Around campus, there’s an old joke that the “UC” in UC Berkeley stands for “under construction.” And for good reason — more often than not, a crane or construction workers can be seen somewhere at Cal, a testament to the university’s endless efforts to expand and upgrade its facilities.
With several projects nearing completion, The Promise of Berkeley takes a look at three new — or newly refurbished — spots on campus that enhance the visitor and student experience.
Cal’s answer to Hogwarts
This fall, nearly 200 Berkeley undergraduates moved into the renovated Bowles Hall, which bears more than a passing resemblance to residential colleges at Cambridge and Oxford — with a touch of Hogwarts from Harry Potter for good measure.
Built in the 1920s, Bowles sits on a hill near Memorial Stadium and boasts Gothic arches and a square turret. After a $40 million renovation project, it has now reopened as a residential college for undergrads, plus three graduate students and two professors — a housemaster and a dean.
Original donor Mary Bowles envisioned the hall as more than “a mere boarding house where men would eat and sleep but… a home.” That vision faded over the years — by the mid-1970s, key features such as student governance had ended, and on-site dining left in 2000.
“When they told us in 2005 that it had become a freshmen-only dorm,” says former resident Bob Sayles ’52, “we just couldn’t square it with our remembrance of what the Bowles experience once was.” Sayles and fellow Bowles alumni spearheaded the push to revive it as a residential college.
There’s an old joke that the “UC” in UC Berkeley stands for “under construction.” And for good reason.
A hub for visitors far and wide
California Memorial Stadium is already a bustling spot on football gamedays — but this fall, the university’s new Visitor Center is adding to the activity at the stadium.
For La Dawn Duvall, executive director of visitor and parent services, a vibrant, state-of-the-art center for campus guests is “necessary, overdue, and completes what a visit to a university should be. Along with visitors to the Campanile, we serve 150,000 to 160,000 people a year… first impressions count for so much.”
The Visitor Center has hung its hat in several humble spaces over the years, including a tiny spot in the student union, a slice of University Hall’s ground floor, and an office in Sproul Hall.
At the new location, “the guests’ experience will be on par with the academic excellence of the campus,” Duvall says, adding that visitors will be able to purchase food and souvenirs.
A new chapter for a campus library
Moffitt Library was recently transformed into a premier campus location for undergraduate study.
New spaces on the fourth and fifth floors now serve as magnets for social and group learning, while other spaces support quiet, solitary work. Technology- rich, 24-hour floors empower the around- the-clock, 21st-century learning style of today’s students. And a “Maker Space,” opening this spring, will feature 3D printers that enable students to create three-dimensional objects by laying down successive layers of material.
The $15 million project, primarily funded through the generosity of donors, is generating excitement among undergrads. “Moffitt’s renovations thrive on innovation and a new way to work together,” says Carmen Zheng ’17, a dual major in media studies and business administration.
