bring Linn to New York to be photographed inside the Four Seasons to celebrate the restaurant's 40th anniversary.

Linn politely put them off. Got to work in the garden, he said.