California Memorial Stadium (Berkeley, California)

USA / California / Berkeley / Berkeley, California / Piedmont Avenue, 2227
 sports venue, NRHP - National Register of Historic Places, american football stadium
2227 Piedmont Ave,
Berkeley, CA 94720
calbears.com/sports/2020/6/18/california-memorial-stadi...

California Memorial Stadium, located on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the home field of the California Golden Bears football team. Originally designed by John Galen Howard, it was constructed from January to November of 1923 at a cost of $1,437,982. Its original capacity was 75,000; the capacity was reduced to 71,800 by 2008. It originally had a natural grass field until 1981, when it was replaced by AstroTurf; Natural grass returned in 1995 and remained until Momentum Turf was installed in 2003. The stadium was built directly over the Hayward Fault, and is continually damaged by earth creep, not to mention occasional earthquakes; the shifting was quite visible.

California Memorial Stadium was reconstructed from 2010 until 2012; the reconstruction project involved the addition of a Student-Athlete High Performance Center under the stadium's west entrance, the demolition and rebuilding of the west side of the seating bowl, a new press box and three club levels on the west side, the refurbishment of the west facade, and surface rupture blocks on both endzones. The reconstruction project cost $321,000,000. The stadium's current capacity is 63,186.

Originally dedicated to the Californians who lost their lives serving in World War I, the stadium was rededicated in October 2012 to the memory of all Californians who lost their lives serving in any war.

California Memorial Stadium was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 27, 2006 as # 2006001086.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Memorial_Stadium
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   37°52'15"N   122°15'2"W

Comments

  • Who would be crazy enough to build a stadium over a fault line?
  • They didn't know there was a fault line there until the 1960s, about 30 years after it was built.. but thankfully, it's been refurbished, so when there IS a big earthquake, this thing won't crumble or warp, it'll just harmlessly split in two, to be easily re-attached again.
This article was last modified 5 years ago