Berkeley Campus Area
The park-like University of California campus and the nearby south of campus area are notable for their great concentrations of significant buildings and landscape features. Free Speech protests and anti-Vietnam War demonstrations in the 1960s and ‘70s brought international attention to UC’s Sproul Plaza and the adjacent Telegraph Avenue student commercial hub. Moe’s Books, the Berkeley Free Clinic, the “Med” Café, together with “head” shops and street vendors link the past and present. These, together with memories of hangouts like the Cinema Guild movie theaters, People’s Park, Cody’s books, Leopold’s Records, and Larry Blake’s help define the area’s unique identity.
Between 1864 and 1909, three separate patterns of land subdivision and development were laid out for the sparsely populated area south of the initial 178-acre site of the College of California campus. Still distinguishable are the rectangular grid along Telegraph Avenue, intended for mixed commercial uses, large residential neighborhood parcels to the south and east, and irregular residential parcels on the narrow winding streets of the rural hillside area. The curvilinear landscaped boulevard along Piedmont Avenue, Frederick Law Olmsted’s first fully developed residential scheme based upon ideas from English garden suburbs, became a model for elegant American suburban plans for many decades.
More than thirty architecturally significant and landmarked buildings are located within the University of California, Berkeley campus. The area south of the campus extending to Blake Street contains over sixty designated landmarks, many designed by notable architects. Combined, these sectors of Berkeley encompass a great concentration and diversity of significant architectural structures and landscape features in the city.
More Information:
Video: Take a 1906 streetcar ride along Oxford Street, up the north side of Campus along Hearst Avenue to Euclid Ave.
BAHA’s list of U.C. Campus Landmarks
BAHA’s list of U.C. Off-Campus Landmarks
Campus Area Plaques
