Berkeley’s Sawtooth Building: Factory Daylight and the Architecture of a Working Arts District

By Matthew Martinez, Founder, CEO & Managing Broker, Diamond Real Estate Group. California DRE #01869679.

The roofline of Berkeley’s Sawtooth Building tells something about what happened beneath it. Repeated glazed roof sections brought light into a manufacturing building, while later occupants adapted the large interior for a different mixture of work. BAHA records its designation as a Berkeley landmark on July 21, 1986, recognizing this industrial architecture as part of the city’s heritage.

That continuity makes the building a particularly useful example of West Berkeley’s character. Industrial architecture did not simply disappear when an earlier manufacturer left. Some of its physical qualities became useful to craftspeople, artists and other occupants.

A manufacturer put its own product into the building

The Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association’s research dates the Kawneer factory to 1913 and identifies company founder Francis John Plym as the driving figure. Kawneer produced metal framing that supported large storefront windows.

BAHA describes twenty sawtooth banks of clerestory glazing in the brick factory. The later glass-and-metal office addition also incorporated the company’s products.

This gives the complex an unusual relationship between manufacture and architecture. The material being sold was also part of how the business presented and equipped its own workplace.

A commercial building can therefore be read at two levels: as space for production, and as a demonstration of what that production made possible.

The roof brought light into the depth of a large floor

The repeated high windows are fundamental to the factory’s identity. They distribute glazing across the roof, rather than depending entirely on openings around the perimeter.

That arrangement helps explain the building’s recognizable silhouette. The exterior outline expresses a practical need within a deep industrial floorplate. Architecture and the conditions of work are visibly connected.

BAHA contrasts that early arrangement with later additions that relied less heavily on natural light. The complex consequently records changes in industrial design as well as growth in the company’s operations.

The factory interior became a collection of workplaces

BAHA records Kawneer leaving Berkeley in 1958, subsequent use by Sealy Mattress and subdivision into smaller spaces after a 1972 sale.

Woodworker and participant John Curl’s firsthand account describes moving into the former mattress factory as it was being divided for artisans and artists. He recounts the growth of a community of workshops and cultural activities within the building.

This is a different kind of reuse from converting a factory into a single new institution. The larger structure became an umbrella for many smaller working spaces. A common shell could accommodate a varied set of occupants and practices.

That pattern helps explain why such buildings can matter to neighborhood identity beyond their façades. Their interior arrangement can support a concentration of activity that would be harder to recognize from the street alone.

West Berkeley’s planning history recognizes a mixture of uses

The city’s West Berkeley Plan overview identifies a mix of industrial, office, arts and crafts, residential, retail and institutional activities as central to the district.

The Sawtooth story gives that broad description a specific architectural example. Manufacturing history, adaptable floor space and creative work occupy the same physical setting at different points in time.

For someone comparing nearby homes, it is useful to understand that a district’s identity can come from working buildings as much as from housing styles. The local character includes the places where things are made, repaired, designed and practiced.

Explore real estate and home for sale in Berkeley. Contact Diamond to compare homes with attention to the architecture and varied uses that make their surrounding blocks distinctive.

Sources checked October 28, 2026. Historical occupancy comes from BAHA and a participant’s published recollection; no current studio vacancy or access schedule is asserted.