Classrooms in the affected areas were closed and emptied, but most of the building remained open.

Custodial staff members are cleaning up the flooding, and students will be allowed back into the areas by 5 p.m. today, according to Christine Shaff, director of communications for UC Berkeley’s Department of Facilities Services.

Shaff said that although there is ongoing construction in the affected bathroom, it is unrelated to the incident.

The flooding is unlikely to cause water damage, Shaff said.

Contact Madeleine Pauker at mpauker@dailycal.org.

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Sather Road

The major north-south corridor between Doe Library and California Hall will be closed for upgrades that will make the path level for handicap access. A small access path alongside California Hall is open to pedestrians.

Lower Sproul

The Lower Sproul Redevelopment project will close the footpath between Alumni House and Zellerbach Hall for the summer — preventing access to the Cesar Chavez Student Center and Zellerbach Hall from the west. The footpath is scheduled to reopen Sept. 1, Shaff said.

Oxford Street 

Work on the foundation of the new Berkeley Art Museum has closed one driving lane and a sidewalk on part of Oxford Street for the next three or four weeks. One lane of Center Street will be closed when the foundation work moves to the south side of the project.

Campbell Hall

Between the Campanile and LeConte Hall, Esplanade Drive will be closed for underground utility work associated with the Campbell Hall replacement. Campbell Hall construction is running on time, with the installation of the sixth and final floor last week, exterior work to the building is now fully under way. Campbell Hall is scheduled to open in late 2014.

Hertz Hall

Shaff also said that telecommunications fiber will be installed in front of Hertz Hall, possibly impeding pedestrian traffic between Hertz Hall, Morrison Hall, Kroeber Hall and the Jean Gray Hargrove Music Library.

Below is the map that aggregates all current construction projects in the UC Berkeley campus.

View UC Berkeley construction projects in a larger map

Contact Chase at cschweitzer@dailycal.com

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Andrew Kuo/Senior Staff

An April inspection into the seismic safety levels of Units 1, 2 and 3 found four high-rise buildings in each residence hall complex to be below safety standards held by the University of California.

The buildings are rated between a IV and a V on the university’s scale for seismic safety, according to Christine Shaff, director of communications for UC Berkeley’s Facilities Services department. Those ratings imply a risk to life between “small” and “serious,” according to UC seismic safety policy.

Evaluations of the housing units in 1997 indicated that the high-rise buildings met the university’s standards. The goal of construction this summer, Shaff said, is to bring the residence halls to an acceptable rating of III.

Construction began on the high-rises — which do not include newer mini-suites — on May 19 and is scheduled to finish before fall residents begin to move in on Aug. 24. Exterior work, however, will continue through the fall semester.

The construction will cost $9.2 million for Unit 3, while Unit 1 and Unit 2 will each cost $8.8 million, according to Marty Takimoto, director of communications and marketing for the Residential and Student Service Programs, which oversees the residence halls. Only RSSP funds were used for the retrofitting.

“All our revenue comes from room and board and the rent students pay,” Takimoto said. “We use that revenue to fund projects like this, and we had this money in reserve.”

Takimoto said that the retrofitting is important in preserving the longevity of the buildings but that the seismic retrofit will also affect future plans to improve housing for students.

Some of these future plans include a major renovation of Unit 3, currently budgeted at $76.9 million for 2016-17, according to the University of California Capital Financial Plan for 2012-22. $23.1 million of the project is slated to come from auxiliary services like housing, according to the report.

“With this additional strengthening this summer, we will likely postpone any major renovation to Unit 3 for a while longer,” Takimoto said in an email.

After the inspection in April, plans were made to begin construction as soon as students moved out for the summer. Students were notified on April 30 that construction was planned, and fall 2013 residents were notified on May 29 that some exterior work will continue during the fall semester.

“We kind of lucked out,” Takimoto said. “We weren’t given an edict to do the construction right away — just as quickly as possible. We were able to make it happen quickly because there was time.”

The units have had seismic retrofitting before, which added cross bracing on the exterior of some buildings. High-rises in Units 1, 2 and 3 were each renovated between 1986 and 1996.

One of RSSP’s goals during construction has been to reduce the impact on residents, Takimoto said.

Students who would have otherwise used the units during the summer have already been reassigned to other residential halls on campus. Summer session students will live at Clark Kerr Campus, and CalSO students will stay in Bowles and Stern halls, Takimoto said.

Only the high-rise buildings are being retrofitted this summer. They include Cheney, Deutsch, Freeborn and Putnam halls in Unit 1; Cunningham, Davidson, Ehrman and Griffiths halls in Unit 2; and Ida Sproul, Norton, Priestley and Spens-Black Halls in Unit 3. The remaining halls, referred to as infill buildings, are newer and do not require retrofitting.

The seismic retrofitting project falls in line with the goals of UC Berkeley’s SAFER program, implemented in 1997 to address structurally unsafe buildings on campus. The high rises and Unit 3 were given a rating of “good” that same year, which is roughly equivalent to a III on the new UC scale.

Of the total square footage identified by SAFER as needing an upgrade, 60 percent has been completed or is in progress. Another 10 percent is scheduled to be strengthened by 2014.

Contact Jose Hernandez at jhernandez@dailycal.org.

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Henry Ascencio/Staff

In an effort to improve campus recycling, the university began phasing out concrete block trash cans in favor of newer, more ergonomic waste disposal bins this month.

The new bins align with the campus’s goal to reach zero waste by 2020, according to a statement from the Green Initiative Fund, a student-supported fund that helped finance the bins’ development.

A main reason for introducing the new bins is that emptying the old cement bins was a primary contributor to the $320,000 in workers’ compensation the campus spent from 2004 to 2009 for trash-lifting injuries, said Greg Ryan, an ergonomist with University Health Services.

“One of the goals of the project was to reduce the ergonomic strain on the body,” Ryan said.

Ryan explained that removing heavy trash liners from bins that open from the top puts strain on the shoulder and back due to the lifting involved.

The new bins, which are closed on top, are better at keeping out rain and pests, said Christine Shaff, communications director for UC Berkeley’s Facilities Services.

According to Shaff, the new bins are being manufactured locally by a company in Richmond and cost $875 each.

The bins are also designed to be interchangeable, said Michal Shuldman, a graduate student in the department of integrative biology who initiated the project as a member of the Graduate Assembly’s Sustainability Committee.

“The name plates and the openings (the different colors and shapes) can be changed out depending on what waste stream needs bins,” said Katherine Walsh, coordinator of the Green Initiative Fund, in an email.

The university intends to place compost bins in the future, but right now, the new bins around campus are for landfill, mixed paper, bottles and cans, Walsh said.

The current installment of bins follows a multiple-year development and implementation process.

“Lots of people played into the (development) process … it was a collaboration between graduate and undergraduate students … and many others,” Shuldman said.

Shuldman wrote a grant through the Green Initiative Fund for more outdoor trash bins on campus. At the same time, Theron Klos, the campus’s grounds operations manager, requested funds for new bins because of the health hazards associated with emptying cement bins, and the two decided to pool finances toward their common goal, Shuldman said.

Students from the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design created 3-D renderings of possible designs. After the mock-up stage, more than 10 prototypes were considered before settling on the final version, Ryan said.

New containers will be installed over the next three months, starting with areas near Upper Sproul Plaza, Dwinelle Hall, Wheeler Hall, Doe Library, Moffitt Library, California Hall and Memorial Glade, Walsh said in an email.

As a last step, Shuldman suggested an education project to ensure bins are used properly and the establishment of a “waste audit” to monitor improvement.

Contact Christine Tyler at ctyler@dailycal.org.

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At approximately 6 p.m., one of the campus’s high-voltage switch stations exploded near Anthony Hall, according to Christine Shaff, the communications director for UC Berkeley’s Department of Facilities Services. The station is a part of the electrical distribution system for the entire campus, she said.

“There wasn’t an actual outage, but there was a dip in power that did affect equipment all across campus,” Shaff said. “So some equipment did shut off because of that dip.”

It was originally thought that a power transformer on campus had exploded.

After the explosion, representatives from the Physical Plant – Campus Services, Berkeley Fire Department and officers from UCPD responded to the scene, according to UCPD spokesperson Lt. Eric Tejada. There were no injuries reported, he said.

The cause of the explosion is currently unknown, as are the extent and cost of the damage. Shaff said equipment near the site of the explosion must be de-energized first before the campus conducts a thorough investigation of the incident.

“That’s scheduled to happen (on Friday), and the investigation will happen over the weekend,” she said. “I don’t think there’s any reason to be worried. The work that they will be doing for the investigation will not impact the power supply to campus.”

Last fall, the northeast part of campus temporarily experienced a power outage after an equipment malfunction during a routine switching procedure on the campus’s physical power plant.

Andy Nguyen is the lead crime reporter. Contact him at anguyen@dailycal.org.

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Katherine Chen/Staff

The Cal Student Store will close next Friday and temporarily move across the street to 2470 Bancroft Way due to ongoing construction on Lower Sproul Plaza.

The main student store will relocate from its current location in Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union and open on Feb. 19 across the street, next to Ned’s Berkeley Bookstore, as part of the Lower Sproul Redevelopment Project.

In preparation for textbook buyback season and summer sessions, a portion of the Cal Student Store is also slated to move into the building currently being occupied by Ned’s Bookstore, a space that the Cal Student Store will now use to keep its supply of rental, used, new and digital textbooks, according to a statement released Wednesday. This section will open in March.

Cal Student Store Director Amanda Reese said that the ASUC and ASUC Auxiliary have been in charge of informing students of the move via signs. However, some employees at Ned’s Bookstore became aware of the relocation only recently.

“We were told about one or two weeks ago,” said Ned’s Bookstore employee and UC Berkeley senior Carlos Zambrano. “No one really expected it. It was just really sudden. We had to take everything off the shelves because they’re moving in here.”

Once Ned’s Bookstore moves out of its Bancroft location, the Cal Student Store will be the only textbook retailer in the campus’s immediate proximity. The store’s parent company, Nebraska Book Company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2011; however, it is not confirmed whether this was the cause of its displacement.

Some students do not believe that the Cal Student Store’s move will be an inconvenience to customers due to its relatively close location.

“I don’t think it will be an inconvenience on students just because it’s so close to where it used to be,” said UC Berkeley freshman Kushal Ranjan.

Whether the move will affect the Cal Student Store’s staffing levels remains to be seen and will be assessed “based on business needs,” according to Reese.

When the Cal Student Store closes, the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union will be completely closed and fencing will surround the building to allow its renovation.

“I’m excited the work is moving ahead,” said Christine Shaff, communications director for UC Berkeley Facilities Services. “Once the bookstore is moved out, the MLK will be completely closed and be part of the construction site.”

The Cal Student Store’s move is part of the larger Lower Sproul Redevelopment Project, which is scheduled for completion in 2015. The project involves the renovation of Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union, Anthony Hall, Cesar Chavez Student Center, Zellerbach Hall and the complete demolition of Eshleman Hall.

Gladys Rosario covers academics and administration. Contact her at grosario@dailycal.org.

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Tony Zhou/Staff

While most of UC Berkeley was quiet over winter break, one area of campus, Lower Sproul Plaza, was bustling with activity.

As part of a $223 million redevelopment project of Lower Sproul, two buildings, the Cesar Chavez Student Center and Anthony Hall, underwent construction throughout the span of the break.

In the spring of 2010, students approved the B.E.A.R.S. Initiative Referendum, which included a student fee to pay for the project along with funding from the chancellor. It is scheduled to be completed in fall of 2015.

“It’s going to be frustrating to students right now, but the new buildings will provide such amazing places for students to collaborate and hang out,” said ASUC President Connor Landgraf. “It’s completely worth it to me.”

Construction of both Anthony Hall and the Cesar Chavez Student Center began last fall, continued throughout the break and will persist into the spring semester. Over the break, remodeling of bathrooms in Cesar Chavez took place along with the addition of new flooring and paint in classrooms.

Workers are currently removing asbestos and window glass from Anthony Hall and installing new flooring and landscaping. There are also plans for significant construction in the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union.

“Now’s the time when the real construction begins,” Landgraf said.

In preparation for this construction, the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union closed Pauley Ballroom, Tilden Room and restaurants in the building, according to an email from Landgraf. The Cal Student Store will be open until mid-February, when it will then be relocated next to Ned’s Berkeley Bookstore across the street. Alumnae Hall, located within the Anna Head complex between Crossroads Dining and Martinez Commons, will stand in as the venue for MLK Jr.

The next significant change will be to Eshleman Hall, Landgraf said.

Eshleman, which is also closed, will continue to be cleaned out until the end of January and is the only building that will be completely demolished this summer in order to meet earthquake retrofitting standards.

“The final review of the designs for Eshleman are happening,” said Christine Shaff, communications director for facility services. “It’s really again honing in on the details … We’re anticipating that next summer is going to be really busy.”

In addition to Eshleman’s demolition, Zellerbach Auditorium will be closed for the summer. Other changes include the new Career Center on Bancroft Way, closed sidewalks from Telegraph Avenue to Dana Street and the relocation of a bus stop on Bancroft near Eshleman to a block upward in front of Sproul Hall for routes F, 49, 51B and 52.

Briana Mullen, Lower Sproul communications coordinator, said she hopes the new buildings will reinvigorate student life and the more than 800 student organizations that use Lower Sproul.

“Students need space to organize,” Mullen said. “Whatever the purpose of the student group, they need this space in order to organize for their organization, whether it be social, service or academic.”

Gladys Rosario covers Academics and Administration. Contact her at grosario@dailycal.org.

Clarification(s):
A previous version of this article did not mention that the demolition of Eshleman Hall is scheduled to start in early April and will be completed in the summer.

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On Tuesday, the city notified the food trucks Dojo Dog, Healthy Heavenly Foods and Kettle Corn Star that they had three days to move off the property in order to allow for upcoming construction on Lower Sproul.

Ann Vu, owner of Healthy Heavenly Foods, said that this was the first notification she and the other food truck owners had received and that the trucks will have to stay off the site for at least two years.

“It was too short notice — I have no plan,” Vu said. “It’s very horrible for my business. I need the income for my family.”

The construction — a part of the Lower Sproul Redevelopment Project — is scheduled to begin next week, and the sidewalks, as well as part of the street, will be closed off, said Christine Shaff, communications director of the campus Facilities Services Department.

Even though the construction will be managed by the university, the property on which the food trucks operate remains under the purview of the city, according to Shaff.

“Food trucks are regulated by the city of Berkeley — they are there via whatever permissions the city gives,” Shaff said. “We’ve done our best to let local business owners know when construction is coming up … as far as having any authority to talk them about their location — that’s the city.”

Vu said that the city officials she spoke with encouraged her to scout the area surrounding the campus to look for potential relocation sites. But the odds of finding a location that belongs to the city and attracts as much foot traffic as Sproul Plaza are low, she said.

“There’s a lot on the line — I’ve invested a lot of time and money in this … these trucks don’t come cheap,” said Michael Koh, owner of Dojo Dog and a UC Berkeley senior. “We were expecting a four-year plan and have only been here for eight or nine months.”

Koh said that he and the other owners are scheduled to meet with city officials to negotiate on Friday to work towards some sort of resolution.

“It’s very tough having finals and dealing with things like this,” Koh said. “I’m supposed to be studying, but I just can’t when my business is getting screwed.”

Sara Khan covers academics and administration. Contact her at skhan@dailycal.org.

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The renovations were set in motion by the passage of the B.E.A.R.S. Initiative in 2010, which approved a student fee to finance improvements to the plaza. The project includes the demolition of Eshleman Hall and renovations to the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union and the Cesar Chavez Student Center. Eshleman Hall was vacated earlier in the semester, but major construction on the hall and the other buildings surrounding the plaza is set to begin after the fall semester ends.

Though the majority of food vendors in the Bear’s Lair Food Court closed their doors last month, Subway and the Bear’s Lair Pub remain open. The pub is expected to stay open until the end of the football season. The owners of Subway are still negotiating the restaurant’s closure with the ASUC Auxiliary, the administrative arm of the ASUC. The Auxiliary and the ASUC Commercial and Student Services Board originally aimed to close all businesses except the pub by Sept. 30., according to Hedy Chen, an undergraduate student representative to the ASUC Commercial and Student Services Board.

Saigon Eats, The Coffee Spot, and Taqueria Oso De Oro vacated the food court on Lower Sproul Plaza at the end of September to make way for the $223 million redevelopment project, which will renovate the plaza and surrounding buildings.

Although the renovations on the food court — considered to be part of the Student Union remodel — are not scheduled to begin until late February, preparation for the construction, including cleaning the space and moving equipment in and out, might begin this fall, according to Christine Shaff, communications director of the campus Facilities Services Department.

“I have not heard that any significant construction will happen until everyone has moved out of the building,” Shaff said.

Associate ASUC Auxiliary Director Tom Spivey said discussions with Subway on its closure will be finished soon. A sign posted by the ASUC Auxiliary outside the food court stated that aside from the pub, all other businesses would close within the month of October.  None of the vendors is guaranteed a space to continue business after redevelopment is finished, according to Hedy Chen. The Lower Sproul renovation will continue through fall 2015, according to Shaff.

Bear’s Lair Pub owner Feng Wang said his business will remain in operation until Nov. 30.

In September, campus organizations finished settling into their temporary quarters in Hearst Gymnasium after moving out of Eshleman Hall in preparation for the building’s demolition.

Contact Libby Rainey at lrainey@dailycal.org.

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Katherine Chen/Staff

The Coffee Spot, which began moving out of the Bear’s Lair Food Court Sunday, is one of multiple vendors that will be displaced by the overhaul of Lower Sproul Plaza set to begin this fall.

The space is being cleared to begin work on the $223 million Lower Sproul Plaza redevelopment project, which entails the demolition of Eshleman Hall and renovation of the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union and Cesar Chavez Student Center, among other projects. The renovations were set in motion by the 2010 passage of the B.E.A.R.S. Initiative, which approved a student fee to finance improvements to the safety and sustainability of buildings on the plaza.

The campus cafe closed on the same day as the Taqueria Oso De Oro, which is located in an adjacent space. Both are owned by Haitham Alloun, who has managed The Coffee Spot since 1987 and opened the taqueria in 2010.

The ASUC Auxiliary — the body that manages leased space on campus — is seeking the closure of the remaining Bear’s Lair Food Court vendors in the next week, according to Hedy Chen, an undergraduate student representative to the ASUC Commercial and Student Services Board. Alloun said he wanted to stay in business until the other vendors on Lower Sproul vacated the space, but his negotiations with the ASUC were unsuccessful.

“I begged to stay,” Alloun said. “I practically begged them to stay until the end of the year.”

Chen said when Alloun’s lease was signed it was set to end in the fall of 2012, and last February, Alloun was offered a lease extension that he did not accept.

“There were some recent discussions about a short term lease extension through the winter, but a short term extension is not consistent with the current needs of the construction project,” Chen said in an email.

Lower Sproul Plaza is going to be prepared for construction once all vendors have vacated the premises. The space is going to be completely stripped down and remodeled, according to Chen.

Subway, which is also located in the food court, is still involved in negotiations about its exit, and the Bear’s Lair Pub will remain in business until the end of football season due to an agreement with the ASUC Auxiliary.

Alloun said he did not sign the lease extension from February because it did not make sense to sign after the B.E.A.R.S. Initiative had passed, guaranteeing he would eventually have to leave before construction began. But he did want to remain in business until the other plaza vendors left as well, he said. He also said he would not have spent more than $150,000 remodeling his two businesses in 2010 had he known that the Lower Sproul project was going to take place.

“If I knew that (the renovation) was going to happen, why would I want to waste my time for two years building business, establishing business?” Alloun said.

Chen confirmed that discussions on reimbursement for Alloun’s remodeling expenses occurred but would not comment on the content of those discussions.

Current plans dictate that the construction will continue through the fall of 2015, according to Christine Shaff, communications director of the campus Facilities Services Department. No vendors in Lower Sproul are guaranteed a space to continue business after the redevelopment is finished, Chen said.

“We don’t have set agreements for these businesses to come back in but we’re definitely … not closed off to that option,” Chen said.

Contact Libby Rainey at lrainey@dailycal.org.

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