Unprecedented campus construction marked Carol Christ’s chancellorship
It's been "a golden era for UC Berkeley's physical development," says Marc Fisher, vice chancellor for administration.
The addition in 2017 of Connie & Kevin Chou Hall to Berkeley Haas helped accommodate the business school's fast-growing enrollment. Chou Hall draws raves as one of the greenest academic buildings in the U.S. and boasts the trifecta of green building credentials: a WELL certification for its “strong commitment to supporting human health, well-being and comfort”; TRUE zero waste certification at the highest level; and LEED platinum certification for its architectural design, construction and energy efficiency.
UC Regents
Berkeley Way West, an academic building at Shattuck Avenue and Berkeley Way, opened in 2018 and houses the School of Education and the Department of Psychology, which previously were in seismically-poor Tolman Hall. It also is home to the School of Public Health, which was in interim space in University Hall. Chancellor Christ, at the ribbon-cutting, said Berkeley Way West "was conceived as a home for healthy futures," where education, psychology and public health scholars "are committed to a future in which health and wellness are more accessible to all."
Melani King/UC Berkeley
In September 2018, in dedicating David Blackwell Hall, the first new residence hall at UC Berkeley since 2012, Christ told the crowd that it was fitting to name it after Blackwell, who died in 2010. He was a preeminent statistician, the first Black professor to receive tenure at Berkeley and, she said, "an exemplar of what a Berkeley professor should be: a scholar of the highest caliber, yet one blessed with a love of teaching, a commitment to sharing his wisdom, and an eagerness to both challenge and lift up those around him.” The hall on Durant Avenue houses 750 undergraduates.
American Campus Communities
The Northern Regional Library Facility at UC Berkeley’s Richmond Field Station is a cooperative library storage facility that is owned and operated by the UC system and holds millions of items, mostly books and journal volumes, but also microfilm, maps, audio discs, manuscripts, archives and other materials. An expansion of the facility was completed in 2020, as the complex had reached capacity, and it now is expected to offer ample space for UC library materials until 2030.
UC Berkeley Capital Strategies
The Bakar BioEnginuity Hub, which opened in 2022, is an incubator for current and aspiring entrepreneurs in the STEM fields. The chancellor called it “our flagship facility for transforming ideas into world-changing impact at the nexus of the life sciences with the physical, engineering and data sciences.” The hub is housed in the campus’s former Berkeley Art Museum, on Bancroft Way. Built in 1970, the cast concrete structure is a city landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places.
Brittany Hosea-Small for UC Berkeley
Giannini Hall, home to the College of Natural Resources, received seismic improvement and accessibility and life safety upgrades in a project that began in May 2019 and wrapped up in November 2020. Care was taken to preserve the historic details of the building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places and features Art Deco designs in its entry hall and grand split staircase.
Brittany Hosea-Small for UC Berkeley
Repairs to South Hall, the only remaining building from the campus's original landscape, were an urgent priority in order to preserve campus architectural heritage and avoid future costly repairs. When the work was finished in December 2020, the 1873 structure had received new roof shingles and flashing, restored wood cornices, a resealing and cleaning of its exterior masonry and granite, resealing of the third floor dormers and windows, and repairs to the east portico and stairs.
Brittany Hosea-Small for UC Berkeley
Repairs to the exterior of Stephens Hall, a Collegiate Gothic-style building that opened in 1923 and was designed by John Galen Howard, also were a campus priority. Refurbishments included removal of layers of old paint, resealing and repainting, and repairing and replacing windows. The work began in January 2022 and ended in April 2023.
UC Regents
Completed in April 2024, this project at the Greek Theatre has led to a better audience experience, increased patron safety and circulation, and more flexible areas for concessions and restrooms. The work involved regrading the lawn, installing concrete curb seating and adding staircases. Additionally, a new paved area at the top of the theatre was created, and new facility lighting was installed.
UC Berkeley Capital Strategies
In March 2022, Chancellor Christ approved a new campus master plan — the first in 17 years — that established a renewed long-term vision for Berkeley's physical development. The aspirational document includes big ideas and individual projects, all in support of Berkeley's recently updated strategic goals for academic life; housing and campus life; landscape and open space; athletics and recreation; mobility and accessibility; seismic needs; historic resources; signage and wayfinding; sustainability and resilience; fire mitigation; and infrastructure. The future removal of Evans Hall, construction of a lower-profile building in its place (see above image) and restoration of a view west to the Golden Gate Bridge also are part of the plan.
UC Berkeley Capital Strategies/Sasaki/Page
Boalt, Le Conte, Barrows, Kroeber and Moses halls were stripped of their names during Christ's tenure because their namesakes held racist views. The chancellor's Building Name Review Committee unanimously recommended to Christ that the names be removed after it analyzed unnaming proposals submitted by members of the campus community. "I have committed my administration to doing everything in its power to identify and eliminate racism where it may be found on our campus and in our community," Christ said in a message to the campus community in November 2020. "This is but one step among many that we are taking ... ."
Irene Yi/UC Berkeley
The Undergraduate Academic Building will be a vibrant new hub in the center of campus for instruction and student support services. It will provide 27 classrooms, Letters & Science Advising and a 400-seat auditorium with a rooftop terrace overlooking Strawberry Creek. This will be the first structure the campus constructs with mass timber, or engineered wood, which is a lighter, safer and more energy-efficient alternative to traditional concrete-and-steel construction. Work began in November 2023 and is expected to wrap up in early 2026.
LMN Architects and TEF Design
An existing UC Berkeley building on Piedmont Avenue that was constructed in 1908 and designed by Julia Morgan will be renovated, creating a dedicated space for entrepreneurship with conference rooms, lounges, mentorship offices and storage for student startups. The Haas Entrepreneurship Hub not only will welcome faculty and students from Berkeley Haas, but from across campus, and offer space for teams to exchange ideas, test concepts and host club meetings, mentorship activities, hackathons and other events. Construction began in late 2022 and is expected to end in late 2024.
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Helen Diller Anchor House, the first campus housing complex dedicated to transfer students, will set a new standard for student residential living and help transfers thrive academically, socially and culturally. All costs for the project design, construction and furnishings are being paid by a philanthropic foundation that will gift the completed building to the campus. No public funds will be required to construct or operate Anchor House, and the net income it generates will fund scholarships for undergraduates from underrepresented populations and first-generation college students. The certified LEED Gold building at Oxford Street and University Avenue will include 244 apartments with individual bedrooms for 772 students. Construction began in February 2022. Anchor House will open in August 2024.
Morris Adjmi Architects
Completed in 2021, Intersection Apartments is a 105-unit housing community for single graduate students and postdoctoral researchers with direct AC bus line access to campus. The apartments, about three miles from campus in Emeryville, are light-filled, airy and modern, with oversized windows.
Lowney Architecture
Announced in 2018 and developed during five years of extensive planning, public engagement and rigorous environmental review, UC Berkeley's plans for People's Park feature urgently-needed student housing for more than 1,100 undergraduates, permanent supportive housing for more than 100 unhoused and extremely low-income persons, and preservation and revitalization of more than 60% of the land as a public park that will contain commemorations of the site's history. In January 2024, the area was closed for construction.
LMS Architects/Hood Design Studio
The new Engineering Center building will encase the existing Bechtel Center, overlook Memorial Glade and add 35,500 square feet across two new floors. A hub that supports students' drive for innovation and positive change, the center will offer easy access to academic advising, career services, tutoring, social events and flagship entrepreneurship activities. The start of construction was summer 2023. The work likely will be complete in 2025.
SOM
A five-building UC Berkeley apartment complex in Albany designed just for graduate students will open in August 2024 and has been named xučyun ruwway (HOOCH-yoon ROO-why). The name is in Chochenyo, the language of the Ohlone people. The is the first time Berkeley has chosen a building name in an Indigenous language and consulted with tribal groups during the process. There will be beds in the complex for 761 single graduate students without children.
Ayers Saint Gross Architects/ American Campus Communities
The 60-year-old Disabled Students' Program will have its first home, designed to meet the needs of its community, as a result of this project. Renovations will be made to Dwinelle Annex, including seismic and life-safety improvements and the construction of office space and common meeting areas, to create Creekside Center. The original wood frame building was designed by John Galen Howard. In late 2023, construction started. It likely will finish in early 2025.
LMS Architects
The Gateway will house the College of Computing, Data Science, and Society, which is the first new college on campus in 50 years. The complex will be dedicated to academic collaboration that accelerates solutions to urgent societal challenges in biomedicine and human health, climate and sustainability, and human welfare and social justice. On Hearst Avenue at Arch Street, the 367,270-square-foot building will include a lower-level convening space, five floors of research labs, classrooms and auditoriums, seminar and conference rooms, offices, a social kitchen, a public café and a rooftop event space. Construction began in September 2022. It's anticipated that the Gateway will open during the 2025-26 academic year.
Weiss/Manfredi
In late 2024, work is expected to end on Centennial Bridge, which will replace an existing and aging bridge constructed in 1965 on Centennial Drive at Lawrence Road. This section of Centennial Drive, a roadway that connects the main campus to several facilities in the hills, such as the Lawrence Hall of Science, is prone to landslides. The state-funded work began in late 2022.
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The Berkeley Innovation Zone will be a public-facing base for life sciences, materials science and climate research. Immediately west of the Crescent Lawn, it will have two main buildings separated by a courtyard. The south building will be the Bakar ClimatEnginuity Hub, a building with modern laboratory and flexible scale-up space. The hub will be used by faculty and researchers, as well as campus-affiliated entrepreneurs and their collaborators, to incubate startup companies that provide solutions for energy and the environment. The north building is currently in the design and planning phase. Construction begins in summer 2024 and will take about three years to complete.
Gensler
Moffitt Library, one of the campus's busiest libraries and a popular undergraduate hub, will undergo a renovation of its lower three floors to better respond to the needs of today's students and to honor the deep academic roots and extraordinary leadership of Chancellor Christ. The renovated space will include the Carol T. Christ Center for Connected Learning, where students can study and reflect, create and collaborate. The start of construction is planned for early 2025.
Keegan Houser/UC Berkeley
The campus is demolishing its existing facility for the Intercollegiate Athletics Women’s Softball program to create, on the same site, an upgraded NCAA-compliant softball field and a two-story structure that includes a concourse, seating for up to 1,500 spectators, a press box, competition-grade lights, team and locker rooms and improved training facilities, such as batting cages. Christ has stated that this project is first and foremost about Berkeley’s values, specifically gender equity, which includes equal athletics facilities for our male and female student-athletes.
HOK
The existing Bancroft Parking Structure will be replaced as part of a broader effort to compensate for parking spaces lost to new construction. The new structure will provide approximately 600 spaces, with a minimum of 30 for electric vehicle charging and another 90 for future installation of EV chargers. While it won't increase campus parking capacity, it will partially replace parking spaces lost as a result of several small surface parking lots being lost in and around campus due to the creation of new academic buildings and student housing. Construction is expected to start in 2025.
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Berkeley Space Center will be a 36-acre innovation center at NASA Ames in the heart of Silicon Valley and will bring together academia, private industry and government to identify, incubate and launch tomorrow’s technological breakthroughs. Areas of focus will include aerospace, advanced aviation, quantum computing and data science, disaster resilience, extreme environments, advanced materials and manufacturing, and other deep technology disciplines. It's anticipated that construction will start in 2026, with occupancy possible as early as 2027.
Field Operations and HOK, copyright Moffett Partners, LLC
June 11, 2024
As her retirement nears, UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ is being lauded as a collaborative and effective leader who is decisive, a listener and team builder, and a champion of free speech, equity and inclusion, and knowledge creation.
These values and priorities all are embodied in what likely will be Christ’s most visible legacy at Berkeley: major changes to its physical landscape. Such a level of building activity, all on her watch, hasn’t been seen at Berkeley since the 1960s.
Hundreds of construction projects — from small to immense — were completed, got underway or are soon to start. Major highlights in the slideshow above include the Bakar BioEnginuity Hub, an incubator for biotech startups serving the greater good; Creekside Center, an essential space for the Disabled Students’ Program; and the Gateway, a 367,270-square-foot home for the College of Computing, Data Science, and Society.
Marc Fisher, vice chancellor for administration, calls Christ’s tenure “a golden era for UC Berkeley’s physical development.”
Keegan Houser/UC Berkeley
“Her visionary leadership has not only expanded our campus infrastructure,” he says, “but enhanced our academic and research capabilities and set new standards for excellence and sustainability. We’ve witnessed the construction of cutting-edge research facilities, modernized classrooms and new housing complexes — all designed to meet the needs of our diverse and dynamic community.”
Christ also unnamed five campus buildings, upon advice from the Building Name Review Committee she launched, and supported names for new buildings that are more inclusive and representative of the broader campus community.
Campus architect Wendy Hillis adds that Christ’s dedication to Berkeley’s long range development plan and the creation in 2022 of the new campus master plan “reflects her deep understanding of the critical role that physical spaces play in fostering academic excellence and community. Her impact on our campus will be felt for generations.”