U. of California Drops Plan to Alter Use of Berkeley’s Bowles Hall

Bowles Hall (Wikipedia)

The University of California at Berkeley has abandoned a controversial plan to convert a landmark 1928 dormitory, Bowles Hall, into suites for executives attending the university’s Haas School of Business, according to The Berkeley Daily Planet. Instead the university will renovate the building and continue to use it as an all-male dormitory.

The Collegiate Gothic building has not only its own traditions — including a drinking song played by the university’s Marching Band after football games in the nearby Memorial Stadium — but also its own alumni association. The alumni were among those protesting the plan to turn the building over to the business school.

Bowles was designed by George W. Kelham and constructed of concrete. Like the stadium, Bowles is located on top of the Hayward Fault. A 1972 state law limits the extent to which buildings on top of faults can be altered without mitigating earthquake hazards — a factor that may have contributed to the demise of the business-school plan, according to the Daily Planet article.