Our Spaces
The College of Environmental Design is located in Bauer Wurster Hall on the UC Berkeley campus. We operate the off-campus resources Blake Garden and Weston Havens House. Our spaces for learning, experimenting, and socializing are central to the culture of the college and success of our students.
Bauer Wurster Hall
Iconic Bauer Wurster Hall (1964), designed by Vernon DeMars, Joseph Esherick, and Donald Olsen, houses the college. Famed for its use of raw concrete, the building is an ideal place for experimentation: the architects aimed to design a “finished-unfinished” building to encourage students to define their own spatial experiences and modes of self-expression. CED students spend most of their time on campus in Bauer Wurster Hall, studying, making, and relaxing in its classrooms, tower studio spaces, library, fabrication shops, computer labs, and outdoor spaces. CED students have 24-hour keycard access to the building.
Design Studios
Six floors of open design studios, bathed in natural light, are located in Bauer Wurster Hall’s landmark tower. All students taking a studio course are assigned a workspace that becomes their home away from home. Alive with creativity 24 hours a day, studios foster community and collaboration. Studio floors are equipped with computers, laser printers, wide-format inkjet plotters, and flatbed scanners.
Fabrication Shop
The Fabrication Shop is a 4,000-square-foot industrial wood and metal shop has soaring ceilings and an enormous wall of windows. It’s equipped with table saws, a jointer and planer, welding, machining and casting equipment, an outdoor shop yard, and a walk-in spray booth. The shop enables CED students to actualize their designs, fabricating models and other 3D projects.
Digital Fabrication Lab
In the Digital Fabrication Lab, CED students have access to the latest 3D printing technology, including six Universal laser cutters, a Techno Isel 3-axis CNC router, eighteen Prusa 3D printers, and a Zund S3 cutting system.
Environmental Design Archives
Open to all — students, faculty, scholars, designers, preservationists, and the public — the Environmental Design Archives is Northern California’s premier collection of historical records related to architecture and landscape architecture. Its holdings span more than a century and include drawings, reports, specifications, correspondence, photographs, models, and artifacts.
Environmental Design Library
The light-filled Environmental Design Library is one of the premier architecture, landscape architecture, and city planning libraries in North America. As a CED student, you can explore a collection of more than 210,000 volumes and 500 serials, reserve a group study room, and discover unique treasures in the Sigrid L. Rupp Rare Book Vault. You’ll also find a rotating series of exhibitions in the library, often featuring one-of-a-kind materials from the Environmental Design Archives.
Materials Store
The nonprofit Materials Store provides access to premium materials at reasonable costs. The store stocks wood, plastic, paper, metal, blades, and router bits, as well as CED-branded mugs, water bottles, and more. Located at the entry of the Fabrication Shop, it provides convenient access to hand-picked materials that can be used in both the Fabrication Shop and the Digital Fabrication Lab.
Computer Labs
Two dedicated labs in Bauer Wurster Hall with more than 80 desktop computers are available to CED students 24/7 (when the lab is not otherwise booked for a class). Preinstalled software includes titles from Adobe and Autodesk, as well as access to other services, including the Render Farm for Rhino + V-Ray rendering in the cloud. Labs also house black-and-white and color laser printers, wide-format inkjet printers (aka plotters), and flatbed scanners.
Student Technology Center
The Student Technology Center is the college’s one-stop-shop for CED-specific tech services and support. Located in Bauer Wurster Hall’s South Tower, the STC also houses a self-serve photo-quality wide-format inkjet printer and wide-format sheet-feed scanner.
Ong&Ong Plaza
The CED community often gathers in Ong&Ong Plaza in front of the main entrance to Bauer Wurster Hall. With benches and tables, it is a great place to have coffee and eat lunch, meet with faculty, or connect with other students under the dappled shade of coast live oak trees.
East Courtyard
The serene, sunny courtyard behind Bauer Wurster Hall often hosts activities sponsored by student clubs as well as other CED events. Its brick paving is an homage to the courtyard of North Hall (the “Ark”), the original home of the Department of Architecture before the construction of Bauer Wurster Hall.
First Floor Lobby
The first floor lobby is a dynamic space for CED students. Each semester graduate and undergraduate students in studio participate in pin-ups, utilizing a variety of movable walls and display spaces.
Bauer Wurster Gallery
Bauer Wurster Gallery is a dynamic space hosting exhibitions, talks, studio and course reviews and pin-ups, and symposia.
Bauer Wurster Auditorium
Bauer Wurster Auditorium is the larges lecture hall st Bauer Wurster Hall, hosting lectures, symposia, and events.
Local x Design
In Bauer Wurster Hall you’ll find Local x Design, a seasonal and farm-first cafe committed to local and sustainably-sourced food. Local x Design serves breakfast bagels, as well as coffee, tea, and other beverages from Peet’s. Lunch between classes is often enjoyed in Ong+Ong Plaza, and includes a variety of customizable salads and protein bowls, fresh sandwiches, and grab-and-go meals. Accepts flex dollars, credit, and debit.
Blake Garden
Blake Garden is the landscape laboratory for the Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning. It occupies 10+ acres of rolling terrain in Kensington, featuring large rock outcroppings, several reaches of Cerrito Creek, and sweeping views of the San Francisco Bay.
Weston Havens House
Perched on Panoramic Hill above the UC Berkeley campus, the Weston Havens House, a masterpiece of 20th-century California modernist architecture, is used as a residence for distinguished visiting CED professors and as a site for studio investigations and projects.