The owner of the Bay Area’s famed “Flintstone House,” a sprawling red, orange, and purple dome home that’s become a local landmark, is facing a lawsuit over her unlawful additions—namely a menagerie of dinosaurs.
The house was originally built in 1976 and designed by architect William Nicholson, who used a novel construction method to define the building’s forms. By first inflating large balloons, then spraying shotcrete over mesh and rebar, Nicholson was able to create interconnected round volumes. The building was originally off-white but rose to social media fame after being painted orange and purple in 2007 (it should be noted that in the show, the Flintstones lived in a modern-style boulder).
After sitting on the market for two years, 45 Berryessa Way was sold to Florence Fang, a retired newspaper magnate, in 2017 for $2.8 million. Now Fang is embroiled in a lawsuit with the town of Hillsborough, according to the New York Times, over what officials claim were unapproved additions.
Those additions? Dinosaurs so large that the town says they qualify as unenclosed structures, mushroom and animal sculptures, multicolored letters spelling out “Yabba Dabba Doo” by the driveway, a retaining wall, new steps, gates, and a life-size Fred Flintstone statue.
According to the lawsuit filed on March 13, Fang was cited multiple times for adding to her property without the required permits, and her home was ultimately declared a “public nuisance” at a hearing last October. Fang was fined $200, which was paid, but the town filed the lawsuit after her changes were not reversed.
Ultimately the case seems to stem from the presence of such an “outlier” house in a neighborhood filled with multimillion-dollar properties. As the suit itself alleges, the basis of the complaint is that Fang’s additions were, “designed to be very intrusive, resulting in the owner’s ‘vision’ for her property being imposed on many other properties and views, without regard to the desires of other residents.”
Fang is reportedly consulting with her lawyers at this stage, and AN will follow up when further action by either party is taken.
