The building’s exterior was carefully rehabilitated, with its historic character retained and repaired, when possible. | Photo Credit (all): Bruce Damonte
By Ryan Jang and Cecily Ng
The reimagined Creekside Center at UC Berkeley represents a fundamental shift in how accessibility, sustainability, and historic preservation can coexist within the academic built environment. Located in the campus’ classical core, the project transformed the former Dwinelle Hall Annex — a deteriorating, barrier-laden structure — into an inclusive, high-performance home for the university’s Disabled Students’ Program (DSP). Rather than treating accessibility as a compliance exercise, the design team approached the renovation as an opportunity to demonstrate how universal design can enhance comfort, resilience, and agency for all building users.
Shaped by an extensive programming process that included feedback from students, staff, and campus stakeholders, the project is rooted in DSP’s belief that “an accessible environment universally benefits everyone.” More than 4,000 students visit the building regularly to receive services such as proctoring, alternative media and interpreting.
A Historic Building with Modern Barriers
The two-story building is nestled in the mature trees north of Strawberry Creek. Originally designed by John Galen Howard in 1920 in the First Bay Tradition, there were additions in 1924 by Howard and 1949 by Michael Goodman. When the project began in 2021, many features attributing the building to the First Bay Tradition were present but in a state of disrepair. A non-code compliant ramp linked three of the lower elevations while the upper floors were disconnected and only reachable by stairs. The exterior suffered from water intrusion, rot, and pest damage. The existing steam heating system was served by the campus central plant in a highly inefficient manner. There was no mechanical ventilation or air filtration system.
Restoring Character While Improving Performance
The building’s exterior was carefully rehabilitated, with its historic character retained and repaired, when possible. New cladding replicates the original redwood board and batten siding. The low-pitched gabled roof eaves and fascias were restored. The spearmint-colored windows with divided lites were replaced with high performance windows of the same size and appearance. “High performance” could not just address environmental qualities. Window models were also evaluated for accessibility features such as operating force and the height of locking and lifting mechanisms.
Other envelope-tightening measures included adding weather barriers and insulation to the exterior walls, roof and floors. The project installed all-electric mechanical systems. Through this deep-energy retrofit, actual energy use in the six months of full occupancy has been 84% below baseline. The embodied carbon intensity is 63% lower than the median new-construction educational building.
A Ramp as the Building’s Circulation Spine
The one major exterior addition is a new ramp that connects the five existing floor elevations. As the single circulation spine, the ramp facilitates equitable access throughout the building. Large expanses of glazing along the ramp allows views clear across the building from the campus to the creek. Exposed structural wood posts supporting the ramp create a unifying cadence and a place for handrail brackets. By expressing the ramp slope on the exterior with a contemporary fiber cement panel façade, the ramp becomes a beacon that communicates universal access.
Universal Design Beyond Code Requirements
Universal Design strategies exceed code accessibility requirements and include color and form-based wayfinding and biophilia rich interiors. The restored existing wood roof trusses were exposed as an interior finish material and influenced the remainder of the interior material palette. Wood is used in high touch places such as windows, handrails, and wall end caps. The wood provided textural and color contrast, both of which help make spaces more accessible, without overwhelming the senses.
Preserving the existing floor to floor height significantly limited the space for mechanical equipment. By selectively lowering the ceiling at the threshold between circulation and program spaces, the team created room for the equipment and provided an area for an individual to decompress before deciding how to engage with the space ahead. The floor material and wall color differ from the adjacent spaces and are only used in the thresholds. The color, texture, and difference in light quality in the threshold spaces signifies to someone with low vision they were about to enter a new type of space.
Designing for Choice, Agency, and Comfort
The thresholds offer individual choice, a theme also integrated elsewhere. Each office has an independently controlled thermostat, and every regularly occupied space has at least one operable window to provide individual choice in the quality and temperature of airflow. Solar shades and dimmer switches for all overhead lights allow occupants to control the quality of light. Individualized controls are often missing from today’s workspaces, but these features are easy to integrate and go a long way to make occupants feel welcome.
To guide the project beyond minimum code accessibility, the team devised a list of eight “Impact Areas” that connect access needs to design features rather than assigning features to specific disabilities. The Impact Areas included needs such as community building and privacy, cognitive access, and sensory zoning. The Impact Areas offered a framework to address “dueling disabilities,” where people have drastically different environmental needs, and ultimately helped the team provide agency and enhance feelings of safety and security in the building. Creekside Center provides a much-needed home for a community that has historically marginalized from the design of the built environment.
Ryan Jang, AIA, LEED AP, is a Principal and Cecily Ng, AIA, is an Associate with Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects.