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. We invite you to explore our digitized holdings or make an appointment to view our materials in person. Access is always free for UC Berkeley students.
Getting Started
Explore these resources to learn more about our collections. Note that the Online Archive of California indexes collections, while digital images are available on the Calisphere website.
Planning Your Visit
Once you’ve identified materials in our collections that you wish to view, you may make an appointment to visit the reading room. Please note that we typically require that appointments be made at least two weeks in advance.
Research Fees
The EDA is a self-supporting research facility within the College of Environmental Design. Research fees allow the EDA to maintain staff and provide access to the archival collections. We can accept payment by credit card or check. Payments are made at the completion of a research visit.
- Current UC Berkeley students, faculty and staff (with ID): Fee waived
- Non-UC Berkeley students and faculty: $10/hour
- All others: $30/hour
- Reference Inquiries
- Make an Appointment
- Intellectual Property Rights: Know Your Responsibilities
If after consulting the research resources above, you are still unsure whether the EDA has materials that will answer your research question, send an email inquiry to designarchives@berkeley.edu.
If you are seeking information about a particular house, garden, or other building, please note that our project files are not always a comprehensive list of a designer’s work. If you have questions about a particular property, we can assist with a search by the architect’s or landscape architect’s name, original client or owner’s name, location (city) of project, date of construction, but we cannot locate files by building address.
Please note that EDA staff cannot perform substantive research for you, but if you can identify a specific box or folder number or project name, we can provide information about the quantity and types of materials contained within the files. For more in-depth assistance, you may want to contact a professional researcher or architectural historian.
The EDA is open for in-person appointments Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 9:30 a.m to 5 p.m. Appointments are required to view archival materials. Appointments are typically scheduled with at least two weeks lead time to account for materials transport.
If you would like to schedule time in the research room, please email designarchives@berkeley.edu with the collection name, project name and/or the file or box numbers for the archival material you would like to view. We will respond with available dates and times.
Research room location: 280 Bauer Wurster Hall, University of California, Berkeley.
Be aware of intellectual property rights when using materials from the Environmental Design Archives
- Ownership: The EDA does not hold copyright for many of the materials in its collections. Consequently, it cannot grant or deny requests to publish materials for which a third party holds copyright.
- Responsibilities: Researchers are solely responsible for determining the copyright status of any materials they may wish to use, making fair use determinations, investigating the owner(s) of the copyright and where necessary obtaining permission for the intended use.
- Research Support: Consult the Bancroft Library’s guide to Copyright, Fair Use, and Your Project for guidance on researching the copyright status of an item.
Duplication: Request Images
We digitize materials from our collections on request and allow researchers to photograph archival materials themselves. Your use of EDA materials is subject to the copyright law of the United States: please review the conditions of use before requesting digitization.
- Conditions of Use + Copyright
- Digitization Fees + Requests
Your use of EDA materials is subject to these conditions:
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specific conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be “used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research.” If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of “fair use,” that user may be liable for copyright infringement. This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if, in its judgment, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of copyright law.
- Materials in the EDA’s collections may be subject to copyright. In many cases the EDA claims only physical ownership of material in its collections and does not own copyright or other intellectual property rights to this material.
- Researchers are solely responsible for determining the copyright status of any materials they may wish to use, making fair use determinations, investigating the owner(s) of the copyright and where necessary obtaining permission for the intended use.
- If you wish to publish or otherwise reuse reproductions of copyrighted materials that we provide you beyond the extent of fair use, you are responsible for seeking permission from the copyright holder.
- For additional guidance, consult Copyright, Fair Use, and Your Project.
Digitization
We have a 2–3 week turnaround time for digitizing materials. Please note:
- Rush orders will incur an additional fees
- Large or complex orders will take additional time
Fees
Digitization fees are solely to cover costs of the creation and delivery of the digital image. Payment of fees does not in any way imply or grant permission to use images beyond “fair use.”
Graphic images (e.g., photographs or drawings)
Images delivered as minimum 200dpi tiff format at original document size
- 11” x 17” or smaller: $35/image
- Larger than 11”x17”: $75/image
Slides
Individual slide images delivered as 4000dpi tiff. Slide contact sheets delivered as 8.5″ x 11” color pdfs
- Individual slides: $10/image
- Slide contact sheets: $20/sheet (20 slides per sheet)
Manuscript materials (e.g., correspondence or other typescript on 8.5”x11” paper)
Delivered as a black-and-white pdf
- 1–20 pages: $20
- 21+ pages: $1/page
Submit a Request
Email designarchives@berkeley.edu for a link to our digitization request form.
Exhibitions
The EDA periodically exhibits materials from its collections in the Raymond Lifchez and Judith Lee Stronach exhibition cases located in the Environmental Design Library, during regular library hours. Please check CED’s Events page for current exhibitions.
Recent exhibitions include: Modern Vernacular: Asian American Architects and the Built Environment of Postwar Northern California, Models: Process + Presentation, Giving Voice to Values: The Legacy of SMWM from the Environmental Design Archives, and Finished-Unfinished: The Design of Bauer Wurster Hall.
Selected Publications
Research Grants
We are pleased to offer two short-term research grant programs to facilitate interdisciplinary and innovative archival research on-site at the Environmental Design Archives (EDA).
Grant applications are due March 24, 2027
- About the Fellowships + Eligibility
- How to Apply
The EDA sponsors two grant programs, named in honor of Waverly B. Lowell and Alice Ross Carey, that provide funding to support travel to Berkeley to conduct research using the collections of the Environmental Design Archives. Grant recipients are expected to spend one week at the EDA. Awards will cover flight costs, accommodation at an on-campus faculty club, and two meals a day (breakfast and lunch).
Grants will be awarded based on the potential for a project to use EDA collection materials in deep and meaningful ways. While the EDA supports multidimensional research methods, grant awards cannot be used for supplemental research activities, such as travel to sites, oral history gathering, or research at other repositories.
Applicants are highly encouraged to explore the Environmental Design Archives collection guides available on the Online Archive of California.
Eligibility
- The Alice Ross Carey grants are open to doctoral students and emerging scholars in any related discipline. Students must be registered in an accredited graduate program and currently engaged in dissertation research. Other applicants may be academic or independent scholars.
- The Waverly B. Lowell grants are open to midcareer and senior scholars in any related discipline. Applicants may be academic or independent scholars.
Grant applications are due March 24, 2027
Please submit the following:
- Project title
- An abstract limited to 150 words
- A proposed list of materials to be examined during your research visit, including collection names. Projects that include detailed and thoughtful lists of archival materials drawn from collection guides will be given greater consideration.
- CV (3 pages max)
- A project description (1,200 words max, not including citations) outlining:
- How your project will advance scholarship in your field and how it is positioned with respect to existing literature.
- In what ways the EDA’s collection will support and advance your research project.
All materials should be submitted via the application form by 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time, March 24, 2027. Applications will be reviewed by a committee of faculty and archivists. Awards will be based on the potential for the proposed research to make significant contributions to scholarship. Successful applications will demonstrate strong familiarity with EDA collections and make a compelling argument for the importance of those collections to the proposed project.
Staff
Contact
Environmental Design Archives
College of Environmental Design
University of California, Berkeley
280 Bauer Wurster Hall #1820
Berkeley, CA 94720-1820
designarchives@berkeley.edu
510.642.5124 711 CA Relay