History of the College of Environmental Design

In the mid-20th century, no university in the United States had combined the disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture, and planning under one academic umbrella. Two of UC Berkeley’s many game-changing contributions to environmental design were to help develop the actual concept of environmental design, and then to refine it in a college that included all design and planning disciplines, integrating their knowledge and contributions in a way that helps to shape the larger environment.

The idea for such an integration at Berkeley came from William W. (“Bill”) Wurster, the dean of UC Berkeley’s School of Architecture, and Catherine Bauer Wurster, a housing reform expert who taught in the architecture school. 

Their plan was to bring together four existing UC Berkeley departments from across campus: the Department of Architecture (founded 1903), the Department of Landscape Architecture (founded 1913), and the Department of City Planning (founded 1948). Encouraged by Chancellor Clark Kerr, they added a fourth department to their proposal: the Decorative Arts Department (founded 1939). (By 1970 Decorative Arts, was rebranded as the Department of Design and later in the decade was reconfigured as the program in Visual Studies.)

This idea was radical for some, and University of California President Gordon Sproul, when approached with the idea, wondered if it was really necessary when things seemed to work just fine as they were. Committees formed, discussions stretched on and on, departments fought to keep a level of independence from one another while combining forces. The final approval from UC Berkeley’s Academic Senate came in 1959.

In the meantime, the name “environmental design” was agreed upon only because no one could come up with a better option that kept all three departments on equal footing. Both Wurster and Bauer initially thought the name was pretentious, but in the end it stood.

Wurster became the founding dean of the new College of Environmental Design and Bauer Wurster was later appointed associate dean.

The new entity with its new name needed a new home. Planning for what would be named Wurster Hall began in the late 1950s; the building was completed in 1964. Wurster championed the idea that the building should be designed by members of the architectural faculty, as hiring an outside architect would indicate a lack of faith in the faculty’s skills. Distrusting unanimity, he relished the idea of having three architects with totally different points of view. His choices were Vernon DeMars, Joseph Esherick, and Donald Olsen.

For two years, from 1958 to 1960, the architects met with a faculty building committee and Louis DeMonte, the campus architect. As many as 20 schemes were developed as departments explored circulation and orientation and quibbled over space allocations and locations, while the different architects argued from their varying perspectives.

One point of agreement was that the new building should have a courtyard, as a carryover from the cherished courtyard in the “Ark,” the previous architecture building (now North Gate Hall).

That was where similarities with the old building ended. Wurster wanted the designers to design what he called a ruin, a building that “achieved timelessness through freedom from stylistic quirks.” 

Read more about the making of Bauer Wurster Hall>

In fall 2020, the college renamed the building Bauer Wurster Hall after finding archival documentation that the building was intended to recognize both William W. Wurster and Catherine Bauer Wurster for their extensive contributions to the founding of CED.