SAN MATEO -- Seven Oaks, the palatial home of Bank of America founder A.P. Giannini, is utterly lovely but riddled with mold and rife with other disrepair, the house's current overseer revealed in a tour of the building Wednesday.

Rigo Chacon, president of the nonprofit scholarship charity Abrazos & Books, still does not know what he wants to do with the house, he said. It was donated in late April to Abrazos & Books by the estate of Claire Giannini Hoffman, Giannini's late daughter, shortly after the estate had attempted to get a permit to demolish the historic home. Seeking the permit was part of Giannini Hoffman's will, according to Giannini Title Holding Company Vice President Hilda Yao.

The San Mateo City Council has said that it will sue to prevent demolition of the structure. And Chacon has pledged to work in good faith with San Mateo. He and the city attorney plan to meet within two weeks to discuss the issues.

Approached from the front gates at 20 El Cerrito Ave., Seven Oaks is an anomaly, a greenery-obscured near-mansion surrounded by apartments and offices just off El Camino Real.
Behind its Tudor façade and wide patios, the three-story building seems to go on forever, with formal parlors unfolding into elegant sitting rooms and separate stairwells for the servants, whose rooms were on the low-ceilinged third floor. But when it was built in 1902, according to Hilda Yao, it was just a three-bedroom home. Expansions that widened the building and enclosed several decks were made in the 1930s and 1940s.

"When they made those additions, apparently they were done in rather a substandard fashion. They weren't properly sealed; it probably allowed for slow water seepage over the years," Yao said.

As a result, examinations last summer by remediation company Lea & Sung revealed mold growing throughout the walls of Seven Oaks. Mold and water damage is visible from the inside of the home, with spotting and disintegration on walls and ceilings.

"The remediation recommended by the mold company essentially requires the gutting of the interior of the home, the removal of the drywall and any installation," Yao said. "You are then going to be left with the building shell."

The stucco on the building would then have to be removed to check for dry rot in the beams, she added, which would need to be replaced. Anyone willing to do all the work would want a building on a seismically sound foundation. Add it all together and it comes to $6 million, she said.

Others have disagreed. Darin Daskarolis, senior planner for Redwood City-based structural engineering firm the Crosby Group, said that number seems high. His company is interested in perhaps doing the work at a discounted rate to help preserve the historic building.
Chacon first saw the building about five weeks ago, when his private video company was hired to document the deterioration of the house. He did not know then that it would be given to him, he said.

"We thought it might be a good idea to make a video documentary of the condition of the property," Yao said. 


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