If all goes according to plan, parts of UC Berkeley’s 1,095-acre campus will undergo a major transformation in coming years.
The university highlighted the changes in its recently released its 2022 master campus plan, its first in nearly two decades.
The plan, which serves as a collection of recommendations rather than a concrete blueprint, is meant to be used in tandem with the university’s 2021 Long Range Development Plan. The LRPD, approved by the UC Board of Regents last July, calls for the addition of up to 8 million square feet of new academic and residential space and 11,730 new university-owned beds for students and faculty.
While the long-range plan does not specify where on UC Berkeley’s campus that new development would rise — or in what form — the master plan makes the university’s vision a little clearer. It outlines nearly a dozen new residential projects and nearly as many new academic buildings that could rise on university-owned land over the next decade or two, plus general improvements to be made to various parts of campus.
Take a look at the renderings released as part of the plan below.
UC Berkeley released its new campus master plan — its first in more than 17 years — at the end of March. The plan includes conceptual outlines for new residential and academic development as well as general improvements to UC Berkeley's 1,095-acre campus. Take a look at some of the conceptualizations of the proposed improvements and changes.
Most of the specific projects outlined by the plan are “very much conceptual in nature” and years off from happening, according to Kyle Gibson, spokesperson for UC Berkeley Capital Strategies. They will need to be proposed and approved as individual projects before they can be fully realized, he said.
Among the projects included in UC Berkeley's residential pipeline:
- Clark Kerr Campus redevelopment, a residential project that would include between 2,400 and 2,650 beds
- The redevelopment of the Oxford Tract, an existing 4.5-acre plot of land home to open space, greenhouses and research space, into a residential project to include between 1,000 and 2,000 beds
- The Channing-Ellsworth redevelopment, a residential project on an existing 1.3-acre parcel home to tennis courts and surface parking that could raise between 2,000 and 3,000 beds
- The redevelopment of Unit 3, an existing complex of residents halls with approximately 1,400 beds, into a larger residential project with between 1,800 and 2,000 new beds
- Beverly Cleary Hall redevelopment, a project that would TK the existing 240-bed residence hall and replace it with a new upgraded project with between 240 and 500 beds
Some of those projects may not take shape for another decade, including the project proposed for the Clark Kerr Campus, a nearby parcel that formerly housed a school for the blind. Terms of UC Berkeley’s 1982 purchase of the property forbids the school from altering the buildings at the site, except in the case of seismic deficiency, until 2032. Still, the plan is designed to be flexible and adaptable, Gibson said, and to set a kind of baseline for the campus’s long-term future.
Fall 2021 enrollment
| Rank | Prior Rank | School |
|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | University of California, Berkeley |
2 | 2 | San Francisco State University |
3 | 3 | California State University, East Bay |
