In July members of the Save Anna Head School Campaign presented an appeal to the members of the Berkeley Landmarks Preservation Commission of UC Berkeley's publicly announced decision to tear down three unrestored buildings on the AHS campus, including Channing Hall. Members of the LPC expressed support for our efforts. As one noted, the Anna Head School is one of the most significant architectural buildings in Berkeley, and to destroy that legacy would be to provoke an “existential crisis” in the City regarding its ability to preserve some essential parts of its past while meeting the needs of current and future generations. We continue to hope that the University will listen to our appeal and broad community sentiment and save Channing Hall. The full text of our appeal presented to the LPC is below, and is posted on the LPC website.
July 1, 2025
To: Berkeley Landmark Preservation Commission
From: The Save Anna Head School Campaign Steering Committee
Understanding that UC Berkeley officials will this summer present plans to tear down three historic buildings of the Anna Head School that were landmarked by the City of Berkeley and the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, we wish to ask that you firmly oppose their proposal to do so. Let us briefly introduce ourselves and explain why we think the University should save Channing Hall, the most architecturally significant building on the Anna Head campus, while we also support the construction of much needed student housing at the site.
As members of the Save Anna Head School Steering Committee, we love UC Berkeley. And we represent hundreds of community members who want to save the historic school, whose legacy is important for UC Berkeley, the City of Berkeley, the Anna Head/Head-Royce School and wider community, and the history of Progressive Movement and women’s education. We all are great supporters of UC Berkeley. Paul Chapman served 26 years as the head of Head-Royce School, which Anna Head School became after the University forced its move to Oakland in 1964. He was proud to send over 140 of his top graduates to UC Berkeley in his tenure, to have lived in Berkeley for over 40 years, and of his affiliation with our nation’s top public university, having served 16 years on UC Library board, and as a Visiting Scholar. He is joined on the Steering Committee by Kit Ratcliff, head of Ratcliff Architects and grandson of Walter Ratcliff Jr., who designed many of the Anna Head buildings; Chuck Palley, retired President of Cahill Contractors and builder of the modern Head-Royce School; and Nan Warren, Anna Head alumna ’63 and longtime Head-Royce board member who helped lead the construction of the new school. Over 300 have signed our petition to save the school, and in 2023 the entire City Council endorsed saving Anna Head School. (annaheadschool.org/endorsements)
We all fully support the University’s desire to add much needed student housing. We are very familiar with the University’s Long Range Development Plan and the goal to add over 11,000 housing units, with 2500 completed to date. We know the Anna Head site that UC has owned since 1964 is a prime location in South Campus area.
In December 2020 we were surprised to read UC Berkeley officials quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle state that the buildings were falling down, and that the University had no money and no intention of saving them. The AHS site contains six structures, three of which were beautifully restored in 2013 to 2016 after the Martinez Commons residence was built. But, for the last decade, for some reason, the University has allowed the remaining three landmarked buildings—Channing Hall (C), The Gables (B), Study Hall (D)--to fall into great disrepair (the letters refer to the University’s coding; see the attached site plan).
Expressing our concern to the Chancellor and UC administrators, we were gratified in April 2021 to hear from the University they would evaluate three possibilities: 1) Renovate all three buildings; 2) Renovate Channing, rebuild Study Hall and Gables; 3) Move Channing Hall for maximum student housing site, demolish Study Hall, Gables, and create a new development parcel. Reviewing the site and the potential significant costs, we endorsed the third option to save Channing Hall and build student housing, prepared possible models, created a financial proforma analysis, and told the University we would help them raise money for the renovation. As a historic structure, Channing Hall is iconic, the first brown shingled building in Berkeley that began the Arts and Crafts movement, built in 1892 by the school founder Anna Head, one of the first women to graduate from UC Berkeley in 1879, and Landmarked in 1980.
We were gratified again in June 2023 after meeting with UC Chancellor Carol Christ and her administrators Marc Fisher and Wendy Hillis to hear them pledge to develop a plan to save Channing Hall. They retained Hanbury Architects whose report in Spring 2024 provided four models, three of which would save Channing Hall. We endorsed a model that would provide an 850-student residence and save Channing Hall (see attached site plan). We were disappointed, however, that UC did not respond to our requests to discuss the report, review the pro forma financial analysis we prepared, or meet to discuss fundraising. Early in 2025, UC administrators abruptly advised us they did not intend to follow through on earlier promises and instead announced that they intend to destroy the three buildings in order to build a huge student residence far larger than that conceived by Hanbury. We were mystified.
We believe UC Berkeley has a way to save the Anna Head School’s Channing Hall, and to build much needed student housing on the site. We appeal to the LPC to oppose UC Berkeley’s proposed demolition of landmarked AHS Channing Hall. We ask that you request they find a way to implement the Hanbury recommendation, a solution that is “hiding in plain sight.” While we have been rebuffed repeatedly over the past five years, we are still willing to help UC. As we said at the outset, we love UC Berkeley. We believe there is a Win-Win-Win possible, for UC Berkeley housing, for the City of Berkeley’s historic legacy, and for the Anna Head/Head-Royce School and wider community
To support our appeal, we provide the following:
• See our website for a history of the school and our efforts. https://annaheadschool.org
• The site map showing the six Anna Head School buildings, with Channing Hall marked “C”.
• The Hanbury model for an 850-student residence.
• A proforma financial analysis modeled after one we were given for UC’s Blackwell Hall.
Thank you for considering our appeal.
