Julia Morgan Building has a new home in the UC Botanical Garden. The UC Botanical Garden boasts more than 13,000 different kinds of plants, many of them rare, exotic or endangered. Now the 34-acre haven nestled near the top of Strawberry Canyon is home to something else quite precious: famed architect Julia Morgan's Girton Hall, built in 1911 and listed on both California and national historic registries.
The Julia Morgan Hall includes a large and impressive fireplace. An enlarged elevated deck will be fitted onto the west side of the building, extending the view of colorful California sunsets from beyond the building's multi-paned French doorways that will open onto the deck. The deck also will overlook the garden's extensive native California plant collection, a setting suitable for Girton, one of the more than 700 buildings designed by Morgan, also a California native. This venue is a city of Berkeley landmark and on the National Historic registry. It is open for social celebrations and meetings, as Morgan intended.