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Land Use Planning Received March 27, 2018 Harvey Helfand 1057 Curtis Street • Albany, California 94706 510-524-6003 • [email protected]

27 March 2018

Members of the Landmarks Preservation Commission City of Berkeley 2120 Milvia Street Berkeley, California 94704

Re: Campanile Way Landmark Application

I am writing again as an expert on the planning and architectural history of the Berkeley Campus of the University of California to emphasize my points previously made for the preservation of the view corridor from Campanile Way to the Golden Gate. My expertise draws from fifteen years as Campus Planner at Berkeley from 1978 to 1993, during which time I managed the preparation of a new Long Range Development Plan. I later conducted extensive research on the history of the campus that culminated in the publication of my book, University of California, Berkeley: The Campus Guide (Princeton Architectural Press, 2002), an authoritative work that is still regularly referred to by campus librarians and researchers today.

I hope that this letter will convince you that the preservation of the view corridor from Campanile Way to the Golden Gate is not only a significant historic issue, but also a physical exemplification of the democratic principle of the Common Good.

One of the nation’s best examples of American Beaux-Arts planning exists on the campus of the University of California in the heart of Berkeley. This early 20th century plan exemplifies the principles of that movement, with its ensemble of buildings and open spaces organized geometrically and axially and with careful alignment to natural features, vistas, and focal points that extend beyond the campus grounds. The major organizing influence in this layout is its principal westward orientation to the Golden Gate.

This connection to the Golden Gate, in fact, dates to the 19th century origins of the university when the Berkeley site was selected for the university’s predecessor institution, the College of California. A gathering of the College Trustees on the site in 1860 inspired this observation:

“Before them was the Golden Gate in its broad-opening-out into the great Pacific. Ships were coming in and going out. Asia seemed near—the islands of the sea looking this way.” (James H. Warren, editor, The Pacific, as quoted in Origin and Development of the University of California, by William Warren Ferrier, 1930, p. 213.) ATTACHMENT 6 LPC 04-05-18 Page 2 of 4

This orientation is of fundamental importance not only physically and visually, but also symbolically and culturally, as was proclaimed in 1858:

“In full view, towards the ocean . . . the Golden Gate lies lapped in the glorious light that gave it its prophetic name. And the last glance of the future student of California as he leaves his native shore—his first returning glance as he welcomes home—shall fall on the spires of his own Alma Mater.” (Oration at fourth anniversary of College of California by attorney John B. Felton in 1858, in A History of the College of California, by Samuel Hopkins Willey, 1887, p. 252.)

And at the dedication of the site in 1866, this westward draw of the Golden Gate inspired the naming of the city when Trustee Frederick Billings evoked this passage by George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne:

"Westward the course of empire takes its way; The first four acts already past, A fifth shall close the drama of the day; Time's noblest offspring is the last." (as quoted in Origin and Development of the University of California, by William Warren Ferrier, 1930, p. 244.)

That same year the axial alignment to the Golden Gate was formalized by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, as described his plan for the college:

“ . . . I would suggest that at least so much turf should be formed and kept as would be contained in the strip immediately in front of the central College building, in the line of the Golden Gate.” (“The Project for the Improvement of the College Property” by Frederick Law Olmsted, 1866, in A History of the College of California, by Samuel Hopkins Willey, 1887. p. 354.) Although little of Olmsted’s plan was executed, many of its principles were adopted, especially his Golden Gate axis, which aligned and organized the University of California’s first buildings, including North and South Halls, built astride a central westward-reaching walkway, which later became known as Campanile Way. At the head of this composition stood Bacon Library, just east of where the Campanile stands today. When John Galen Howard was appointed Supervising Architect at the beginning of the twentieth century, he recognized the natural and symbolic attributes of Olmsted’s axis and adopted it as an organizing principle for his new Beaux-Arts plan:

“The site in front of the present Library . . . is a central, high and commanding location . . . to preserve the main lines and vistas of the general composition . . .” (“The Architectural Plans for the Greater University of California,” John Galen Howard, in the University Chronicle, January 1903, p. 288.)

Reinforcing this Golden Gate axis that would later terminate at the base of his great tower, Howard created a major parallel axis, establishing a central series of open spaces onto which many of his major buildings would face:

“But best of all, the view westward from the summit is one of absolute repose. The lines and masses of the landscape in foreground, middle ground, and distance, group and balance exquisitely about the axis, and conduct the eye as by

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an index to the Golden Gate.” (“The Architectural Plans for the Greater University of California,” John Galen Howard, in the University Chronicle, January 1903, p. 282.)

As Howard’s plan developed, Campanile Way took on greater importance, forming a crossroads with four of his major buildings, , , , and Boalt (now Durant) Hall, and a frontage for those of his successors, including and the (Valley) Life Sciences Building. At its higher eastern end near the base of the Campanile, generations of students, campus visitors, and Berkeley tourists, have gathered, and continue to gather, for ceremonial and historical occasions and to experience the Golden Gate view that is such an inseparable aspect of the university’s and city’s heritage:

“The boundless waste of the Pacific cloven by the axis of the University and brought into the system of its actual architectural composition! What vast horizons open to the mind’s eye beyond that wondrous passage to the sea!” (“The Architectural Plans for the Greater University of California,” John Galen Howard, in the University Chronicle, January 1903, p. 282-3.)

This axis, still evident from Campanile Way, is as important a part of Howard’s historic Beaux-Arts plan as are his individual classical buildings that are significant in their own architectural merits. For the strength of Beaux-Arts plans is in the comprehensive grouping–the organizing ensemble–that creates order, balance, and clarity in the relationships among buildings, open spaces, and vistas. This concept of the whole being greater than its parts is just as relevant as the present-day approach to “urban design.”

Too often though, we see that planning and architectural practice either overlook or ignore this broader, holistic approach to the environmental context.

Now, in 2018, an 18-story high-rise building is proposed for a site at 2190 Shattuck Avenue in Downtown Berkeley that, if built, would obliterate the historic axial view of the Golden Gate from Campanile Way. It is difficult to comprehend how the city’s planners could have designated such development for this site without taking into account this significant view corridor. It is equally puzzling why architectural professionals, who should be cognitive of urban-design issues, have not opposed such inappropriate building placement.

While the University of California, Berkeley campus has developed over the years far beyond the Beaux-Arts plan of John Galen Howard, it is significant that many elements of Howard’s plan have survived. More than twenty buildings and ten open-space features of his ensemble remain intact to form a national Beaux-Arts treasure. Among the significant features of this extant ensemble are Campanile Way and its axial view of the Golden Gate. This vista is a significant embodiment of Berkeley’s cultural and historic heritage that must not be lost.

For these reasons, I ask that you make every effort to protect this cultural and historic feature with the stewardship it calls for. And I urge the designation of Campanile Way and its historic view of the Golden Gate as a City of Berkeley Landmark.

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Sincerely,

Harvey Helfand Campus Planner, UC Berkeley, 1978-93 Architect Author, University of California, Berkeley: The Campus Guide (Princeton Architectural Press, 2002)

1057 Curtis Street Albany, California 94706 510-524-6003 [email protected]

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