Blum Center (Berkeley, California) | NRHP - National Register of Historic Places, scientific research institute / centre, educational building

 NRHP - National Register of Historic Places, scientific research institute / centre, educational building

Construction of the 10,900-square-feet Drawing Building began in 1913 and was completed in 1914. It was financed with $17,500 from the Permanent Improvement Fund. Like the “Ark” (1906), the Drawing Building was designed by John Galen Howard, the University of California’s first Supervising Architect and Professor of Architecture.

No fewer than five departments called this building their home. From 1914 to 1924, it was the School of Architecture’s Drawing Building. In 1924, the Department of Art was formed and moved into the North Drawing Building, where it stayed until 1930. The eastern end of the building was demolished in 1931 to allow for construction of Davis Hall North (George Kelham), which in turn was demolished in September 2004.

Between 1930 and 1951, the building housed Engineering Design, and from 1951 to 1964, it was the City and Regional Planning Building. When the Department of City and Regional Planning moved to Wurster Hall in 1964, the building was assigned to the College of Engineering and renamed the Hydraulics and Naval Architecture Building. These days it is known simply as the Naval Architecture Building. An extension was added in 2010 and the building was renamed the Blum Center, after Richard C. Blum.

National Register of Historic Places # 1976000475