A William Wurster–Designed Gem in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights Asks $6.9 Million

In one of America’s most sought-after urban neighborhoods, San Francisco’s Pacific Heights, stands a newly listed home designed by one of the most acclaimed Bay Area architects of the past century: William Wurster.

Although Wurster designed landmarks like Ghirardelli Square as well as campus buildings at UC Berkeley (where he became the architecture school dean in 1950) and Stanford University, he was best known for designing hundreds of California houses from the 1920s through the ’40s.

Constructed in simple forms with locally sourced wood, these homes helped define contemporary residential architecture. Wurster’s 1928 Gregory Farmhouse in Scotts Valley, California, is even regarded as a kind of prototype for what became the ubiquitous ranch house.

The home Wurster designed at 1641 Green Street in Pacific Heights is no ranch, but instead it’s an exercise in higher-density urban living—its garage door greets visitors at the edge of the sidewalk, while the living areas are located on the upper floors. Even so, the back of the property holds a surprisingly lush garden area evocative of the more pastoral settings one associates with ranch houses.

While many nearby residential buildings are essentially duplexes, with second units at the rear of their rectangular hilltop lots, this home reserves more than half of its overall property for green space, including a tall, mature eucalyptus tree.