UC Berkeley | CV Starr East Asian Library

Berkeley, CA

The new 68,000 sf library houses Japanese, Chinese and Korean collections that rank among the top four academic library collections in the nation. The award-winning library is a $46 million four-story concrete building surfaced with bronze decorative screens that weigh 1 ton each. Structural challenges included designing flat plate concrete floors and strip beams to the stringent gravity deflection required of library stacks. Exterior entrance stairs, the entrance bridge, and retaining walls were designed with the same attention to every detail as was the building interior, and the structure was incorporated into the architectural fabric of the building. R+C provided structural engineering services to the world-renowned architect-led team.

SIZE
68,000 sf
CERTIFICATIONS
AWARDS

Structural Engineers Association of Northern California, Excellence in Structural Engineering Award of Merit 2009
AIA California Council Design Award 2010, Honor Award

KEY INFO

Building façade is rough concrete clad in stone from China

Bronze screens weigh one ton each

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Ferry Building logo.

Leavening peerless structural engineering skill with humor, philosophy, people skills and, above all, a consummate understanding of San Francisco's permitting process, [Alan] saw this project through.