Building History

the San Francisco architectural firm ofAnshen and Allen won a closed competition among five invited architecture firms; the firms included: Louis I. Kahn, Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, San Francisco, Eero Saarinen and Associates, and Vernon DeMars. The program called for a large 200-foot planetarium, eight assembly halls, a science education center with classrooms, laboratories, a television studio, offices, and a cafeteria, a 600-seat auditorium with a rotating stage, a science information center, and parking for 750 vehicles. The hall was located on Vista del Cerro in the hills above Berkeley, overlooking what was called the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory (later known as Lawrence Livermore Laboratories).

The jury consisted of architects Pietro Belluschi (1899-1994), Richard Marsh Bennett(1907-1996), and Clarence W.W. Mayhew (1906-1994), along with University of California Regents, Donald H. McLaughlin (1891-1984) and Edwin W. Pauley, Sr., (1903-1981).

Building Notes

Unbuilt.

PCAD id: 5966