美国加州伯克利房产的这座历史悠久、占地三英亩多的斯普林庄园（Spring Estate）位于千橡市（Thousand Oaks），其业主委托设计师对其1.2万平方英尺的主宅的几个元素进行了颇具品味的整修，成功展示了宏伟的学院派风格大厦对豪华起居的完美呈现。Bay Sotheby's International Realty的顶级制作人赫尔曼·陈招募了HGTV主持人、伯克利当地的知名设计师科拉·苏·安东尼（Cora Sue Anthony）来改造这座地标性房产。这栋大厦的外部进行了修缮，并涂上了一层闪闪发光的白色油漆。其结果便是使其外观恢复到接近原始状态，很容易理解为什么在山坡被森林覆盖之前，这栋豪宅就像一颗闪闪发光的宝石，横跨旧金山湾依然清晰可见。
大厦内部的许多房间都经历了优雅的蜕变。如若处置得当，该豪宅的绝佳宏伟感可实现现代化改造，以获得更符合当今美学和生活方式的亲密感。
该豪宅现今充斥着低调的经典柔和色彩。4根巨大且涂有灰泥的托斯卡纳（Tuscan）柱子闪着白光，有助于散布由30英尺高的中庭顶部的原始彩绘玻璃天花板带来的光线。彩绘玻璃的顶部是一个巨型玻璃金字塔天窗。其整体效果让人想起现代版的圣西蒙赫斯特（San Simeon）城堡的宜居版本。一楼设有一个大型餐厅、台球室、厨房、管家餐具室、早餐室和仆人宿舍。
楼上则设有26英尺长的带套间主卧室和一个带天窗的独立更衣室，更衣室位于壁炉旁，这一经过雕饰的壁炉安置的颇为震撼，它使得室内可欣赏的马林县（Marin County）到南湾（South Bay）的旧金山湾全景变得更加突出。
约翰·霍普金斯斯普林大厦：
美国加州伯克利房产的这栋大厦是由约翰·霍普斯金·斯普林建造，他是一位企业家，开发了伯克利北部和奥尔巴尼的大部分地区，并在伯克利克莱蒙酒店（Berkeley's Claremont Hotel）的建造中发挥了重要作用。旧金山地震前，斯普林开始在东湾购买土地。他在1906年将土地卖给逃过来的旧金山人（这些人逃离城市，来到了海湾对面更安全的地方）后赚了一大笔钱。1912年，他委托约翰·哈德森·托马斯（John Hudson Thomas）设计了一座宏伟住宅，旨在促进他在千橡树地区的开发进展。其结果就是在几乎光秃秃的山坡上建成了一座宏伟建筑，几英里之外依然清晰可见；而且据报道，甚至从旧金山也能看到。
建筑师简介：
约翰·哈德森·托马斯于1902年毕业于耶鲁大学，并于1904年从加州大学伯克利分校建筑系毕业并参加工作。他被认为是20世纪上半叶最具创新性的加州建筑师之一。托马斯设计的住宅包括了加州平房、草原住宅、教区房甚至还有哥特式和维也纳分离派建筑，而有时他也会将其完美结合。他在外部材料组合方面亦堪称大师。托马斯以其审慎的大面积建造而闻名，斯普林大厦是按照罗马建筑的宏伟规模建造的。斯普林大厦蕴含了托马斯的众多标志性元素：海湾、多种形状的窗户以及将不拘一格和浪漫融合在一起的视觉效果。该大厦的设计结合了更为正式与经典的元素，展示出托马斯从多种模式中借鉴的技巧与能力，以及他将其融合成一种独特而强大的整体设计。
历史周边：
斯普林一家于1914年搬进了这栋宅邸，但斯普林本人就住在那里不到一年，就抛弃了他的家人，搬出了这里，和一名比他小25岁的护士私奔了。1918年离婚后，他卖掉了这栋豪宅。最初占地达16英亩的花园被细分并出售，该住宅及剩余土地变成了科拉·威廉姆斯创造性发展研究所（Cora L. Williams Institute of Creative Development）。在接下来的50年里，这栋庄园一直作为一所私立学校运营。众多知名人士均曾在该研究所任教或讲学，包括舞蹈家伊莎多拉·邓肯（Isadora Duncan）和精神病学家阿尔弗雷德·阿德勒（Alfred Adler）。
The owner of the historic, three-plus acre Spring Estate in Thousand Oaks commissioned a tasteful update of several elements of the 12,000 square foot main house that successfully demonstrates how majestic Beaux-Arts Mansion can be brought back to glorious life. Bay Sotheby's International Realty's Top Producer Herman Chan enlisted HGTV host and Berkeley native celebrity designer Cora Sue Anthony to revamp the landmark estate. The Mansion's exterior was repaired and given a coat of gleaming white paint. The result returns the exterior close to the original state and it is easy to see why, in the days before the hillside was forested, the mansion resembled a glittering jewel visible from San Francisco across the bay.
Inside, many rooms in the Mansion have undergone an elegant metamorphosis. In the right hands, the home's over-sized grandeur can be modernized to achieve an intimacy more in keeping with today's aesthetics and lifestyles.
The Mansion is now awash in understated classic muted colors. The gleaming whiteness of 4 huge, stucco covered Tuscan columns now helps disperse light from the original stained-glass ceiling that tops the 30-feet atrium. Atop the stained glass is a colossal glass pyramid skylight. The total effect brings to mind a modern, livable version of San Simeon's Hearst Castle. A large dining room, billiards room, the kitchen, butler's pantry, breakfast room and servant's quarters complete the first floor.
Upstairs the 26-foot long master bedroom, with en suite, a separate dressing room with skylight, inglenook, and carved fireplace has also been dramatically staged to highlight the room's panoramic views of San Francisco Bay from Marin County to the South Bay.
JOHN HOPKINS SPRING:
The mansion was built by John Hopkins Spring, an entrepreneur who developed much of north Berkeley and Albany, and was instrumental in the building of Berkeley's Claremont Hotel. Spring began buying land in the East Bay prior to the San Francisco earthquake. He made a fortune after 1906 selling San Franciscans who fled the city for safer locations across the bay. In 1912, he commissioned John Hudson Thomas to design a grand residence designed to promote his development of the Thousand Oaks area. The result was an imposing structure on the nearly bare hillside that was visible for miles even, reportedly, from San Francisco.
THE ARCHITECT:
John Hudson Thomas graduated from Yale in 1902 and completed graduate work in the Department of Architecture at U.C. Berkeley in 1904. He is considered one of the most innovative California architects of the first quarter of the 20th century. Thomas' homes span, and sometimes combine, California bungalow, Prairie, Mission, even Gothic and Vienna Secession styles. He was also a master at combining materials in his exteriors. Thomas is noted for his deliberate over-scaling, and the Spring Mansion is built on a grand Roman scale. Spring Mansion features many of Thomas' signature elements: bays, multi-shaped windows, and the eclectic and romantic mixture of visual influences. These combine with the more formal and classical elements of the Mansion's design to illustrate Thomas' skill and ability to borrow from many modes and fuse them into a unique and powerful overall design.
ADDITIONAL HISTORY:
The Springs moved into the Mansion in 1914, but Spring himself lived there barely a year before abandoning it and his family to run off with a nurse 25 years his junior. He sold the mansion after his divorce in 1918. Sixteen acres of the original garden were subdivided and sold, and the house and remaining acreage became the Cora L. Williams Institute of Creative Development. For the next 5 decades the estate operated as a private school. Many prominent people taught or lectured at the Institute including dancer Isadora Duncan and psychiatrist Alfred Adler.
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