The Gateway at UC Berkeley

Berkeley, California

A Catalyst for Campus Innovation

The Gateway at UC Berkeley is designed to address the biggest questions in sciences and society through an interdisciplinary, collaborative environment that harnesses the creative potential of computing and data science.

Aerial view of a large building. — © Exterior Renderings by Weiss/Manfredi

368,000-Square-Foot All-Electric Building
Home to the College of Computing, Data Science, and Society (CDSS), UC Berkeley’s First New College on Campus in More Than 50 Years
Flexible Environments for More Than 1,300 Faculty, Students, and Staff
A Diverse Ecosystem of Work Settings, Supported by Specialty Lab Space
Flexible Classrooms, Public Café, and Outdoor Amphitheater
Designed for LEED Gold and Targeting LEED Platinum Certification
Creates a New Route Through Campus for Greater Accessibility
Design Delivered in Partnership with Weiss/Manfredi Architects

As the pace of innovation accelerates, academic research can no longer afford to be siloed; it must embrace collaboration to produce breakthrough ideas. As UC Berkeley’s first new college in more than 50 years, the College of Computing, Data Science, and Society (CDSS) is a significant bet on an interdisciplinary and interdepartmental pedagogy to drive new outcomes. Never has a college hosted the number, diversity, and breadth of departments that CDSS has, necessitating a dynamic academic environment to harness its full potential.

Bold and identifiable, the Gateway is a magnet for researchers and a destination for students and faculty, with new academic work settings informed by Gensler’s extensive tech workplace experience. While departments are given unique identities through individual spaces, silos are eliminated by linking them through shared areas in piazzas, social kitchens, and workplace neighborhoods. Large floorplates and stairways connect people horizontally and vertically with social kitchens as attractors that initiate the spontaneous interactions essential to innovation.

The Gateway’s transparency welcomes students and the public by showcasing the dynamic work occurring within. It establishes a new literal gateway for the university and its district, defining a modern architectural language for the campus while respecting its history and place. With a form shaped by daylight and molded by extensions to historic courtyards, the building appears light in its footprint and highly contextual, despite its scale. The Gateway becomes a catalyst for interdisciplinary exchange, propelling the university’s mission forward.

“

Gateway will be a magnet, bringing together scholars from disciplines across campus to forge new collaborations and take on some of the most critical questions facing society today.

—Jennifer Chayes, Associate Provost, Dean of CDSS, University of California, Berkeley

A building with stairs and glass windows.

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