Hearst Memorial Mining Building
Berkeley, Calif.
NBBJ

Beaux-Arts building becomes home for cutting edge science

© Tim Griffith

For more photos click on 'photos & drawings' above. To see the people and products behind this project click on 'people & products.'

Built in 1907 to house the University of California at Berkeley’s engineering program, the Hearst Memorial Building is a Beaux-Arts gem in the University of California system. The university commissioned NBBJ to design a restoration plan for the building that would not only fill the space with research and learning facilities suitable for 21st century science, but protect the structure from earthquakes in an active seismic zone.

Originally designed to accommodate large mining equipment, the Hearst building now features labs and classrooms for Berkeley’s sophisticated nanoscience and nanoengineering programs. Where chimney flues once extracted smoke from furnaces, HEPA filters now purify the air, crucial for electron microscopes and other sensitive scientific equipment. Mechanical equipment was relocated from interior rooms to a newly constructed off-site bunker that is connected to the building by an underground tunnel.

As part of the seismic retrofit, the building’s foundation was replaced with a new base isolation system comprised of 134 composite steel and rubber bearings. The system allows the entire 60-million pound structure to move 28 inches in any horizontal direction: effectively “floating” the building during an earthquake. On the roofline, meanwhile, restorers reinforced chimneys with high-tension steel strands and securely attached them to anchor plates. Inside the building’s Memorial gallery, they reinforced Guastavino ceiling tiles with pins and fiberglass, creating what is believed to be the only Guastavino system ever seismically strengthened.

Additional restoration work in the gallery included removing sixties-era vinyl flooring and restoring the original herringbone-patterned yellow brick. Additionally, restorers repaired each pane of glass in the central skylight. Elsewhere in the building, restorers re-opened two light wells that were blocked during the 1940s, and they created an ADA-compliant entrance on the building’s west side. Finally, on the roof, the team replaced clay tiles with new one made by the company that supplied the original product nearly 100 years ago.

Formal name of Project:
Hearst Memorial Mining Building

Location:
Berkeley, Calif.

Gross square footage:
143,000 sq. ft.

Total construction cost:
$90 million

Owner:
The Regents of the University of California
Rob Gayle, Assistant Vice Chancellor, Project Management, Capitol Projects
University of California, Berkeley
1936 University Avenue, 2nd Floor
Berkeley, CA 94720-1380
510.643.4061 phone
510.642.7271 fax

Architect:
NBBJ
130 Sutter Street, Second Floor
San Francisco, CA 94104
(415) 981-1100
(415) 733-2700
www.nbbj.com

NBBJ Science/Education Practice Leaders:
L to R: Doug Parris, Bruce Nepp, Brad Leathley,
Bill Sanford, and Mark Whiteley.