Interactive Resources has a long and successful practice of providing historic preservation services. We have designed and overseen the construction of hundreds of historic rehabilitation projects. One such recent project is for the University of California, Berkeley Women’s Faculty Club, designed by architect John Galen Howard and completed in 1923. According to UC Berkeley, it is the only women’s faculty club in the nation with its own building, and was conceived and formed through the initiative of Lucy Ward Stebbins, the second Dean of Women on the Berkeley campus, who began organizing with women faculty in 1919 (at the time, women were not allowed to join the existing Faculty Club). For nearly a century, it has served as an intellectual meeting place, residence and dining facility for faculty and students.

The Women’s Faculty Club is listed on the National Register of Historic Places; therefore, any work, including roofing, must follow the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties. The four-story wooden structure contains multiple hipped roofs that were originally wood shingle with ornamental cornices containing copper gutters. It is located on the UC Berkeley campus in a Woodland Urban Interface high fire risk fire area.

UC Berkeley Capital Projects retained Interactive Resources to develop a re-roofing design that maintained the historic character of the building while simultaneously altering the traditional materials and detailing to comply with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards and California Building Code requirements (sections 705 and 706) for high fire risk zones.

Our design included the installation of a 40-year asphalt, Class “A” roof and custom copper flashings and gutters. All work meets the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties, Rehabilitation Treatment. The project will be completed this summer.