Wheeler Hall is a building on the campus of the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

in the

Classical Revival Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassic ...

style. Home to the English department as well as the university's College Writing Programs department, it was named for the

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

and university president Benjamin Ide Wheeler. The building was opened in 1917. It houses the largest lecture hall on the Berkeley campus, Wheeler Auditorium. On February 29, 1940, UC Berkeley professor Ernest O. Lawrence received the

Nobel Prize in Physics The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...

in Wheeler Auditorium from Carl Wallerstedt,

Consul General A consul is an official representative of a government who resides in a foreign country to assist and protect citizens of the consul's country, and to promote and facilitate commercial and diplomatic relations between the two countries. A consu ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, due to the danger of crossing the Atlantic during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The building was the site of many of the Free Speech Movement protests in the 1960s and is a focal point of the Berkeley campus. In the 2010s, it has been the site of many university protests and several building takeovers.

Description

Wheeler Hall, located just west of South Hall, is a grand four-story building featuring a

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

frame and a

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

exterior. It is aligned with the main campus axis, with its square design interrupted by the projecting end bays on the east and west sides. The main south-facing facade showcases a central section with seven uniform bays, flanked by slightly projecting bays with arched windows and paired pilasters. Secondary blocks with tiled hip roofs and

quoins Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th-century encyclopedia, ...

border this central section. Steps integrated into the slopes form a partial plinth, leveling the site. The facade's central part has three horizontal zones. The base is rusticated and includes nine deeply recessed, arched entrances leading to the lobby. Above this, the middle section spans two stories and includes a colonnaded gallery in a modified giant Ionic style. This gallery is bordered by end bays featuring paired Ionic pilasters and recessed, round-beaded windows. The

attic An attic (sometimes referred to as a '' loft'') is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building. It is also known as a ''sky parlor'' or a garret. Because they fill the space between the ceiling of a building's t ...

story, set back from the classical

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

, features six monumental urns over the columns below. Following the middle zone's layout, the attic story is highlighted by fluted pilasters that support a molded

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

capped by a blank

frieze In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...

. Inside, the southwest side of the building contains a lobby and a large

auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theaters, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoriums can be found in entertainment venues, community halls, and t ...

encircled by a wide hall. The second and third floors have hallways providing access to the

balcony A balcony (from , "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. They are commonly found on multi-level houses, apartme ...

. While there have been some interior modifications, these changes have not affected the building's exterior architectural integrity.

Footnotes

External links

Interactive Map of Berkeley Campus
School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in California Buildings and structures in Berkeley, California University of California, Berkeley buildings University and college academic buildings in the United States Neoclassical architecture in California 1917 establishments in California History of Berkeley, California National Register of Historic Places in Berkeley, California Berkeley landmarks in Berkeley, California {{AlamedaCountyCA-NRHP-stub