Berkeley’s landscape reflects four important heritages or influences. First, particularly in the Hills above the campus, along the winding courses of Strawberry Creek, and atop Observatory Hill near North Gate, there are remnants of the early native landscape of the Berkeley area, which included riparian trees such as California Bay Laurels and California Buckeyes, and rolling, seasonal, grassland hillsides dotted with California Live Oaks. Second, there are elements of “Picturesque” landscaping reflecting the influence of a plan prepared for the campus site in the 1860s by Frederick Law Olmsted, later revered as the “Father of Landscape Architecture.” Third, there is considerable formal neo-Classical landscaping, typically arranged along rectilinear axes and view corridors; this is largely a result of the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Architectural Plan for the campus, adopted in 1900, and its modification and implementation by the Beaux Arts-trained architect John Galen Howard and his faculty colleague, John Gregg, founder of the Department of Landscape Architecture. Fourth, there are important “Modern” landscape elements on the campus, most dating to a period of rapid expansion and development in the 1950s and 1960s, and generally developed by or under the influence of important mid-20th century designers such as Thomas Church and Lawrence Halprin.

In addition to these landscape styles, the central Berkeley campus also featured, in earlier years, extensive growing grounds, orchards, and greenhouses for the College of Agriculture, and the earliest incarnations of the University’s Botanical Garden, which once (1894-1924) included a magnificent Victorian-style, domed Conservatory or glasshouse for tropical and other tender plants. In the 1920s the Botanical Gardens relocated to a site in Strawberry Canyon, off the central campus; today it is one of the most important research and public botanical collections in the United States, featuring thousands of plant species from around the world. The Central Campus itself is also an informal arboretum with living examples of nearly 300 tree species, documented in the Forestry Tree Trail (pdf).
All of these styles and elements interact to create a rich and complex campus landscape. Major landscape features of the campus include:

• Faculty Glade, along Strawberry Creek west of the Faculty Club. Once the site of centuries-old California Live Oaks, and apparently Native American habitation, long before the University existed, the Glade is now characterized by rolling lawns, younger—but still large and stately—oaks, and the seasonal color of rhododendrons and azaleas. The Glade has long been a favored spot for campus ceremonies, events, and gatherings.

• the Campanile Esplanade and other landscaping around the Campanile—Sather Tower—which elegantly represent the Beaux Arts style of outdoor design, with formal brick pathways and stairs, stone balustrades, neatly trimmed hedges, and geometrically arranged trees, including the oldest London Plane trees on the campus. Like those in Sproul Plaza, they are annually “pollarded” or cut back to the knobby ends of the older branches, resulting in a distinctive look, particularly during their leafless winter season.

• Sproul Plaza, one of the important designs of the internationally known landscape architect and Berkeley alumnus, Lawrence Halprin, and the “stage” since the early 1960s for innumerable demonstrations, campus events, and informal student gatherings. The Plaza was refurbished in 2004.

• the Eucalpytus Grove, near the West Circle, planned in 1877 as a windbreak for a now-vanished running track. The Tasmanian bluegums here rise to nearly 200 feet, and are believed to be the tallest stand of hardwood trees in North America.

• Observatory Hill, the area between the North Gate entrance, McCone Hall, and Haviland Hall, where remnants of the early native landscape of Berkeley can be found including California Live Oaks and native shrubs and annuals, along with the picturesque ruins of the old Students’ Observatory.

• The environs of the “Agricultural Complex”—Hilgard, Wellman, and Giannini Halls—planted in the early and mid-20th century to resemble the landscape of Tuscany, with olive trees, Lombardy Poplars, stately Italian Stone Pines, and gentle lawns and slopes. This vicinity was originally the site of the University’s earliest agricultural growing grounds and botanical conservatories, and a few venerable trees, including a gnarled olive south of Giannini Hall and an enormous Gingko, southeast of Giannini, are prominent survivors from that era.

• The University’s Central Glade, originally extending from Hearst Mining Circle to the West Crescent at Oxford, and planned as a continuous open space unbroken by buildings. In its present, modified, form it now includes several linked open spaces, divided by two major buildings, Evans Hall and Moffitt Library. From east to west, the spaces include: Mining Circle; Memorial Glade, a large, sloping, oval lawn north of Doe Library created in the early 1990s as a green central “commons” for the campus and a memorial to those from the University who died in World War II; lower Central Glade, a large bowl north of the Valley Life Sciences Building, through which Strawberry Creek meanders and where a Japanese-style garden donated by overseas alumni was once located; and West Circle and West Crescent, a formal arrangement of roadways and landscaping connecting the campus to its Downtown Berkeley edge.

In recent years the campus has undertaken some major landscape improvements and planning work. Some useful websites to help you get oriented:

Campus map
Online tour
Online panoramas
Live web cameras
Landscape Heritage Plan
Landscape Master Plan
Campus Tree Fund
New Century Plan (includes landscape elements)

last updated on 5/8/07