John Galen Howard Designer of the core buildings of the Univ of Cal Berkeley

Wow, or Ow!  I have been absent for over a month.   I went to a great program on campus, today. that is UCBerkeley, as people here like to call it "CAL", but I do not feel that familiarity.  To me, it is Berkeley.  Met Alumni Robert and Nancy Mueller, who were very nice people; he is an architect and she works in real estate and they have lived here since their days at CAL. She and I were congruent in our observations during the tour.  It was very creative.  A professor created a course in Art History, focussing on the architect responsible for the buildings at Cal, which like the institution, itself, are diverse, and it would like to think,'democratic'.   Margaretta M. Lovell, Jay D. McEvoy Professor of American Art History created the course, for undergraduates which examines the architecture of John Galen Howard.  He did many other commissions in the bay area.  It is phenomenal how many buildings he has done at Berkeley, and there is no "marker" anywhere, indicating he is the architect.   Howard was born in Massachusetts, educated at M.I.T and worked in H.H. RIchardon in Boston and then in the New York firm of McKim, Mead and White.  He was schooled in the pricniples of clarity, symmetry and axiality...in the architectural langauges of antiquity, the Ialtian Renassiance adn the mdoern French adaptations of classicism. Certainly Classical America must approve of his style and tenets in preseravation and continuance of styles.  Like Maybeck and Julia Morgan, Stanford White and Richardson, was attracted to the vernacular styles in America as well.  

The lectures and tours were held in celebration of the 90th anniversary of the building of the Women's Faculty Club. Women were not allowed in the Male Faculty Club unless escorted, so they built their own club!  The art history professor has a friendship with the director of the Womens Faculty Club, so they worked out this arrangement to benefit the Club.  The program took place from 2:30-6:00 pm, today and was very enjoyable. 

Phoebe Hearst is the patron saint of Berkeley; her partnership with President Benjamin Wheeler created the Campus plan which expanded Berkeley and tripled its enrollment in three years, so that it became a major campus in the state system.  It was founded for education in mining, agriculture and engineering.  Their idea in architecture was to rival Stanford University. Eclecticism was thought essential and appropriate for the University of California Berkeley campus. They wanted to preserve architectural history in the vocabularies of the architectural choices for the campus-scape.    

Howard was educated at M.I.T. as well as the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, which seems to have been the place of the day to be credentialled.   He worked for a period of time with McKim, Mead and White, a firm well known to me from my days of being on the Board of Classical America, with Alvin Holms, in Philadelphia. 

Schooled in the principles of clarity, symmetry, and axiality, in masonry construciton and in the architectural languages of antiquity, the Italian Renaissance and the modern French adaptation of this classicism,  like Stanford White, Bernard Maybeck, Julia Morgan) was also drawn to and learned from vernacular American architectural styles. One of the most extreme cases is the log cabin buiding made of giant California trees, next door to the faculty Club, which is where the exclusive society of The Golden Bears meets.   It is not open to the public or even faculty, only the GB's...but today we got to enter its earthy realms and smell the wood!  Very woodsy.  The elite of the students, and then the alumni of the faculty meet on picnic tables in this rough hewn room designed by Howard. 

More later...learned so much about my favorite buildings.  Stephens Hall, where I go for International Studies Special Guests, was originally a student union.  South Hall, my most favorite building in the Empire Style reminding me of Renaissance chateux in France  was threatened with demolition though it was the first founding building on campus...until the anniversary when it was restored and Thank God, retained.  All buildings have to pass seismic review, because of the earthquake issues.  This building has been secured.  I also heard about the Sather tower, which is modelled after a campanile in Venice.  The trees are from the World Exposition held in San Francisco!   The young student, Paris, who read us her paper, remarked on the two special pine trees imported, flanking the tower.  A head bust  of Lincoln by the sculptor who did the presidents at Mt Rushmore , and in Washington DC.  I have always wondered about the murals on a Romanesque like church like building and found that two women had done them, and they are so beautiful they have "saved the building from demolition".   It shows what an architect can do when he gets a utility building(steam heat and electricity) commission; as HD Thoreau says, he builds a cathedral. 

This program was sponsored by the Womens Faculty Club, created when the Men's Faculty Club did not permit women, unless escorted.  The American art historian, Margaretta M. Lovell, Jay D. McEvoy Professor  joined The Muellers and myself  at our table,  at the end  and consequently all the students came forth to say hello to her, and I suppose move on to dinner.   She implemented a course at Berkeley for a freshman seminar as had I at Penn, encouraging creativity.  Mine created a template and is taught every year and a record of it was published in the New Yorker!  

Here are a list of his buildings, and his name is not noted, to my knowledge on any of them...so this tour really humanized their creation and their position on campus. 

Beaux Arts Grandeur:  Doe Library, Hearst Greek Theater, Memorial Stadium, Sather Gate (dedicated to Jane Sather's husband) and Hearst Mining Building, also a Memorial by Phoebe Herst to her husband. .   

Beaux Arts, The Halls: Inspired by Graeco-Roman vocabulary, -- Wheeler, with it statue of the goddess of Wisdom, Athena, and giant fluted Corinthian colums houses the English Department.  I go there frequently.   There is California,which has no open access for students, or faculty, and  Durant, Haviland, Wellman, Hilgard, Hesse, Le Conte, and Gilman. 

Medievialisms:  Sather Tower(12thc Venetian Basilica of San Marco,  with campanile and London plane trees from the world Expo grounds in SF) , Stephens Hall(Tudor), and the Power(Electriicity and Steam)  House inspired by 13th c Romanesque churches ---which in a new life became a gallery but now stands derelect, -- and has always fascinated me because of its murals which were done by women. .    

Shingle Style:    The Womens Faculty Club, which was designed by Howard, in the Shingle style punctuated bya Neo Classical entrance, is found next door to the faculty club for men designed by Bernard Maybeck.   There is also North Gate Hall, Dwinelle Annex, Naval Architecture and Senior Men's Hall, a forest rustic log "cabin" structure, which was only open for this tour, as it is the official meeting place of the Golden Bears, a society on campus meant to imitate Skull and Crossbones, at Yale.