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Coordinates: 37°52′32″N 122°15′33″W 37.87556, -122.25917

Etcheverry Hall

• Mechanical Engineering
• Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
• Nuclear Engineering

Overview

• Berkeley's forgotten giant, Etcheverry Hall is roughly the same size as big bad Barrows Hall. However, being built into a hill off the main campus on the Northside and having only the small front end facing the street, most Berkeley students probably don't even know that it exists. ^[1]
• The first building built by the University north of Hearst, (Goldman School of Public Policy was purchased) Etcheverry is UC's first beachhead into what is going to eventually become a swallowing up of Hearst Avenue much in the way Allston and Kittredge were built up from the 1930s to the 1960s. It was followed by Parking Structure A (1967), Parking Structure H (1971), Foothill Student Housing (1990) and Soda Hall (1994). Currently, an addition to Soda Hall, known as Soda Hall II, is in the planning stages.^[1]
• Etcheverry's two basement levels (floors 1 and 2) extend past the surface structure underneath what is now Soda Hall. These contain the various machine shops used by the engineering departments.^[1]
• The comic strip Nukees (from Nuke E's- Nuclear Engineering), drawn by Darren Bleuel, a UC nuclear engineering grad student about the NE department, is set in Etcheverry. There are occassional references to its location. The comic runs in the Daily Californian and online at Nukees.com.^[1]
• Places to Check Out:^[1]
  • 1. Showcases. The MechaniCAL engineering department and the Nuclear Engineering department often have interesting displays in the hallways.
    2. Passage to Soda Hall. Level 2 of Etcheverry and Level 2 of Soda are connected by a tunnel.
    3. Giant Nuclear Powered Robotic Ant. According to the Nukees comic, this beast resides in the basement of Etcheverry. What actually is there is a complete but non-operating nuclear reactor. (Berkeley is a nuclear-free zone). The nuclear reactor was decommissioned due to an uproar from the City of Berkeley involving nuclear warheads being down in Etcheverry. The shutting down of the reactor allowed the construction of Soda Hall on top of it.
    4. FANUC Room. 6th Floor Etcheverry Hall, center of building. A really nice conference room with hardwood everything. Basically, the president of FANUC (a Japanese robotics company) donated a lot of money with the condition it had to go into this conference room.

References