East Asian Library Is Dedicated at Heart of Berkeley’s Campus

Guests gather for the dedication of Berkeley’s East Asian Library (U. of California at Berkeley photo by Peg Skorpinski)

The University of California at Berkeley has dedicated a sleek new East Asian Library on a prominent location near the university’s beloved Memorial Glade and the 1910 Doe Library. The new 68,000-square-foot building, which cost $46.4-million, was designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects.

The four-story library has a roofline matching that of nearby neoclassical buildings by the university’s longtime architect, John Galen Howard, who designed the Doe Library and many other campus structures. And like nearby buildings, the new library is clad in granite. But the granite comes from China, as do cast-bronze screens on three sides of the building. The new library was designed to hold the university’s collection of more than 900,000 volumes related to East Asia, as well as drawings, periodicals, and other items. It is due to open early next year.

Bronze screens for the building were cast in China (U. of California at Berkeley photo by Jonathan Reo)