UC Berkeley Campus Plan

1898-99 marked the international competition to determine a master plan for the buildings and setting of the University of California. Bernard Maybeck is credited with the idea for the competition, which was made possible by Phoebe Hearst, one of the University’s significant early benefactors. The competition occurred in two phases, the first took place in Antwerp and was open to all designers worldwide. The designers who were selected to move on refined their designs and the second phase of judging took place in San Francisco’s Ferry Building as pictured above. Émile Bénard’s design was chosen but he proved difficult to work with so 4th place winner John Galen Howard was chosen to replace Bérnard and became supervising architect by 1901 as well as founder of the 1903 Architecture Program.