January 4, 2008

Jeff Philliber
Environmental Planning Group
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
One Cyclotron Road, MS 90J-0120
Berkeley, California 94720

Re: Comments on the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) Computational Research and Theory Facility (CRT) Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR)

Dear Jeff Philliber,

......Some, doubtless, would talk of the beautiful flowers which mantle the hills like an exquisitely varied carpet; some of the birds, their habits, their color, their song; some would talk of the early history of Berkeley and would give reminiscences of the Golden Age of youthful Berkeley. But underlying all these, and forming the condition of their existence — without which there never would have been any Berkeley — are the Hills with their rounded and infinitely varied forms, their noble out-look over fertile plain and glistening Bay shut in beyond by glorious mountain ranges through which the Golden Gate opens out on the boundless Pacific. It was this that decided the choice of the site of the University, and determined the existence of Berkeley.

…These Hills, therefore, like all mountains, were formed by upheaval, or by igneous forces at the time mentioned; but all the details of their scenery — every peak or rounded knob, every deep cañon or gentle swale, is the result of subsequent sculpturing by water. If the greater masses were determined by interior forces, all the lesser outlines — all that constitutes scenery — were due to exterior forces. If the one kind of force rough-hewed, the other shaped into forms of beauty.

The Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA), dedicated "to educate the community to encourage and secure the preservation of those structures, sites, and areas which have special architectural, historic, or aesthetic value contributing to the enrichment of the Berkeley environment and to the understanding of its heritage" and representing over 1200 members, wishes to register concern regarding the potential environmental impacts of the proposed CRT project. BAHA was overlooked in the formal noticing and distribution of the CRT project DEIR, in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). This oversight is curious as BAHA did comment (see attached) regarding the 2006 LBNL Long Range Development Plan (LRDP). While the Christmas/Holiday is a difficult time to study and digest the profound implications of the proposed CRT project, BAHA understands that this is a critical opportunity for any concerns and questions to be expressed toward an effort to encourage the Regents of the University of California, LBNL, and the United State Department of Energy (DOE), to give adequate consideration of alternative location(s) other than that of the Berkeley-Oakland East Bay Hills, a significant geographic feature of the Coast Range.

Intrinsic to Berkeley’s own sense of place and physical beauty are the East Bay Hills. Their steep rise behind the city and the University of California (University) Campus afford unforgettable views and vistas expanding out and beyond, "On the Edge of the World." Looking inward from the sea they, in turn, shape the San Francisco Bay Area. Since the beginnings of Berkeley, University ownership of this vast hillside backdrop has been appreciated by all, town and gown alike, as a traditional cultural property, associated with a deeply shared community history and a love for the natural environment.

That the ridges today suffer from many intrusive developments is due cause to be diligent in analysis of the potential impacts of the proposed CRT project. The introduction of the Molecular Foundry building (approved without an EIR) upon the Hills already stands as a stark warning. Its utilitarian hard-edged style of architecture, exhibiting industrial-park proportions with reflecting glass facades, not only changes the natural ambiance of the hillside itself, but also dramatically and substantially changes views and vistas of Berkeley (overshadowing the Campanile and Claremont Hotel, both listed on the National Register of Historic Places). The proposed CRT project, notably as sizable as any building within the city’s urban context below, also promises to become visually intrusive from above upon the landscape and to destroy yet another natural site of the un-spoilt hillside (the simulated photographic depictions in the DEIR are not adequate). By the definition of its research and development functions, whether for "educational" or commercial uses, placing the CRT project on the LBNL hillside property begs reconsideration. Why would LBNL sacrifice unnecessarily, again and again, Berkeley’s stretch of the celebrated East Bay Hills for the purpose of amassing high-tech facilities when there are other land use options?

An initiative to undertake a cultural landscape survey of the East Bay Hills, directly opposite the Golden Gate on University lands (including LBNL hillside property), would seem to be a mandatory and necessary action at this time, in compliance with the CRT project CEQA review. Defined most clearly as Strawberry Canyon and its watershed, the hillside landscape deserves public recognition as an invaluable asset meriting protection from further degradation. In-depth research and scholarship documenting the shared community history and the irreplaceable natural resources are long overdue. Below is a limited narrative to reflect only a broad sweep of the community’s historic setting, linked initially to the watershed found in the Strawberry Creek and then permanently connected to a sense of place.

It was in 1846 when Colonel John Charles Frémont and his troops first rode over the East Bay Hills to discover an enclosed harbor and out stretching sea before them. Standing on the ridge Frémont then wrote across his map the words "Golden Gate" and thus crystallized an image of stunning grandeur for the world to see. When Henry Durant selected the site for the University along the hillsides of the East Bay, in the spring of [1856], accounts, again, tell of an awe inspiring panorama of beauty: "He had set out to seek a place where learning might find a peaceful home on our Pacific shore. And he had come to the spot, where rising calmly from the sunlit bay, the soft green slope ascended, gently at first and then more abruptly, till it became a rugged storm-worn mountain and then disappeared in the sky. As he gazed upon the glowing landscape he knew he had found it." Durant is said to have exclaimed, "Eureka, I have found it!

In 1865 when Frederick Law Olmsted, the patron saint of American landscape architecture, was briefly in California and commissioned by the University to prepare a plan for the property, he envisioned a campus aligned with views of the Golden Gate, placing the buildings on a lower terrain of the open landscape where it might be "less commanding and dignified, but more secluded and protected and in this respect more consistent with the idea of Scholarship." The campus, then, would be alongside a thriving commercial town enhanced by gracious "civilized" neighborhoods of homes and parks — all to be shaped by the "steep declivities of the coast range." Olmsted recognized the contrasting beauty of the wild areas up Strawberry Canyon "following a stream of water from the open landscape of the bay region into the midst of the mountains it [the road] offers a great change of scenery within a short distance, and will constitute a unique and most valuable appendage to the general local attractions of the neighborhood."

By the 1890s efforts to develop Berkeley with a respect for the Hills became a self-conscious passion. Images of William Keith painting live oaks along Strawberry Canyon’s creek banks or, perhaps, Professor Andrew Lawson leading his students to explore geological tracings in Wildcat Canyon, are only two of the many deep-rooted associations in the community for a love of the landscape. Out of such appreciation a group of spirited ladies formed the Hillside Club. The Hillside Club was transforming, creating a civic pride to influence the building of roads, homes and gardens to reflect the contours of the hillside. The Club founder, Madge Robinson, wrote in 1899: "One looks towards God’s everlasting hills for rest and peace, but where can rest and peace be found, so long as our portion of these, God’s hills, is scarred with such unhealthy growths, such freaks of houses?" (While she meant ornate Victorians painted white, she most certainly might be turning over in her grave about the proposed CRT project.)

What the 20th century brought to Berkeley rooted the community even more conscientiously in its own sense of place. The Simple Home, written by Charles Keeler, extolled a natural style of family living on the Berkeley hillsides. The developers Duncan McDuffie and John Spring planned residential subdivisions, inspired by Olmsted’s landscape principles that were first envisioned for Berkeley in the 1860s, with gracious hillside homes enhanced by park-like amenities. The University selection of John Galen Howard to design a Beaux Arts plan for the Campus also heralded a new pride for the community. Berkeley become its own force of nature, drawing inspiration from its own unique setting and developed aesthetic:

“The First Bay Tradition” is a term that has been given to a new direction in architectural design begun in San Francisco about 1890. It took root and flowered most distinctively in the North Berkeley Hills just North of the University of California Campus. While it had its beginnings in the Arts and Crafts Movement in England in the mid-nineteenth century, it was brought to the Bay Area by a group of architects which included Ernest Coxhead, Bernard Maybeck, A.C. Schweinfurth, Willis Polk and later John Galen Howard and Julia Morgan. These architects were classically trained and were inspired by the wide vistas of open rolling hills and winding verdant creek beds. Their designs expressed a philosophy characterized by the use of materials indigenous to the area, in a straight forward and simple manner: structural members were left exposed and became the decorative elements, wood was left unpainted, exteriors were often covered with shingles, although board and batten siding as well as half-timbering, brick and stucco were also used; subtle historical references are found occasionally. Landscaping featured informal gardens, native stone-work and vine covered arbors, the overall effect was intended to be compatible with the natural beauty of the Bay Area. The architectural idiom was so influential that between 1900-1915 the majority of homes built in North Berkeley, branching out from the Daley Scenic Park tract, were built in this simple rustic style. In other California cities rustic shingled homes were referred to as “Berkeley Brown Shingles.”

In citing the above historic events and references to Berkeley’s architectural history, BAHA wishes toremind the preparers of the CRT DEIR that the City of Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Ordinance is inclusive in its scope, beginning with: "It is found that structures, sites and areas of special character or special historical, architectural or aesthetic interests or value have been and continue to be unnecessarily destroyed or impaired, despite the feasibility of preserving them…." (3.24.010, and following). Furthermore, State and National criteria for recognition of historic and natural resources were created to identify irreplaceable resources on behalf of the public benefit and for future generations.

When the East Bay Regional Park District was established in 1934, it was made possible because of an outpouring of public support preserve and protect a vast network of watershed lands for the public benefit. The proposed park lands and subsequent park land acquisitions did not include the University owned property in the East Bay Hills. Perhaps it was assumed then that the University would forever be a conservator of its vast and beautiful holdings, containing the Strawberry Canyon watershed. At the time the “Report on Proposed Park Reservations for East Bay Cities,” prepared for the Bureau of Public Administration, University of California, by the Olmsted Brothers, landscape architects, and Ansel F. Hall, National Park Service, was written it did not raise the question of the future of the University property. This is the time. The CEQA process for the 2006 LBNL LRDP, the CRT, and the Helios Energy Research Facility will be inadequate without a meaningful exploration of alternative sites.

Thank you for your consideration of BAHA’s concerns.

Sincerely,

Carrie Olson, President

Attachment: Letter to Jeff Philliber, LBNL, March 23, 2007, from BAHA Re: LBNL 2006 LRDP