Rendering shows the building exterior, designed with glass walls and an open and light-filled layout.
Rendering courtesy of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM).

Engineering Center: From vision to reality

The Engineering Center, a new building that opened in spring 2025, puts innovation, entrepreneurship, collaboration, and inclusion at its core for future leaders. The “heart” of Berkeley Engineering, the building adds 35,500 square feet across two new floors above the Bechtel Engineering Center. The time-lapse video and renderings below help imagine how the vision became a reality.

  • Rendering at an angle, showing how the building illuminates at night.

    The Engineering Center at night, still full of life. Rendering courtesy of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM).

  • Rendering of an open area with tables, chairs, and people engaged in different activities.

    Career and other student services will be housed at the center. Rendering courtesy of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM).

Building itself a lesson in engineering

The new center is both an adaptive reuse project and a demonstration of cutting-edge engineering. Repurposing the original Bechtel Engineering building, the redesign adds a two-story glass-and-steel pavilion that can flexibly accommodate a variety of academic, service, and event needs. The lightweight addition acts as a counterpoint to the Brutalist character of the original building and is itself a teaching tool: The structural systems are exposed, allowing engineering students to examine the connections, gussets, dampers, a rod-hung stair, and an innovative tension rod system.

Related stories