You look at your schedule and you see Dwinelle or Evans as the location for your 2-hour-long lecture, already recalling the stuffiness and suffocating lighting of the room and wanting to fall asleep on the spot. If you’re sick and tired of feeling like this, schedule your classes in the following lecture halls. You will be more than grateful for the beauty they each offer … Perhaps they’ll even compensate for those monotonous 8 a.m. Monday morning lectures.

Pimentel lecture hall

Look at this place! Complete with high ceilings, soft lighting and working air conditioning, Pimentel is gorgeous inside and out. Most classes in here are chemistry lectures, as the hall is named after George C. Pimentel, the inventor of the chemical laser. We like to call it a circular architectural marvel. To top it off, the stage actually rotates! The center is a triangular stage with three different sides, each of which has a different set of blackboards and desks.

Arthur Andersen Auditorium

Almost overwhelmingly air conditioned, the Haas lecture auditorium is asymmetrical and softly lit. As the room is located within one of the most prestigious business schools in the country, it makes sense for the lecture hall to surpass expectations. This is the site of many business and social sciences lectures for undergraduate and graduate students. Despite the size of the lecture hall, it all feels very homey with dark green velvet curtains and repetitive squares on the walls.

105 Stanley Hall

The rest of this building is decked out in wood, and this auditorium provides a beautiful, natural surrounding. As the primary hall for biology, engineering and physics lectures, Stanley seats 300 and is relatively new, built in 2007. With an elevated seating area and red cushions on the chairs, this auditorium actually feels like a movie theatre. Stanley is located in Hearst Mining Circle, and if you’re interested in having some coffee before lecture, head to Yali’s Cafe, located in front of the building.

Chan Shun Auditorium (2050 VLSB)

Despite the fact that this building has words such as “Zoology” literally written on the sides, lectures of many subjects take place in this auditorium. By far, this lecture hall’s best feature is the lighting. While dim, it is just enough to keep you awake and paying attention to the projector screen. And above the lights on the walls, there are accents with little windows and fragments! The concentric circles on the ceiling are really nice, too.

105 North Gate Hall

Hands down, this hall has the nicest natural lighting. With gigantic windows on two sides, North Gate relies heavily on the sunlight to provide lighting for the students. This hall is in the Graduate School of Journalism and is listed on the National Register of Historical Places, but it has a modern look. Its seats are generously spaced out, the chairs are flexible and comfortable, and the desks are adequately sized. The only downside is that the room gets very, very hot. For some reason, very little air travels between the windows and side doors, but this is slightly remedied by the fans around the room.

Li Ka Shing Auditorium

Considered a high-definition classroom, the lecture hall in Li Ka Shing is definitely technologically evolved. It serves as the biosciences facility and was named after the richest person in Asia, Li Ka Shing, after he donated to UC Berkeley. Without a doubt, this hall exemplifies the beauty of geometry. The ceiling is a triangular tessellation; the seats have curved backs; the whole thing is symmetrical. Plus, whiteboards! A beautiful difference from the screechy blackboards everywhere else on campus.

Booth Auditorium

This doesn’t necessarily count, as this lecture hall is primarily meant for law school students, but it’s still beautiful. The UC Berkeley School of Law is consistently ranked highly among law schools in the world, so it is fitting that its lecture halls are ranked high on this list of amazing auditoriums. Despite the fact that this place offers graduate-level courses, it’s open to everyone, allowing hopeful prelaw undergrads to take a peek at what might be their glamorous futures. The chairs are all roll-y, the desks are large, and there are space heaters everywhere. It’s basically heaven.

There you have it — seven gorgeous lecture halls. Of course, this is just a small selection of the beauty that is rampant on our campus. Enjoy the fact that we have beautiful surroundings to go with quality education. Hopefully that will provide incentive to stay awake!