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	Photo: Deborah Sherman

    When Joseph Slusky and Katie Hawkinson began their search for their first home to own in 1994, they consulted their good friend and Berkeley-based architect Charles Kahn of Kahn Design Associates. “Charles and I were roommates for four years back in the ’80s,” Slusky says with amusement, “and because of that, he really knew what I needed more than I did.”
    Given Slusky and Hawkinson’s multi-faceted lives—both teach in the architecture department at UC Berkeley; he is a metal sculptor; she is a painter and former chef at Greens Restaurant in San Francisco—they needed a live/work space with an art studio and viable kitchen. To accomplish an affordable solution, Kahn instructed the couple to find a small house on a big lot with a bad foundation.
With much skepticism, Slusky and Hawkinson found an 850-square-foot, one-bedroom, one-bath bungalow in East Berkeley built in 1904 with a decrepit brick foundation. The house, with its mishmash of rotting woodsheds and bird coops, was literally and figuratively overshadowed by an enormous avocado tree that stood prominently on the property. “Charles immediately saw the possibilities of this place, but we were wondering what we were getting ourselves into,” says Slusky. “It felt like we were buying a really expensive tree.”
    The couple cast their doubts aside and let Kahn lift the house, replace the foundation and add a lower level to create a shared studio space for the couple. “Most people would never consider raising their house, because we like to think of our houses as solid, immovable structures. The reality is that raising a house and building below it is the easiest and most cost-effective way of adding space to it,” explains Kahn.
    In no time, the historical house was safely elevated 12 feet—a height taller than usual but necessary to accommodate Slusky’s large metal sculptures—and carefully moved 6 inches away from the neighboring property in order to accommodate the city’s current setback code. This customized structure was ideal for the couple and allowed them to give up their rented art studios and put their money toward their home mortgage.
    However, as the years went by, the couple’s needs grew. With only one bedroom, the artists-professors were forced to use their dining room as a makeshift office, and their shared downstairs studio space was becoming overcrowded. The cramped living quarters left Hawkinson without any usable wall space large enough to display her bigger paintings. Additionally, the kitchen was too small for the couple’s entertaining needs. “When we had guests over and I was cooking, nobody else could fit in here with me,” Hawkinson recalls.
    After 10 years of mulling over ideas, the couple took the death of the huge avocado tree, its base measuring 5 feet across, as their catalyst to add to the house. Given his intimate knowledge of the house and the homeowners themselves, Kahn was the only person Slusky and Hawkinson would consider finishing what he started.
    The newly available space in the backyard allowed for the house to be enlarged, almost doubling the square footage. The new plan created room for a master bedroom, a modern bathroom and interior stairs leading down to his