Now...just imagine. Imagine a Berkeley campus without the truly ugliest building on campus. No. NOT Wurster.

Evans.

Yes. Evans. The giant pale green monster, the portal to hell, with moaning ventilation chasms of doom, golfland fountains and courtyards. The campus' suicide machine. Window-less lecture halls. Ugly. Ugly. Ugly.

Evans, the building that's stuck smack dab in the middle of the campus' Central Axis. What's the Central Axis you may ask? Well, take a look at a map of the campus, and notice the link between all the major public spaces in the historic core. Memorial Glade, the Mining Circle, the areas in front of VLSB. That's not a coincidence. Before Moffett Library and Evans, this was one continuus space, as planned by John Galen Howard in the early 1900s.

Evans screwed it up. In a major way. You used to have a beautiful, straight on view of the Golden Gate from the Mining Circle.

And now, I've seen..the future:



Yes. No Evans. Two smaller buildings linked underground, with a courtyard that reopens the view corrider to the Golden Gate. Beautiful. And this is only part of the plan. I'm giddy over this. Giddy! The campus DOES have a plan for the future, and it's everything I ever hoped for.

You see....I just don't walk to class. I walk to class constantly thinking about planning spaces, architecture, view corriders, paving materials, landscaping. It's built in me, I can't help it. And the Berkeley campus, for someone like me....is frustrating. It has great moments, like the view from Memorial Glade towards Doe and the Campanile. But they're isolated and constantly screwed up by ugly ass paving, ugly ass buildings, and half-assed landscaping.

It's great to know the campus has a plan, a vision...that things like the New Stanley Hall and Music Library are being built according to it. You can go see the web page yourself if you're interested....

New Century Plan

But to save you the trouble...here are some of the best drawings:


Look, this is the view looking east while walking across Strawberry Creek at Sather Gate! They're calling for the creation of a little pond and glade here, as well as some new paving material. Sweet.


Remember those dinky trailors where my studio was last spring? You know, those pieces of crap that are still standing there in what could be one of the nicest courtyards in campus...well they're gone! And a nice new building could complete the courtyard.

Well...that's all I'll show for now. Yes I know......So exciting!

No? Well...you suck.