The challenge to deliver structurally and architecturally relevant residences is an exciting process for home builders, especially in serving clients who want their homes to be designed, curated, and built according to their most unique ideas.
The best custom home builders in Albany take on the challenge of constructing houses that not only embody the individualities of their homeowners, but also reintroduces and redefines classic, traditional, modern, and contemporary designs.
Below are the leading builders that serve the area. These firms are recipients of awards, are consistently featured in publications, and have had years of experience in serving the residential market.
Jetton Construction
1117-A Virginia St. Berkeley, CA 94702
For over four decades, Jetton Construction has been delivering an award-winning and sustainable building practice that caters to the Bay Area’s high-end residential market. The firm’s portfolio lists over 500 projects, including custom homes and historical renovations. The firm’s collaborations with leading architects and interior designers in the field have produced many iconic homes, some of which have been featured in industry magazines and national papers, including Dwell, Gentry Home, Elle Decor, Diablo Magazine, and The New York Times. Some of these homes have won the American Institute of Architects’s (AIA) regional and national-level awards.
One of the firm’s most iconic residential constructions was for Ross Residence. The two-story home highlights nostalgic craftsmanship and traditional style combined with the clean and minimalist elements of contemporary design. The home features classic gabled roofing and makes use of natural materials like wood and stone masonry to not only blend in with its surrounding environment but to establish its presence. Its tall, large windows enhance this indoor-outdoor connection by positioning the main rooms towards the best outdoor views. The interior’s vaulted ceiling expands the space; natural daylight from the large windows amplifies this effect. The project involved the construction of private quarters, the great room with kitchen, dining, and living spaces. Large sliding doors blur the line between the home’s great room and the south-facing patio—a great space for entertainment and family gatherings.
Alderson Construction
710 Channing Way, Berkeley, CA 94710
When Alderson Construction opened its doors in 1979, it provided high-end residential project owners an opportunity to work with an established building company that has access to the industry’s leading architects and designers. Many of the firm’s unforgettable projects are collaborations with multi-awarded studios and have produced contemporary, Mediterranean, Spanish, and Traditional designs. Diablo Magazine, Architectural Digest, Home By Design, Sunset Magazine, and Better Homes and Gardens, are just some of the periodicals that have celebrated the firm’s projects.
In a partnership with Charlie Barnett Associates and Suzman & Cole Design Associates, the firm constructed a home that features the timeless appeal of Mediterranean architecture’s textures and natural tones. The home’s classic color-washed includes stucco siding, red tile terra-cotta roofing, balconies, and metal works, arched entrances, moldings, and carvings. All of those features are complemented by the contemporary elements of large, expansive windows, and the indoor-outdoor visual and spatial connection. The interior includes warm color palettes, custom fixtures, wood elements, and textiles that add a sense of luxury and sophistication to the space. The landscaping emphasizes the same luxury and is designed to blend well with the home’s architectural context.
Oliver Builders
1031 Pardee St. Berkeley, CA 94710
Sustainable and modern construction methods highlight Oliver Builders’s 35 years of services. The company specializes in custom home building and remodeling, services that have allowed Berkeley and Greater East Bay homeowners to transform and build spaces that answer modern-day lifestyle demands. Certified by the Better Business Bureau (BBB) for its client-focused approach, the firm is also a Certified Green Builder thanks to its eco-friendly building practices.
Some of its brilliant work can be found In Berkeley. The firm built a custom home that derives inspiration from the cozy and homey feel of craftsman architecture, but with a distinctly modern twist. Reminiscent of its traditional origins, the home features overhanging eaves, wide porches and columns, and the dominant use of natural materials—stone and wood—for the exteriors and the interior space. The metal roofing and modern window groupings hint at its contemporary style and functional intentions. Projects of the same creativity and hybrid aesthetics can be seen in the firm’s custom home building portfolio.
Axiom Build
1136 Parker St. Berkeley, CA 94702
Serving the entire San Francisco and Bay Area, Axiom Builder delivers a comprehensive construction practice that has helped the residential market enjoy sustainable and thoughtfully-designed contemporary and modern homes. Aside from the firm’s works for custom home building and small lot subdivision homes, it also takes on accessory dwelling unit (ADU) projects for additions, conversions, and backyard homes. The company’s design-build approach is guided by the latest in construction technologies and digital management.
For a home in Berkeley Hills, the company drew inspiration from the adaptive geometry of modern architecture to redefine a multi-level structure into a challenging terrain and produce an abode that blends in with its natural landscape. Full-glass walls emphasize the designer’s intention to visually integrate the indoors with its expansive outdoors. In turn, ample daylight also flows around the home’s bright-palette interiors to create a sense of expanse and openness. Clean, sleek, smooth surfaces celebrate the simplicity and functionality that contemporary spaces can offer.
Feraru & Associates Building And Design Inc.
1569 Solano Ave. #249 Berkeley, CA 94707
Established over a decade ago, Feraru & Associates Building And Design Inc. offers a one-stop-shop approach to custom home building. The company is composed of European craftsmen experienced in a time-tested approach to traditional building and trained to employ modern and contemporary techniques. The company’s portfolio of single-family custom homes and remodeling projects exemplifies the consistent results of this approach.
One project that best represents the firm’s design-build approach was for custom residential construction work. The company completed the Vassar Residence guided by the modern design principles of using light, space, and materials to provide a more functional and optimized living environment. The home’s rectangular form maximizes the interior’s usable spaces. On top of the home’s attached garage is a second-level deck—the main exterior space for socializing and entertaining. It can be accessed through a straight stairway that also leads to the home’s red-colored main door. This choice of a hot palette is a stark contrast to the exterior’s cool, grey façade.
Kami Construction
828 San Pablo Ave Albany, CA 94706
Since 1994, Kami Construction has helped shape San Francisco Bay Area’s residential landscape through building projects that emphasize the inevitable combination of traditional craftsmanship and modern construction practices. The result? Construction projects, renovations, remodels, and custom homes that embody the best of what the old and the new have to offer in terms of functionality and architectural relevance.
One of the firm’s unforgettable works in Albany is for a residential property that celebrates traditional forms and materials of craftsman architecture. The home’s broad exterior showcases signature tempered columns that support its front porch and overhanging eaves. Its use of grey stone siding and gabled, shingle roofing hints of a modern touch. Similar contemporary elements can be seen in the full glass windows that let in ample daylight.
Berkeley Design Build, Inc.
5427 Telegraph Avenue, Suite A, Oakland, CA 94609
Founded over 20 years ago, Berkeley Design Build combines the latest in architecture and general contracting as it delivers full-service residential construction and remodeling work under one roof. Projects of varying values and complexities can be found in its portfolio of kitchens, baths, additions, and custom homes. In recent years, Dwell featured one of its remodeled homes in Berkeley.
For another project—this time In Albany Hill—the company designed and built a modern home that has subtle hints of a Mediterranean presence via its choice of palette and its exterior. Color-washed beige stucco blends with the wine-red frames and entrances for the main door and the two-car garage. Large, expansive window groupings dominate the façade, introducing its contemporary structure through interiors that organically connect to the home’s surroundings. These same expansive transparencies invite generous amounts of daylight into these open-concept living spaces.
