Campbell Hall (UC Berkeley)

Campbell Hall

Campbell Hall is an academic building at the University of California, Berkeley. Housing the astronomy department at UC Berkeley, it is linked by a bridge to the physics department in LeConte Hall.^[1][2] It is named after astronomer and former UC President William Wallace Campbell.^[3]

History

The first Campbell Hall was built from 1957 to 1959 as one of several buildings built in the post World War II era.^[3] Its design is a combination of modernist design that was encouraged by a 1951 Campus Plan Study performed by the Office of Architects and Engineers, and the Beaux Arts/neo-classical design of earlier buildings.^[3] Campbell Hall was constructed to house the departments of astronomy, statistics, and mathematics, and the campus computer center. The Department of Astronomy has remained in the building since its completion, but the other programs mostly relocated to nearby buildings. Two small observatory domes were incorporated into Campbell Hall, but it was soon decided that it was not a useful location for astronomical observation because of weather and increasing urban light pollution. Recently, it mainly housed the astronomy and astrophysics programs, and various administrative offices for the College of Letters and Sciences, including the dean's office.^[3]

The old building was rated seismically poor and was demolished in 2012.^[4] Its replacement, opened in 2015, is part of a long-term campus project to modernize, expand, and better integrate the physics complex at UC Berkeley.^[4] The new building has 25% more square footage than the old one and houses laboratories, instructional spaces, academic and administrative offices, support spaces, a research laboratory called the Center for Integrated Precision and Quantum Measurement that is a high-stability, low-noise research facility, and a rooftop observatory. The new building is registered to receive a LEED Silver rating. Construction was funded in part with a grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce, NIST.^[3][5][6]

References

1. Sanders, Robert (18 February 2015). "Astronomers, physicists celebrate as Campbell Hall rises again". Berkeley News. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
2. University of California, Office of the President (March 2008). "Campbell Hall Replacement" (PDF). Retrieved 16 November 2013.
3. Campbell, Lex F. (17 June 2003). "Campbell Hall Historic Resource Evaluation (draft)" (PDF). University of California Berkeley Capital Projects. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
4. Ó hÉochaidh, Roibín (10 May 2012). "Campbell Hall bites the dust, clearing space for LEED-certified replacement". Berkeley News. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved 25 July 2015.
5. STUDIOS Architecture. "UC Berkeley Campbell Hall". Retrieved 16 November 2013.
6. "Campbell Hall Replacement". UC Berkeley Real Estate. Retrieved 25 July 2015.

Coordinates: 37°52′24″N 122°15′25″W / 37.873199°N 122.257063°W