Will Jazz Icon Dave Brubeck’s Former Midcentury Treehouse in NorCal Sway a Buyer for $3M?

A spectacular midcentury modern home, cantilevered 16 feet in the air, recently hit the market for $3 million in Oakland, CA.

The one-of-a-kind abode was built in 1953 for jazz legend Dave Brubeck and his wife, Iola. The couple lived in the 2,652-square-foot, four-bedroom residence from 1954 to 1960. The beloved musician died in 2012.

Just a few years ago, the awe-inspiring Wilton, CT, home, where the modernist jazz great lived with his family when they relocated to the East Coast, was listed for $2.75 million.

As for Brubeck’s Oakland digs, the property at the top of a rocky outcropping provided a challenge.

“The unique design of the house is its most impressive feature,” says listing agent Emma Morris, of Red Oak Realty. “The architect, Beverley D. Thorne, was best known for his use of steel in residential construction. At the time, Bethlehem Steel was promoting steel products to architects throughout the country. Thorne was well known for using the strength of steel over very challenging topographies.”

Morris explains that Brubeck struck up a wonderful friendship with Thorne, and the two spent several years discussing ideas for the home before landing on the final design. The result is a house with distinctive steel beams that appears to float over the landscape.

“Most modern homes are constructed on a hillside lot on a downslope or upslope, with the house clinging to the side,” Morris says. “This house has 2,300 square feet of level living space that slopes. The rock in the living room looks like it pierces the underbelly of the house. You don’t see this type of design every day. When you walk up to the home from the driveway, you see the underbelly of the house and the rocky hillside.”

That same rock supports a curved sheet of glass that once served as Brubeck’s work desk. It was in this house that the Dave Brubeck Quartet practiced; it’s where Brubeck conceived the idea for “Time Out,” the first jazz album to sell a million copies; and it’s where the hits “Take Five” and “Blue Rondo à la Turk” were composed.

Offering a natural, melodic flow from the indoor spaces to the outdoors, the jaw-dropping design remains much the same. A variety of thoughtful interior renovations were made over the years, though.

“Brubeck did a number of updates after they moved in, as their family kept growing,” Morris notes. “He expanded the living room space and music performance space and added a couple of studio units underneath the house. The current owner bought the house in 1974 and reconfigured some of the bedroom spaces as they were originally set up almost like train cabins, all in a row.”

The home’s kitchen and one of the bathrooms were remodeled in 2004.

Morris notes that the house was built “in a moment in time” when the postwar public was trying to “live a new way,” adding that Thorne “popularized the modern home for the masses.”

She believes the next owner will be someone with a passion for midcentury modern architecture.

“It will certainly be someone who is looking for an architectural statement as their home,” she predicts. “The home is really a part of history. … I could see it being used as either a primary or secondary residence. It’s in a great location for the Bay Area, as far as shops and location goes. It’s right in the heart of where you want to live and work.”

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