Completed just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the house stands out for its relation to its site, the clarity of its structural idea, and the livability of its various zones. The house's cross-sectional relationship with its terrain was the key determinant of the major architectural decisions. It is composed of a two-story freestanding main structure pushed out on a slope and linked by a bridge to a secondary building closer to the street. It is just up a hill from the UC Berkeley campus, so the residence's street front was purposely designed as discreet. A side door next to the carport is a threshold to a breathtaking view— oriented due west—of the entire Bay Area.
The house's hallmark is its roof skeleton and its floors outline. Three inverted trusses, also described as inverted gables, with deep overhangs on the balcony give the house a unique image. Capturing a view of the horizon was Weston Havens's desire, so Harris opened up the house and gave every single room a view of the sky. In looking at his photographs of the house, architectural photographer Roger Sturtevant said, "The house . . . is practically a sun scoop for the western exposure" (undated interview).
At the highest spot of the lot, the front gate opens onto stairs leading down to a bridge that connects to the front door on the house's upper level. Once in the vestibule, a built-in closet strategically blocks the sightline to the exterior. Past the entry point, glimpses of the commanding view are offered from every corner of the interior. A common balcony wraps around the living and dining rooms, and a kitchen and a bedroom face an outdoor badminton court. This recreational area is carefully screened from the bridge and other interior quarters and positioned between a majestically scaled stepped redwood retaining wall and the indoor and outdoor rooms at the base of the house. A circular stair of redwood and curved plywood leads to the lower level, which contains two bedrooms at opposite ends and individual bathrooms in its central area.
At age thirty-eight, with only a few years of practice under his belt, Harris produced a work of extraordinary maturity and bold assertiveness. At a time when the public was not convinced that Modern architecture suited traditional notions of domesticity, the warmth and inventiveness of the Havens House won the favor of architectural circles and laymen alike.
Weston Havens died on October 4, 2001, at ninety-seven. Today the house appears frozen in time, with the same furnishings seen in its first photographs, taken just after the house was completed. Havens donated his residence to Berkeley's College of Environmental Design, and, after restoration work is completed, it will be opened to visiting faculty.