About Us

The original builders BOOKSOURCE opened in 1982 and caters to the wonderfully over-educated contractors and design folks of the SF East Bay Area. It is located two stores north of Hearst Street on Berkeley's fashionable Fourth Street. Easy to reach from Interstate 80: exit at University Avenue, first possible left onto Sixth Street, next left onto Hearst Street, two blocks back toward the Interstate, right onto Fourth Street. Free parking across from store.

Ownership / Staff

George and Sally Kiskaddon opened builders BOOKSOURCE in 1982. George's background had been construction management, real estate, while Sally's was people management, education and literature. Before opening the store they found that it was nearly impossible to find books and resources regarding the construction and design trades--whether for themselves at home, or for their professional lives. Their idea was to create a central location in which to find books, reference materials and software (we have in-store software demos) for home builders, architects, contractors, do-it-yourselfers, and consumers. One used to be forced to make myriad trips to bookstores and government publishing offices to find necessary information. Now it can be found under one roof-- It goes beyond selling books, though. Not long ago a contractor came in with a question about design for which we had no book. Another customer at the counter, an architect, was able to answer the question-- their conversation lasted about twenty minutes. It was not a chance meeting: we want to bring both sides of building together. Facilitate connections. We are hoping that this next phase of the store's development will build upon past successes. It seems right-- hypertext and the WWW. Will it work as well as conversations at the counter?
Raison d'Etre

It is a fact that "Good Design" cannot exist without "Good Construction" and we don't get much argument that "Good Construction" without "Good Design" is equally pointless.

Thus we continue to see the DESIGN and CONSTRUCTION fields are mutually dependent...

Yet they remain separate-- physically, academically, often intellectually, but no longer virtually...

builders BOOKSOURCE exists to bridge these gaps, particularly the virtual ones. It is our mission to facilitate connections and the subsequent flow of information between those who design and those who implement designs.