The Hearst Memorial Mining Building at the University of California, Berkeley, is home to the university's Materials Science and Engineering Department, with research and teaching spaces for the subdisciplines of biomaterials; chemical and electrochemical materials; computational materials; electronic, magnetic, and optical materials; and structural materials. The Beaux-Arts-style Classical Revival building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is designated as part of California Historical Landmark #946. It was designed by John Galen Howard, with the assistance of architect and Berkeley alumna Julia Morgan and the Dean of the College of Mines at that time, Samuel B. Christy. It was the first building on that campus designed by Howard. Construction began in 1902 as part of the Phoebe Hearst campus development plan. The building was dedicated to the memory of her husband George Hearst, who had been a successful miner.
From 1998 to 2003, the building underwent a massive renovation, expansion, and seismic retrofit, in which a platform was built underneath the building, and a suspension system capable of up to 1 meter lateral travel was installed. To keep the expansion distinct from the historic building, shot peened aluminium (rather than stone) and a more modern design were used in the new construction.
The Lawson Adit - a horizontal mining tunnel - is directly to the east of the building.
History
Construction of the Hearst Memorial Mining Building began in 1902, and the building was completed in 1907, with a dedication ceremony held on August 23 of that year. The $1.065 million construction cost was a gift of Phoebe Apperson Hearst, dedicated to the memory of her late husband, Senator George Hearst, who had made much of his fortune in mining.
When construction began in 1903, the College of Mines, with its 247 students (or 11% of the total student population at the university) was the largest of its kind in the world. The college did not have a dedicated building, and due to the size of the college, the Hearst Memorial Mining Building was chosen as the first building under the Hearst Plan to be constructed.
Howard, reflecting upon their work after the construction was complete, said:
<blockquote>We have sought to secure beauty not by easy masquerade and putting on of architectural stuff, but by organic composition, working from within out, and letting the heart of the thing speak ... If the expression be true, no matter how strange it may seem at first, in the end it must be seen to be inevitable.