Libraries

Tired of suffocating in the mess at Moffitt? Keep running into the same old crowd at Eshleman? Maybe a trip to one of Berkeley’s 21 branch libraries and innumerable department, building, graduate school and other libraries might liven up your study time. Our Library Reviewer has checked out a few of them:

Biosciences (40 Gianini): Underground, dark and spooky, with gray metal shelves. A good place to go if you are having trouble getting access to library computer terminals.
Chemistry (100 Hildebrand): A huge echoing room with windows on three sides, all with views of surrounding trees. Somehow a not very attractive space, perhaps because of the harsh artificial lighting.
East Asiatic (208 Durant): Formerly the Lawyers’ Memorial Hall, it now contains by far the largest number of books of any branch — more than half a million in 1989 (Moffitt had less than 200,000). This small, dark, mazelike room is crowded with ironwork balconies, bookshelves stretching to the high ceiling, desks with iron reading lamps, skylights, beautifully veined marble pillars and interesting hanging lamps. Four of these are shaped like ancient oil lamps, with glass bulbs shaped like flames and the Seal of the University of California on the bottom. Not recommended for studying, as it’s small and cramped, but it’s certainly worth a look.
Engineering (110 Bechtel): I always feel as if I’m about to put my foot through a floor or my hand through a wall of this library.
Entomology (210 Wellman): Very quiet, with carrels near windows. The brightly colored bound journals give the shelves an oddly uniform look. Check out the exhibit of insects across the hall.
Environmental Design (210 Wurster): Three floors of industrial-strength metal shelves and stairs, complete with two story high plaster angel and huge books full of pictures of buildings — and you get to visit Wurster. What more can one ask?
Forestry (260 Mulford): Quiet and small, with a few comfy chairs near windows. Recommended, because Mulford is such a funky building. Have a look at the row of identification planks in the hall outside; if you’ve ever wondered what kind of wood your desk is made of, here’s where to find out.
Howison Philosophy Library (Moses): A pleasant, airy room with a high ceiling and tall windows, marble floor, nonfunctional fireplace, wood panelling, and an unnamed philosopher (presumably) on the wall to encourage you to higher efforts. Recommended if you don’t require comfy chairs.
Library School (2 South Hall): Disappointingly normal in such an interesting building. Right at ground level, so you can distract yourself watching the people go by.
Music (240 Morrison): If the librarian likes you, and you want to sing, you can take your books out onto the balcony.
Optometry (490 Minor): Warm, bright, clean, new and dead quiet. The noisy optometrists head for the lounge, where there’s food and TV.
Physical Education (Hearst Gym): You couldn’t ask for a better venue — convenient to sunbathing and swimming.
Social Welfare (216 Haviland): The original Howard interior was restored in 1986, according to the plaque; this large, cool blue room has comfy chairs in a circle and lovely desks with reading lights. The walls and ornate grilles are pale blue, with white pilasters and a delicate white ceiling decorated with allegorical medallions. This library had been slated to be destroyed in 1978 to make room for a biomedical sciences lab. Recommended.

Food and Drink

Gone are the days when state law prohibited selling liquor less than one mile from campus, and students whose boardinghouses or dorms did not serve meals on weekends went to Bertola’s in downtown Oakland for the nearest cheap food. You can now get food, and even liquor, right on campus. Our restaurant reviewer has checked out what’s available in the way of ingestibles; we recommend the vending machines by the west entrance to Evans Hall only as a last resort.

On campus now are five official restaurants — the Deli and Bear’s Lair in the ASUC complex, Ramona’s in Wurster Hall, the Terrace on top of Bechtel Engineering Center, and Pat Brown’s Grille just south of Koshland Hall. In addition, there are several cafÈ-type places around Sproul Plaza and Lower Sproul. All of these places except the Bear’s Lair are only open 9:00 to 3:00 on weekdays.

The Bear’s lair is five separate restaurants: Pappy’s, Pappy’s Pub, Taqueria Reyes, natural Sensations and the Coffee Spot. Pappy’s Pub is kind of fun-the bartenders are entertaining and they occasionally have good comedy nights. It is as good a bar as any in the immediate area. They have a large selection of domestic and imported draft beers, though surprisingly no Anchor Steam from right across the Bay.

Ramona’s used to be a dump with character and a piano, fifteen or so years ago. It’s still a cool space, though it could be a little better laid out. Don’t expect much from the food.

The Terrace Cafe, on top of Bechtel Engineering Center, serves the engineering community with drinks, coffees, snacks and sandwiches. It’s small inside but there’s plenty of room outside if it isn’t cold or raining.

Pat Brown’s Grille is well after my time. Its sunny courtyard is very popular. Minimal selection of snacks, sandwiches, drinks, salad bar. Pleasant indoor space.

Hangouts

Every campus has its gathering place; over the years Berkeley has had several. First the steps in front of North Hall, then the courtyard between Stephens and Moses Halls, then Wheeler Steps, and finally Sproul Plaza, Lower Sproul and Dwinelle Plaza. Unofficially, the place to be these days is “Wheeler Beach,” the lawn just west of the building, overlooking Dwinelle Plaza.

One of my favorite places on campus is Faculty Glade. It is well located and well landscaped, and convenient to just about everything. It is sufficiently away from traffic noise, and sufficiently close to the Campanile bells. Despite its peacefulness, it is a great people-watching spot; virtually everyone goes by it sometime. On Tuesdays from 12 to 1 musicians gather near the Dryad to play Irish and old American folk tunes.

The Women’s Faculty Club’s opulently landscaped garden along Strawberry Creek is a lovely spot but you have to expect to be overseen by the building’s inhabitants.

The tops of buildings are a good choice if you want a view, a breeze, or some privacy. The top of Wurster Hall seems to be no longer available, unfortunately, since it has been locked. The top of Evans Hall does not have a view, but it does have a pool and is usually deserted. The top of Campbell Hall contains a small observatory-I don’t know how difficult it is to get access to that roof, but I once had a memorable night there finding the North Star with an astronomy student. ESB has excellent balconies on the west side of each floor, with comfy chairs, couches and tables, lots of afternoon sun, and an excellent view of Observatory Hill, the campus, and (if you’re high enough) the Golden Gate- -the view is only enhanced by the fact that you don’t have to look at ESB.

One of the weirdest courtyards on campus is north of McLaughlin Hall and west of Hesse Hall — good luck trying to get to it (hint: leave McLaughlin through the west door, look right and follow the winding stair). It is a circular courtyard covered with colored gravel formed into concentric circles. It is a truly bizarre space — the poor little trees in planters just add to the surrealism. It is in fact the roof of a civil engineering lab built in 1962. Other recently-created areas include Bausch and Lomb Plaza, near Minor Hall, a well laid out but inaccessible spot now unfortunately occupied by a temporary building, and the new grassy space in front of Barker Hall, sunny and very popular — you can’t beat the stunning view of Warren Hall.

My favorite outdoor campus place is Observatory Hill. Between 1886 and 1961 this area, just west of ESB, was the site of a cluster of wooden buildings known as the Students’ Observatory until named after Armin Otto Leuschner, astronomy professor. In 1926 this facility had seven instruments, including a 6" equatorial refracting telescope. The astronomy department moved to Campbell Hall in 1959, and in 1965 a new Leuschner Observatory opened in Lafayette. Now only the ruin of one wooden building remains, saved from demolition by the giant wisteria in which it is encased.

The most popular indoor hanging-out place is the Morrison Reading Room in the Doe Library, where you can read bestsellers and the world’s daily papers and listen to records and CDs. A few less well-known pleasant spots include the Women’s Faculty Club common room, furnished by grateful refugees from the Oakland Hills fire of 1923, and the atrium of the small red brick building just north of Boalt Law School (the Zeta Psi fraternity until the 1920s — observe the medallions between the arches — now the paleontology department). This space is two stories high, with a translucent ceiling that lets in warm yellow daylight, and a whole wall decorated in neo-Lescaux. Nice comfy chairs, too.

There’s nothing like a bomb shelter for a little peace and quiet. During World War II the University constructed several, in the basements of Haviland, Gianini, Wheeler, Durant, LeConte, and Stephens Halls, as well as other buildings. After the war some of these were designated fallout shelters and stocked with water and unopenable tins of biscuits.

A Daily Cal article around that time described the odds of Berkeley surviving an atomic attack as “good,” and listed “six survival secrets for atomic attacks,” one of which was, “when the light flashes, duck.” A flap in the mid-1960s was stirred up over the shelters’ inadequacy, when 200 students attempted to pack 52 Dwinelle, a designated shelter, to its capacity. I have never been in any of these shelters, but they are no doubt still there, and in use by those who know about them.

Update November 2004:

I’ve had a request from a reader for more information about bomb shelters; please drop me a line if you’d care to share your bomb shelter knowledge or experience.

Another reader tells me she distinctly remembers a small door with the word ‘Trolls’ written on it; she thinks it was around Stephens or Eschleman, and recalls that there was no path or paving going to it. Please write and let me know if this rings a bell, and I will pass on the word.

Anything you care to share will of course be credited to you if you’re willing to allow it to be shared or posted.

Campus Treasures and Museums

This campus has become home to an odd assortment of unusual and valuable items — I cannot fully do justice to here. The largest collection of these is in the Bancroft Library, which contains, among other things, a Bible printed in 1466, a 4,000 year old papyrus, a Shakespeare First Folio, the diary of a member of the Donner Party, and the first gold nugget found at Sutter’s Mill.

On display in the Bancroft Library is the Plate of Brass, formerly known as the Drake Plate. On June 17, 1579, the Golden Hind reached a “faire and good Baye” on Drake’s voyage around the world. To commemorate this event, Drake’s log mentions that he planted a plate of brass on a pole. In 1936, an Oakland store clerk on a stroll near San Francisco Bay found such a plaque. He gave it to the University, which announced the discovery to the world in 1937. For 40years no test could disprove the authenticity of this artifact, although certain experts had their doubts. In 1977, two batteries of tests showed first that the zinc content of the plate is substantially higher than that of samples of 14th to 18th century brass, and is more like 19th or 20th century brass, and second that the edges of the plate appear to have been cut by machine, and the telltale marks disguised by hammering the edges. The plaque was renamed the Plate of Brass, the mystery of who made it and why was never solved, and the debate over which Baye Drake sailed into continues.

Edmond O’Neill, class of 1879, taught chemistry here from 1879 to 1925, and left his estate to the University in 1933 for the purchase and care of an organ. Little did he know that that fund would provide the money for 14 rare and antique organs, making us the Organ Capitol of America. Berkeley’s music department also boasts a wonderful collection of other musical instruments including a Stradivarius and many medieval instruments like serpents and hurdy-gurdies. These come out of hiding every April during the department’s open house, when we get a rare opportunity to hear the organs and the early instruments, and to really hear the difference between an ordinary violin and a Strad.

Hearst Mining is the home of the James E. Birch Service. Birch was a Massachusetts schoolteacher who had struck it rich in the gold rush. He died in a shipwreck, after asking a fellow passenger to send his silver service to his wife in Massachusetts. In her will she left it to “the state where it was made.” The service is unique in design, containing such Western motifs as stagecoaches and prospectors.

Cases on the ground floor of the Campanile contain models, plans and photos of the Campanile and bells, including a wonderful portrait of Jane K. Sather, and artifacts of campus social life of bygone days. The lobby of Doe Library contains ever-changing exhibits of photos and print materials, often having to do with the history of the University or the Bay Area.

Other artifacts can be seen in Berkeley’s many departmental museums and displays. Mulford Hall has its plank walls, Wellmn Hall has its insect cases, Tolman Hall has its old psychological testing instruments on the third floor near the psych offices. The biggest and most professional of these departmental museums is anthropology’s, formerly the Lowie Museum, now known with good reason as the Phoebe Hearst Museum. Its core is Phoebe’s original collection, which had originally been housed in the corrugated metal “Anthro Shack,” from 1899 to 1953 when it was moved to Kroeber Hall. It contains 695,000 artifacts, including the nation’s finest collections of ancient Egyptian and pre- Columbian Peruvian objects, and the world’s finest native Californian collection.

My personal favorite departmental museum is paleontology’s in the basement, first and second floors of ESB. This museum contains casts of many dinosaur bones including a tyrannosaurus rex skull and a huge wall-mounted hadrosaur, a real 30’ long ichthysaur which was formerly displayed in Bacon Hall and was found in the Hearst Gym basement in 1939, giant sloth tracks, and mammoth dung. You will also meet the famous Smilodon, or sabertooth tiger, which is the California State Fossil. While you’re there, check out the geology department’s exhibit of gems on the third floor (did you know that quartz, agate, jasper, opal and amethyst are all the same mineral, SiO2?) and don’t forget to read the cartoons on the doors.

The weirdest museum on campus must be the one in Hearst Mining — its exhibits on the second floor are interesting, but what are the huge unlabeled boulders on pedestals distributed around the first floor? Experimental traffic devices? The lobby of this building used to have a much more elaborate mining museum, complete with a model oil refinery and derrick that stretched to the skylight.

The Engineer’s Tour

The connoisseur of technical delights has a lot to admire on this campus, whose engineering program was founded in 1875 by Frederick Godfrey Hesse, a veteran of the Prussian army. Since then it has been the scene of many advances. The materials for Hoover Dam and the Bay Bridge were tested here.

The oldest standing engineering building is Hearst Mining. If you walk along the retaining wall on the west side of this building, just behind a small wooden shed surrounded by marble slabs you will find the Hearst Mine — actually an adit (a horizontal as opposed to a vertical shaft) named after Andrew C. Lawson, professor and eccentric. This is the man who once told a secretary to go to hell and, by way of coerced apology, later told her she didn’t have to go. He discovered the San Andreas Fault and, with admirable foresight, built an earthquakeproof house of reinforced concrete in 1908. This house survived the fire of 1923, but unfortunately its contents did not; in his absence his students moved everything to what they thought was a safe place and it was all destroyed. The adit was begun in 1916; in those days it was the training mine, and it extended as far east as Stern Hall; I understand that a portion has since collapsed, and the remainder is used for experiments that call for a vibration-free environment. The mine is often open to visitors during Engineers’ Week — wear your hard hat, please!

The third floor of Davis hall is Engineer Central-here you can visit the student chapter of ASCE and get a cool Cal Engineering T-shirt, see the concrete canoes which speed Berkeley on to victory in the yearly competition, and watch engineering labs in the central court through protective glass walls. Just southeast of Davis Hall is the Bent, symbol of the Tau Beta Phi engineering students’ honor society.

In former days the most antisocial engineers and other nerds had their own club — the Onyx Room, in the basement of Evans Hall, named after our server, which like all the other servers on campus at that time was given the name of a semiprecious stone. The exposed concrete was cool and damp even in summer, with clouds painted on one wall to alleviate the claustrophobia. The whole area has since been cleaned out in a sort of academic urban renewal; it is now The Web, a pink and green yuppie architectural nightmare which I can’t look on now without recalling the good old days.

Outside the engineering area there are other things to see — the two electromagnets displayed in the chemistry courtyard, the culvert whistlers in the breezeway between LeConte and Birge Halls, the telescopes on the roof of Campbell Hall… but most intriguing of all to the adventurous technophile must be the 20 mile network of steam tunnels which extends all over the campus and as far as the Units, installed in 1904 and in some places unaltered since then. When I was much younger and stupider, some friends and I entered the tunnels and were driven back coughing and gasping. I later had more success in the tunnels under what is now Clark Kerr Campus. The steam you see rising from the vents in the roads, incidentally, is not leaking from the pipes; it is groundwater heated to boiling by the water inside them.