OpenStreetMap (new tab)

Google Map (new tab)

Google Streetview (new tab)

Building History

North Gate Hall housed the University of California Department of Architecture from 1906-1964, and the School of Journalism from 1981 to the present. Known by generations of UC architecture students as "The Ark." The building was intended to be temporary, but became permanent over the years. A popular home for the Architecture Department, the Ark gradually had additions that formed around a central courtyard.

Building Notes

Its brown shingle exterior and modest proportions made the building seem more residential than institutional. John Galen Howard, a transplant from Boston, MA, would have been very familiar with Shingle Style builidngs in New England.

In 1923, the Department of Architecture launched an alumni publication called The University of California Architect that highlighted activiites ongoing in The Ark and exploits of graduates. The San Francisco architectural publication, The Building Review, reported in 1923: "The Architectural Department of the University of California has issued a sprightly sheet entitled ‘The University of California Architect’ which deals with the ‘Ark’ and its Alumni, of whom many interesting notes are given.” (See “Untitled Note,”Building Review, vol. XXIV, no. 5, 11/1923. p. 58.)

Alteration

Additions were made by architect and engineer Walter Steilberg (1886-1974).

PCAD id: 12941