Panoramic Hill is a residential neighborhood of the cities of Berkeley and

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

defined by the homes along and within the access corridor defined by Panoramic Way.

Geography

The Panoramic Hill Neighborhood is located at the eastern edge of the city of Berkeley, southeast of the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

campus, and situated at the northwestern foot of the Claremont Canyon Regional Preserve and the Claremont Hills. The neighborhood is bounded by Piedmont Avenue, the

Clark Kerr Campus Housing at the University of California, Berkeley includes student housing facilities run by the office of Residential and Student Service Programs (RSSP). Housing is also offered by off-campus entities such as fraternities and sororities and the ...

and the main University of California campus. The eastern half of this neighborhood is in the City of Oakland. It includes the streets of Panoramic Way, Mosswood Road, Panoramic Place (Berkeley), Panoramic Place (Oakland), Arden Road, Dwight Place, and Dwight Way. The neighborhood is approximately 0.258 square miles.

Traffic

Panoramic Way is a very steep and narrow public road with numerous sharp turns and curves serving approximately 500 residents. Traffic can become difficult during rush hours, waste collection times or when construction and service vehicles are present. Emergency vehicles do regular patrols of the area to test their ability to access all residents in case of emergency. The speed limit is limited to 15 mph. Where the street is only wide enough for one car, the car facing downhill must yield to the car facing uphill, as required by California Motor Vehicle Code.

Parking

Because of the Panoramic Hill Neighborhood's situation between both the city of Berkeley and the city of Oakland it is regulated by both cities with parking regulation. The Berkeley portion of the hill has a 2-hour limit and is patrolled between 8 AM and 7 PM, Monday through Saturday, excluding holidays. Residents can acquire a "K" parking permit. Parking in the Oakland portion of the hill is also limited to 2 hours and is patrolled between 8 AM and 6 PM, Monday through Friday. Residents can acquire an "L" parking permit. The City of Oakland does not patrol this area with any regularity. Additionally, the Oakland part of Panoramic Hill is in the same high fire danger zone as the City of Berkeley, yet Oakland does not demonstrate active interest in maintaining reasonable ingress/egress by sweeping the road or by scraping the road when it is impacted by soil sliding downhill into the road.

Panoramic Walking Path

Panoramic Hill is home to a series of maintained walking paths and staircases that lead, on and off the road, halfway up the hill where they intersect a series of fire trails that lead into the hills. Each set of steps is treated as its own walking byway and is therefore named and well marked. Signs are also placed around the hill indicating the direction of the closest set of 'steps off the hill' for visitors who become lost among the trees, architecture, and windy roads. The lower steps are called Orchard Lane, and split at Panoramic Way (the vehicle road) and Mosswood Path a pedestrian pathway covered by antique red woods. Arden Steps are the penultimate set of steps in the series and are severely steep. Arden Steps and Arden Path meet at the cul-de-sac of Arden Road where Arden Path finishes the series with a sloping path and a final series up two dozen wooden steps. A plaque at the entrance to the Orchard Lane and thus the bottom of the hill is inscribed:

History

Established in 1904 by Warren Cheney, the Panoramic Hill neighborhood of Berkeley and Oakland enjoys a robust history. Panoramic Hill was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

as a historic district in 2005.

Fire Trail

The upper and lower Jordan trails are fire trails through the University of California ecological area. The university is required to keep the trails open for emergency vehicle access.

Points of interest

The

Berkeley Historical Society The Berkeley Historical Society is a non-profit association in Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Iri ...

frequently conducts walking tours of Panoramic Hill and its surrounding trails and views.

Architecture

Panoramic Hill features the architecture of

Julia Morgan Julia Morgan (January 20, 1872 – February 2, 1957) was an American architect and engineer. She designed more than 700 buildings in California during a long and prolific career.Erica Reder"Julia Morgan was a local in ''The New Fillmore'', 1 Febr ...

, Ernest Coxhead,

John Hudson Thomas John Hudson Thomas (1878-1945) was an American architect who practiced in the northern California area. Biography John H. Thomas was born in Nevada in 1878. His family relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area when he was still young. He attended Y ...

, Walter Ratcliff,

William Wurster William Wilson Wurster (October 20, 1895 – September 19, 1973) was an American architect and architectural teacher at the University of California, Berkeley, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, best known for his residential desig ...

, Walter Steilberg,

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

, Mark Mack, Harwell Hamilton Harris and

Bernard Maybeck Bernard Ralph Maybeck (February 7, 1862 – October 3, 1957) was an American architect in the Arts and Crafts Movement of the early 20th century. He was an instructor at University of California, Berkeley. Most of his major buildings were in ...

as well as a wide variety of craftsman built homes each uniquely adapting to the geography and encapsulating the view. The Panoramic Hill neighborhood is frequently a part of architectural walking tours in Berkeley. Panoramic Hill was named "Berkeley's Most Romantic Neighborhood" by the

Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association The Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA) is a Berkeley, California, non-profit organization whose mission is to "promote, through education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmi ...

References

External links

Panoramic Hill House Tour 1

The Panoramic Hill Association
a fee supported representative group for the neighborhood.
The Panoramic Hill Advocates
a community supported neighborhood forum. {{DEFAULTSORT:Panoramic Hill, Oakland Berkeley, California Neighborhoods in Berkeley, California Neighborhoods in Oakland, California Populated places established in 1904 National Register of Historic Places in Berkeley, California Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in California National Register of Historic Places in Oakland, California