U-Z

Named for Benjamin Ide Wheeler, university president during Berkeley's "golden years" from 1899-1919. The French Baroque facade includes arched doorways leading into a vaulted auditorium lobby, ionic columns across the middle floors, and a colonnade ornamented with urn-shaped lamps symbolizing, according to designer John Galen Howard, "the light of learning." It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Floors: 5
Year built: 1917
Accessible entrances: There are two usable...

Built 1970. Woo Hon Fai Hall is the former home of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. The 103,000-square-foot concrete structure opened its doors to the public in 1970. Considered the masterpiece of San Francisco architect Mario Ciampi (1907–2006), the building is often cited as the best application of the midcentury Brutalist style to museum architecture. The building was named Woo Hon Fai Hall in 2011 in honor of the father of David Woo, a Hong Kong–based businessman and Cal alum who began his career as an architect on the Ciampi project....

Built 1923. The wood-framed structure designed by John Galen Howard includes living rooms, a lounge, and dining rooms.

[under construction]

Built 1907. French architect Henri Jean Emile Benard was the winner of the university's Comprehensive Building Plan of 1900, funded by campus benefactor Phoebe Apperson Hearst. Benard collected his $10,000 prize, but declined appointment as the campus's supervising architect (balking at leaving the sophistication of Paris for Berkeley's turn-of-the-century ruggedness); University House is the only building from his plan that was actually constructed. Surrounding the stately home are extensive gardens and a large floral clock donated by the Swiss government. Added to the National...