Information on the Tolman Hall replacement building. Looks like construction starts in the summer.

http://www.berkeleyside.com/2015/01/09/residents-complain-that-new-uc-berkeley-highrise-will-reduce-parking/

Actually, I was thinking of starting a thread on this.

1) I spent nearly my entire undergraduate time at UC Berkeley either at Eshleman Hall or at Tolman Hall.

Eshleman is gone, and rightfully so because it's so unsafe.

And Tolman is soon to be gone, also rightfully so because it's unsafe and so ugly.

Yet, there's a part of me that's sad because 30 years from now when I'm in my 60s, I won't be able to go back inside these buildings and reminisce about my student days.

It's weird how some buildings are around from 100 to 150 years ago, yet these buildings from the 60s are now gone (or going).

I also spent a lot of time in lectures in Earl Warren Hall, which has been replaced by the Li Ka Shing building.

Anyways, that's my weird feeling about this....I would also be sad to see Evans Hall go, as ugly as that is.


2) Man, the Psychology and education departments (I was a psych major) are being moved like way off campus.

Okay, it's only a block away. But, still, they'll be on freakin' Shattuck, way northwest.

It's one thing to be in Soda Hall across the street from campus. But Shattuck?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, this building may actually be convenient from downtown Berkeley, and you don't have to walk up a hill.

But it feels weird to be going to school so far away from the heart of campus, in downtown.

I hear ya....I took only ONE class in Tolman Hall and I'm still a little sentimental about the place. (Maybe because it was 2005 and times were good at Cal, as we prepared for multiple Rose Bowls under Tedford.)

But I like the idea of a new building on Shattuck. It would be nice if something could breathe a little more life into downtown Berkeley and if that area could be integrated a little more with our campus.

Cal's core campus is actually tiny. Even with the expansion into downtown, the distance between different parts of campus is not that great compared to large public schools.

I lived on Arch St. on the North Side my junior year, and I scheduled my last class (section meeting) at Tolman, so I'd be close to home at the end of the day. My second to last class was also on the Northside, so it cut my walking to a minimum. Of course everybody else in my section complained that Tolman was too remote and got the section moved to Barrows, and by then my schedule was locked in and there were no other sections that would work for me. I was so pissed. Well, that's my Tolman story.

okaydo;842436528 said:

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Actually, I was thinking of starting a thread on this.

1) I spent nearly my entire undergraduate time at UC Berkeley either at Eshleman Hall or at Tolman Hall.

Eshleman is gone, and rightfully so because it's so unsafe.

And Tolman is soon to be gone, also rightfully so because it's unsafe and so ugly.

Yet, there's a part of me that's sad because 30 years from now when I'm in my 60s, I won't be able to go back inside these buildings and reminisce about my student days.

It's weird how some buildings are around from 100 to 150 years ago, yet these buildings from the 60s are now gone (or going).

I also spent a lot of time in lectures in Earl Warren Hall, which has been replaced by the Li Ka Shing building.

Anyways, that's my weird feeling about this....I would also be sad to see Evans Hall go, as ugly as that is.


2) Man, the Psychology and education departments (I was a psych major) are being moved like way off campus.

Okay, it's only a block away. But, still, they'll be on freakin' Shattuck, way northwest.

It's one thing to be in Soda Hall across the street from campus. But Shattuck?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, this building may actually be convenient from downtown Berkeley, and you don't have to walk up a hill.

But it feels weird to be going to school so far away from the heart of campus, in downtown.

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Tolman is not as much of an eyesore as Evans. Why can't Cal find a reason to blow up Evans.

socaliganbear;842436544 said:

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Cal's core campus is actually tiny. Even with the expansion into downtown, the distance between different parts of campus is not that great compared to large public schools.

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Agree. Cal has a very pedestrian-friendly campus even when you add Clark Kerr Campus.

GivemTheAxe;842436647 said:

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Tolman is not as much of an eyesore as Evans. Why can't Cal find a reason to blow up Evans.

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Yeah, but it's our eyesore.

GivemTheAxe;842436647 said:

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Tolman is not as much of an eyesore as Evans. Why can't Cal find a reason to blow up Evans.

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It's already rated seismically poor, just not as high on the priority list as other buildings like Tolman. Also, Evans covers a massive amount of square footage. They'll have to empty space around campus to make up for it, as they're unlikely to build anything as tall on that same site. Hello old BAM site!

Tolman was the last of UC Berkeley's Soviet era buildings, and man is ugly and kinda creepy in there.

I always thought the building itself was a psych test.

beelzebear;842436694 said:

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Tolman was the last of UC Berkeley's Soviet era buildings, and man is ugly and kinda creepy in there.

I always thought the building itself was a psych test.

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It wasn't a test, it was an ongoing experiment with students playing the mice in a oddly numbered maze of rooms!

brcal69;842436738 said:

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It wasn't a test, it was an ongoing experiment with students playing the mice in a oddly numbered maze of rooms!

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Oddly numbered maze? Nothing will ever beat Dwinelle.

Brutalism in general is an underrated architectural style. It's been fairly rehabilitated in architectural circles, along with mid-century aesthetics, but it might take more time to be appreciated by the broader public.

Tolman is not ugly, really. Nice details, and it's lad out nicely, offering access to that part of campus and acting like a gate.

Tolman was the sight of the famous three-unit Education 110 class back in the 60's, in which you could grade yourself for doing pretty much nothing. I never took it, but it was certainly tempting.

The guy who designed Tolman also designed Evans....

http://vocserve.berkeley.edu/admin/publications/tolmanhistory.html

OK, I don't find it that ugly. It's interesting. It's unique. Very 60s. But, yeah, um, brutal.

One thing mentioned from the article above is that its classrooms were intentionally small. My psych sections were held in windowless rooms that were like the size of walk-in closets.

Cal88;842436747 said:

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Brutalism in general is an underrated architectural style. It's been fairly rehabilitated in architectural circles, along with mid-century aesthetics, but it might take more time to be appreciated by the broader public.

Tolman is not ugly, really. Nice details, and it's lad out nicely, offering access to that part of campus and acting like a gate.

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Brutalist buildings are okay but IMO they need lots of open space and sunlight to work well. Since most brutalist buildings are institutional, they usually get the open space, plaza, etc. Tolman didn't, so its issue is location and landscaping. Placement in the northwest area with less sun makes the large/heavy details and features look ugly in shadows. All those tall evergreens around it don't help either. The large scale breezeways are nice but they're really cold in that location without sun. Tolman would have been nicer is an open location, next to a large plaza, and not surrounded by redwoods like a small NorCal house or bungalow.

GivemTheAxe;842436647 said:

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Tolman is not as much of an eyesore as Evans. Why can't Cal find a reason to blow up Evans.

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I'd like a front row seat when Evans is demolished. I am glad Wheeler will stand for another century.

1979bear;842436774 said:

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I'd like a front row seat when Evans is demolished. I am glad Wheeler will stand for another century.

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For sure.......
So will all the mice and rats.
I'll NEVER forget how may frickin' rodents showed up for the Joe Roth movie screening.....100s.
Could have been billed as "The Return of Willard, LIVE"

Wurster is the first building that goes when I become King, Queen or anything in between.

86Oski;842436802 said:

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Wurster is the first building that goes when I become King, Queen or anything in between.

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Add a Barrows...

Davis is the one brutalist campus building that irks me, because it has practically no windows, which is really stupid.

Evans needs to GO, and not just because it was home to my awful stressful grad school econ classes. Imagine how that part of campus would look if it were replaced with something nice. I rest my case.

Anyone have any thoughts on the new planned Haas building?

510Bear;842436843 said:

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Evans needs to GO, and not just because it was home to my awful stressful grad school econ classes. Imagine how that part of campus would look if it were replaced with something nice. I rest my case.

Anyone have any thoughts on the new planned Haas building?

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I took many classes in Evans and will cheer loudly when they tear that eyesore down.

1979bear;842436774 said:

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I'd like a front row seat when Evans is demolished. I am glad Wheeler will stand for another century.

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+1

510Bear;842436843 said:

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Evans needs to GO, and not just because it was home to my awful stressful grad school econ classes. Imagine how that part of campus would look if it were replaced with something nice. I rest my case.

Anyone have any thoughts on the new planned Haas building?

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I like the new building. It's really going to open up that corner of Haas.

Cal88;842436747 said:

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Brutalism in general is an underrated architectural style. It's been fairly rehabilitated in architectural circles, along with mid-century aesthetics, but it might take more time to be appreciated by the broader public.

Tolman is not ugly, really. Nice details, and it's lad out nicely, offering access to that part of campus and acting like a gate.

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For the most part, I detest Brutalism. It has no grace or subtly, no sense of design or aesthetic. While its name comes from the French for concrete, it hints at its bombastic appearance. Tolman was different, however, and was one of my favorite buildings from the '60's and '70's. Unlike another poster, I like the way it looks emerging from the trees (matched by the green panels on the windows and the tan coloring of the concrete, rather than the usual white or gray which gets ugly with built up dirt). I like the way the structure creates another gateway to the campus.

I'm glad they got rid of eyesores Eshleman & Warren, both of which were hideous, which is bad enough but compounded by the fact that they were viewable from off campus (south and west sides, respectively). Others need to go: Evans (thank goodness there are plans to demolish it and replace it with two shorter buildings), Davis (a concrete slab with a pitched roof and semicircular windows at the very top as an homage to the archways of Hearst Mining Bldg), Barrows (seriously, a high rise blocking the view of the Campanile from the south side where a plurality of students reside?), Boalt (planned as an attractive building, but then rotated 90 degrees to look like concrete bunker). In a perfect world Moffitt would be torn down because it looks like a parking structure and sits in the middle of what John Galen Howard designed to be a park running lengthwise through the campus. Wurster is so ugly that it has a certain charm (in my imagination, the concrete slabs can be closed to convert the buliding to a nuclear bomb shelter), but it would be nice if the Environmental Design department were housed in an architectural masterpiece or landmark.

So, if Psychology and Education are being moved off campus, what is planned for the current Tolman site?

okaydo;842436528 said:

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Actually, I was thinking of starting a thread on this.

...

Man, the Psychology and education departments (I was a psych major) are being moved like way off campus.

Okay, it's only a block away. But, still, they'll be on freakin' Shattuck, way northwest.

It's one thing to be in Soda Hall across the street from campus. But Shattuck?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, this building may actually be convenient from downtown Berkeley, and you don't have to walk up a hill.

But it feels weird to be going to school so far away from the heart of campus, in downtown.

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Our campus is extremely small and it's a good thing that they are not trying to cram more buildings into the limited space. (The LSB addition should not have been built where it was as it disrupted the John Galen Howard's planned balance between the science and agriculture buildings and removed a beautiful arbor of redwoods adjacent to the Eucalyptus Grove.

While I love the Haas complex, I thought the Law and Business schools should have been built near downtown and BART to free up scarce space and provide easier access to professional internships and part time jobs. (And I don't think students and faculty professional schools want to be within earshot of the football stadium!).