1952 Berkeley home tied to semiconductor pioneer lists for $1.425 million

The home's architecture is closely tied to its terrain. Instead of imposing a conventional rectangular floor plan on the sloping site, Olsen organized the house across a series of split levels. There are homes that are valued for their size, homes prized for their views, and homes that become significant because of the people who once lived within their walls. In Berkeley’s Thousand Oaks neighborhood, the Kip House belongs firmly to the third category. Tucked into a hillside on San Diego Road, the roughly 1,900-square-foot residence has had an unusually quiet history. Built in 1952, it remained with its original owners for more than six decades and changed hands only once before returning to the market in 2026. The asking price is now $1.425 million, reports Realtor website. According to the news report, the house was designed by Donald Olsen for Arthur Frederic Kip, a UC Berkeley physics professor whose pioneering semiconductor research helped establish scientific oundations for the computer and electronics revolution that followed. For Olsen, the commission came relatively early in his career. He had studied under Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus movement, at Harvard, and t...