While architects focus their efforts on design and delivery, the most important phase in any architectural project begins once construction is complete. Stewart Brand’s insightful 1994 book How Buildings Learn established an important if now obvious principle-that uses change and the best buildings allow users to adapt function without destroying the basic fabric.
Our renewal and re-programming of UC Berkeley’s Lower Sproul Plaza demonstrates the principle with a full spectrum of preservation, renovation, re-use, and replacement. The iconic mid-century Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union “learned” how to serve contemporary student needs through adaptation and addition, opening up its connection to adjacent campus spaces and screening necessary shear walls with a new layer of student dining and open workspaces.
