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Harold E. Jones Child Study Center
City of Berkeley Landmark Application
Year Built: 1960
Architect: Joseph Esherick
Supervising Landscape Architect: Thomas Church
Structural Engineers: Gilbert, Forsberg, Diekman & Schmidt
Mechanical Engineer: Daniel Yanow
Electrical Engineer: Benjamin B. Lezin
Building Contractor: Carlson & Maier
Application Prepared by: Rebecca Tracy, Barbara Scales, Jane Perry, Susan Cerny
June, 2013
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“No successful architecture can be formulated on a generalized system of esthetics; it
must be based on a way of life. We must decide what is alive and vital in our culture and
approach each problem with this in mind.” Joseph Esherick, FAIA, in Western Architect
and Engineer, December 1961.
“Child psychology is a field of study with its own characteristic problems, theories, and
methods. It includes areas of exploration as well as areas of systematic theory. It is best
understood, and the behavior of individuals is usually better understood, by students who
are not too exclusively devoted to a single theoretical point of view.” Director Harold E.
Jones, Chairman, Child Study Center Building Subcommittee, The Psychology of Early
Childhood, 1958.
“Physical conditions and teaching methods are essentially inseparable, creating . . . an
environment where physical resources [are] adequate for the variety of firsthand
experiences through which young children learn. The school environment should
stimulate children to inquire and help them to integrate their thinking with past
experience.” Professor Catherine Landreth, Child Study Center Building Subcommittee,
The Forty-Sixth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, 1947.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
HISTORY OF THE SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
DESCRIPTION OF THE SITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
General Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
Perimeter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
“Coming In”: Walkway/Trellises/Courtyards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
The Buildings: Structure and Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
Arrangement of Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
East and North Perimeter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
Conclusion/Summing Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
MAJOR FIGURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
BACKGROUND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Designing for Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33
The Children’s Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SITE (LPC 3.24.110 criteria) . . . . . . . . . . . . .39
Jones Child Study Center: Features to Preserve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I
APPENDIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . V
LANDMARK APPLICATION FORM
Photo credits: CSC Landmark Application: Susan Cerny: p. 14; Robert Devaney: cover photo; pp. 11, 16,
18, 20 ( play area with raised sand box), 31 (right photo), 33 (right photo); Appendix Figures 11, 12, 13, 14,
15, 16, 18, 19; Gary Parsons; pp. 15, 17, 20 (sandpit and observation gallery); Appendix Figures 8, 17.
___________________________________________________________________
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INTRODUCTION
The Harold E. Jones Child Study Center is affiliated with the Institute for Human
Development, an Organized Research Unit of the University of California at Berkeley.
Located at 2425 Atherton Street, it houses two preschool classrooms with extensive
outdoor laboratories and currently provides full-day child care services to University
families through the campus Early Childhood Education Program, as well as facilities for
researchers, teachers, and students of child development.
The building, with its play yards, was designed by Joseph Esherick, FAIA, a
distinguished Bay Area architect, recipient of the prestigious AIA Gold Medal and
professor in the U.C. School of Architecture. It opened in 1960, replacing an earlier
Nursery School housed in the Institute of Child Welfare on Bancroft Way. Its presence in
this South of Campus residential neighborhood is reflective of larger changes in the
urban fabric.
Key figures in the creation of this significant building include Harold E. Jones,
Director of the Institute ; Joseph Esherick; and Catherine Landreth, Professor of Home
Economics and Director of the Nursery School. Their story is part of this application to
the City of Berkeley requesting Landmark Status for the Jones Child Study Center.
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HISTORY OF THE SITE
The College of California, the private precursor to the University of California, purchased
the land along Strawberry Creek from Orin Simmons in 1858. 1 The new campus site
was dedicated at Founder’s Rock in 1860.
To finance the construction of campus buildings the College of California established the
College Homestead Association in 1864 to purchase property south of Strawberry Creek,
subdivide and sell it. (Figure 1) The 160 acre tract, stretching from College (Audubon) to
MLK (Grove) and Bancroft to Dwight, was recorded in 1866. The blocks were large,
Durant and Haste were not platted, and the lots measured 150 x300. This is today’s
South-of Campus area where the Child Study Center at 2425 Atherton is located.
Figure 1. 1866 College Homestead Tract Subdivision Map Block 4 lots 6,7,8. Durant Avenue, Haste
Street and Atherton were not yet platted. The darkened area is the 1885 Ryer Subdivision. Lot 6 is the site
of the Child Study Center.
The University of California was established by the State legislature in 1868 and merged
with the College of California. Just a year later the Schools for the Deaf and Blind
opened at the top of Dwight Way. By 1873 when the first classes were held on the new
University campus, Berkeley’s population was around 200.
1 Helfand, Harvey. (2002). University of California, Berkeley: the Campus Guide. New York: Princeton
Architectural Press.
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After a spur line of the Central
(later Southern) Pacific Railroad
was opened along Shattuck
Avenue in 1876, the town began to
grow rapidly and by 1878 when
Berkeley incorporated as a city the
population had grown to 2000.
During the 1880s and 1890s both
the University and the population
grew. The introduction of electric
streetcar lines made transportation
convenient. The College
Homestead Tract was sold to
various investors and re-
subdivided several times.
In 1885 the site where the Child
Study Center stands had been
purchased by Frederick Ryer from
J. H. Haste and re-subdivided as
the Ryer Tract ––lots 6,7,8 of
Block 4 of the College Homestead
Association Tract (Figure 2). The
first house was built in 1886 on
Lot #1 for Maria Cummings for
$2500. At least 6 houses were built
in this tract by 1900. Haste Street
was only partially cut through at
this time and wasn’t fully a Figure 2. Ryer Subdivision Tract Map, 1885.
through street until after 1906. 2
In 1900 the population was approximately 13,000 and then exploded by 12,000 within a
year after the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. The rapid growth of the population stimulated
economic, building and social development. By 1910 the population was 42,000 and by
1915 nearly 60,000. The South-of Campus neighborhood in the vicinity of 2425 Atherton
Street had become a fully built residential neighborhood of family homes. (Figure 3)
2 Haste Street Opening Maps 1891-1905, Alameda County Records, Digital Copies scanned and provided
by Jerry Sulliger to Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association.
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Figure 3. 1911 Sanborn Insurance Map. The darkened area is the future site of the Child Study Center. In
1911 the area was a fully built residential neighborhood of mostly 2-story single-family homes. The private
Berkeley Preparatory School was located on Fulton between Dwight and Haste, the former home of Mr.
Haste.
Changes to the late nineteenth-and early-
twentieth centuries built environment in
the South-of-Campus neighborhood began
after World War I.
Single-family houses on large lots began
being divided into rooming houses,
multiple units or demolished for larger
multi-unit housing, institutional buildings,
such as larger churches, and commercial
buildings. The majority of changes
occurred along Telegraph Avenue and the
blocks closest to campus as the University
and Berkeley’s population continued to
grow. (Figure 4) Figure 4. 1929 Sanborn Insurance Map. Dots show
changes in structure or use. The Haste house is gone
and the northern third of the lot has been re-
subdivided.
The most significant changes to the South-of-Campus area occured after World War II.
Enabled financially with the GI Bill, students poured into the University and the student
population soared. With an increased demand for student housing the large older homes
were often converted into flats or rooming houses.
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Figure 5. The marked 1950
Sanborn Map illustrates how the
neighborhood around Atherton
Street had changed. While some of
the older houses remained, the
majority had been converted into
rooming houses or flats.
By 1944 a campus planning
office, the Office of
Architects and Engineers,
was established with Robert
J. Evans as director. 3 The
Alumni Association
published a report in 1948
that proposed several
alternatives for housing 8,000
students in “elevator
buildings.” The report is
filled with photos showing
the substandard old housing
that currently housed the majority of students. (Figures 6 & 7)
Figures 6 & 7. The 1948 map illustrates that with the
exception of the red rectangles (Telegraph/Bancroft
commercial buildings and some churches) the concept
was to demolish every building from College to Oxford
and Dwight to Bancroft. This has partially been realized.
3 Helfand (2002), p. 25: Interview with Robert J. Evans, February 15, 2013.
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In partnership with the city of Berkeley a redevelopment plan was created that enabled
the University to acquire property in the South-of-Campus area. “…the City Renewal
Agency had conditioned its designation of blight on the “‘sociology’ of the place, which
had changed from single family to multiple occupants, without the necessary ‘physical’
change.” 4
“The 1951 plan also estimated
40 to 50 acres of additional
land would be required for
expansion, if the open space
and the values of the existing
campus were to be preserved.
Most of this expansion was to
be dedicated to residential
halls that would “be built to
the maximum height
permissible. While seeking to
protect the openness of the
historic campus, the plan
advocated the demolition of
older buildings, with only a
few exceptions.” 5
In 1957 The Regents of the
University of California
purchased 2231 Haste Street,
the largest of the three
properties it purchased for the
Child Study Center site. 6
7
4 Allen, Peter. (2011).The End of Modernism? Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 70(3), pp. 354-374. University of California Press on behalf of the Society of Architectural Historians
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/jsah.2011.70.3.354 5 Allen (2011).
6 Ormsby Donogh File. Berkeley Architectural heritage Association. Also see 1911, 1929, 1950 Sanborn
maps above. 7 Allen (2011).
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DESCRIPTION OF THE SITE
General Description
The Harold E. Jones Child Study Center is located on the corner of Haste and Atherton
streets on a rectangular 150 x 133.7 foot lot (20,055 square feet). The Center is comprised
of two one-story, flat-roofed buildings, of post and lintel wood construction with integral
earth-toned color-dash coat stucco applied to the surfaces. These buildings, with
extensive floor-to ceiling windows, are set parallel to one another, separated but joined
by a central trellised walkway. The building on the south, generally “T” shaped with two
small “exterior” courtyards facing the walkway, contains two identical preschool
classrooms that are mirror-images of one another, separated by an observation gallery
that extends into the play area and forms the leg of the “T” shape. The building on the
north is a long narrow rectangle that contains offices and research rooms. The buildings
are placed on the northern 1/3 of the site; the tree shaded open-air play areas for the two
classrooms are on the south 2/3rds of the parcel along Haste Street and the corner of
Atherton. The public entrance is located at 2425 Atherton approximately 100 feet from
the corner of Atherton and Haste. It is inconspicuously situated down the trellised
walkway near the center of the building complex.
U. C Child Study Center.8
8
Western Architect and Engineer. December 1961, Vol. 222 No. 6; “Joseph Esherick: Theory and Practice.” p. 27.
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Style
The complex is the quintessence of mid-20th
century Bay Area modernism that
emphasized building and living in harmony with nature often referred to as The Second
Bay Tradition. The Second Bay Tradition has references to the-turn-of-the-20th
century
architectural philosophy expressed by the early work of architect Bernard Maybeck and
the Arts and Crafts Movement and promoted by Berkeley’s Hillside Club.
The complex is residential in character, expressed by the trellis of the entry-way, open
courtyards with trees, and other features. Careful consideration was given to the client’s
needs and the building’s uses ; the architecture draws on traditions of “fresh-air schools”
in provision of outdoor space—the “outdoors as classroom” ––the blending of indoor and
outdoor spaces.
The Architect
It was designed by master Bay Area architect Joseph Esherick, FAIA. (see “Major
Figures” below).
Location
The unassuming complex of buildings and play areas sit quietly, almost as an oasis, in
harmony with the residential neighborhood that is a mix of early 20th
century single
family residences-- many converted to flats-- and low-rise mid-20th
century apartment
complexes that replaced single-family houses.
Perimeter of the Property
Street Elevations: Haste Street
The 133.5-foot boundary of the property along Haste Street is entirely fenced. Behind
this fence are the play yards where there are several mature trees. There are two
emergency gate exits out of the property, one each from the two classroom play yards,
onto Haste through the fence. The West classroom yard also has a fence exit onto
Atherton.
View from corner of Haste and Atherton Streets
Atherton Street
The “front” of the property begins at the corner of Atherton and Haste streets where the
fence continues. The fence rises above a low retaining wall faced in stucco. At this
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corner, the fence is notched to accommodate a mature Live Oak tree whose graceful
branches overhang and shade this corner of the play yard of the classroom on the west
side of the building.
The Fence
One notices the rhythmic pattern of caps attached to the supporting members of the “long
and strongly detailed dark redwood” 9
fence. According to George Homsey, later to
become a partner in the Esherick architectural firm EHDD, “The interesting thing about
the fence there…the boards go up to the post and then there is a gap. I think at one time
we talked about putting colored plastic in those gaps but we never did. And then that
little piece of wood on top is very whimsical, just to make it more playful.”10
The pattern
of the recurring cap on the top of the fence posts is carried the full length of the fence on
both the Haste Street side as well as Atherton and integrates the inside with the outside of
the site.
Exterior Walls
The redwood fence ends where a warm-orange color stucco wall begins. This wall has
no openings. A short ramp bordered by a metal railing leads up to a trellised walkway
along the side of a small courtyard.
On the north side of the trellised walkway there is another short expanse of stucco
broken by a single window that marks the exterior wall of the Administrative wing of the
second (north) building of the complex. (See cover page of this report.) The original
stucco of the wall was integral color-dash-coat stucco but the wall under and around this
window has been painted in past years to match the original color due to some repair and
patching of cracks in the wall.
Plantings
On the street side much of the original plant material still exists. Two of the four purple
plum trees that lined the street level still survive as does much of the wisteria and azalea
in planting beds under the windows of the Administrative and Research building north of
the walkway. Original landscaping plans by Thomas Church are in the Environmental
Design Department Archive. (Appendix, Figures 9 & 10).
Signage
The original, elegant but simple natural-wood panel with white lettering, large enough to
be read from the street, identifies the site. It is free-standing, located in front of a
handsome railing bordering a ramp leading to the walkway (See cover page).
“Coming In”: Walkway/Trellises/Courtyards
The two buildings that comprise this site are about 100 feet from the corner and set
approximately 4 feet above street level. The entrance is between the two buildings.
9 Western Architect and Engineer, Dec 1961, vol.222 No. 6; N.A. “Joseph Esherick: Theory and Practice,”
p. 25. See Appendix, Figure 8. 10
George Homsey. Interview February 9, 2013. Homsey worked on the drawings for the Child Study
Center throughout the planning and construction.
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Visitors come up a short ramp (making the entry handicapped-accessible) to reach
trellised covered walkways (Appendix, Figure 11). Immediately to the right and left
(south and north) are two “arms” of the main walkway that runs east and west, between
the two buildings. The long central trellised walkway is not directly before you at the top
of the ramp but slightly to the left.
From the street, as well at the top of the ramp, the function of the two buildings is
somewhat mysterious. Joseph Esherick said, “A building should be like a forest, where
you can stand outside and sense the nature of the spaces without really seeing them.” 11
Homesy comments: “You have a public side and private side. The two are intertwined.
It is very rich. They are not just a straight line. You cross that line and you are in the
realm of the institution. At the entry to the trellised walkway it is “part of the
neighborhood in terms of the scale and feel and sensitivity to the scale of the area…You
come up a ramp. You start to enter the precinct of the building. It’s all part of the public
side. Normally there’s a door and bang you go inside. But not here. This is quite
different. More of a processional coming in.”12
The Courtyards
At the top of the entrance ramp, on the south side, a small courtyard can be seen from the
street. (A similar courtyard is located farther down the walkway outside the east
classroom). These courtyards are walled on two sides by soft orange stucco walls and
wide, floor-to-ceiling multi-paned industrial-style metal windows trimmed in a bright
salmon color that meet at the corner of the two walls. At the base, on one side, the
windows are reinforced with embedded wire, for safety, and there is a protective railing
across the central sliding-glass door section. The windows on the south create a
transparency–– allowing a visitor not only a view of the classroom beyond, but out into
the play yard through similar windows at the rear of the classroom. Children can be seen
moving freely in and out of doors to the play yard through the sliding glass doors of the
large rear windows (Appendix, Figure 12). The visibility of the interior of the classroom
and play yard from the walkway is an important feature of this site. The integration of the
outside and inside spaces is a prevalent factor in the design of the site. Children, parents
and visitors can clearly see what is going on both in and outside.
A door on the south exterior wall leads to the west classroom. A doorway on the north
side of the trellised walkway leads to the west end of the Administrative building but
since its glass panels face a more or less blank wall on the interior it is not likely to be
mistaken for a main entry and it is in fact the exit from that building
The first courtyard (Appendix, Figure 13), outside the west classroom, features a large
mature Japanese maple tree that spreads its limbs to rise above roof height. The tree
provides children, teachers and visitors with a sense of the changing of seasons with its
spring and summer green, brilliant fall foliage with abundant falling leaves and graceful
11
Western Architect and Engineer, Dec 1961, p. 26 12
Homsey (2013)
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bare branches in winter. Generations of children have attempted to climb up the low
branches of this beloved tree when they arrive or leave school. (In the second courtyard,
outside the east classroom, the original Japanese maple has not survived; other plant
material has been introduced by teachers.)
The Trellised Walkways
The overhead trellis structure is integral
to the design of the site, separating and
tying the two buildings together at the
same time. The trellis is a significant
defining element of this complex as well
as The Second Bay Tradition and Bay
Area mid-20th
century modernism. The
design pattern of the trellis structure
creates a rhythmic element to the
entrance walkway.
The trellises are post-and-lintel wood construction. The columns supporting the trellis are
on a metal plate connector which is a bracket that holds it up off the ground. “The
supports for the trellised walkway are all wood; a built up column. - not a single column.
The main column is 4x6 with a 2x6 “cripple” on either side; they are applied. They are
all added on.”13
The trellises are canopied with bright primary-colored translucent plastic panels that add
color to the distinctive rhythmic patterns of the trellis structure. The colors also reflect off
the walkway, walls, and windows depending on the position of the sun. The use of the
color panels is extensive and unusual; the effect is singular and highly significant.
The walkway itself is concrete with exposed aggregate that was popular during the 1950s
and is original.
The Main Entrance
A decorative gate marks the entry to the complex. Homsey notes: “There is a subtle
module that’s going on. In the structural trellis you can see the beams have a nice rhythm.
The beam spacing sets up a structural rhythm. The windows and doors all relate to that.
So when you are walking under it, you get the sense of the structural rhythm which is part
of the feeling of the space. At the entrance prope Homsey explained: “They (the beams)
are elevated … to give the entrance way prominence right in the center. The line of the
trellis lines up to the door.” 14
The rhythm changes at the entrance gate.
13
Homsey (2013) 14
Homsey (2013).
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The Gate: Materials and Design
The double entrance gate, approximately 6’ high. is a simple but sturdy wood frame
with narrow perpendicular wood pieces within the frames. It is divided 3/4 on top -1/4
on bottom.. An original stationary panel of the same design
extends across the planting area to the wall on the north. Thick
clear plastic panels, added later, create a solid but transparent
barrier for additional security.
Public Entrance
The public entrance to the complex is via the building on the
north side. Here the reception office is located, where visitors
must register to gain access to other spaces in the complex, such
as administration, research, testing and classroom observation or
study (Appendix, Figure 14).
The reception area is clearly visible through large double glass doors flanked by large
windows. The doors are trimmed in bright orange, the flanking windows in dark brown.
The receptionist’s office can be seen on the left and a sofa and a few adult and child size
chairs are on the right of the reception area. Colorful children’s artwork is displayed on
the walls. The area’s function is obvious.
Across the walkway from reception is another pair of doors that lead to a small foyer and
to the entrance to the two observation galleries that intersect the east and west classrooms
and play yards. These doors are plain solid-wood panels painted dark-brown. They do
not suggest access and they are kept locked. Access to this area must be cleared through
the receptionist or site administrator.
The Buildings: Structure and Materials
The buildings are constructed on a concrete slab with wood-frame stud walls covered
with plywood. The doorknobs, hardware and signage on the wood sash doors are oil-
rubbed bronze . The door knobs in the classroom are placed out of reach of children
whereas light switches are the normal height. All door hardware in the Administrative
side is at the normal height.
Industrial materials were used throughout, whenever feasible. Interior walls are plastered
in the administrative wing but paneled in re-sawn cedar in the classrooms. Floor surfaces
are linoleum or vinyl tile. As previously noted, industrial sash was used for the large
windows and sliding doors.
Arrangement of Functions
As noted previously, the classrooms are in the building on the south side of the walkway
and the administrative, research and testing functions are in the building on the north.
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Administration Building
Reception, teacher and administrative offices are located in the west wing of the
Administration building together with storage, kitchen, and restroom facilities including a
recently installed ADA compliant bathroom. In the center there is a large conference
room just off the reception area with a wall of windows facing north.
The east wing of the Administration Building houses research and testing rooms and
some additional offices. The testing rooms that face
the walkway have large sliding glass doors
(adjacent photo). Children who are being
withdrawn from the classroom to engage in a
research project with a student or professor enter
and leave the testing room by this route. In this
way children are more comfortable because they
can see familiar surroundings from the testing
areas. On the interior side of the testing room there
is a viewing gallery with one-way glass for
observation. The gallery is equipped with audio capacity and head phones so that the
sound of voices in the testing rooms can be heard by an observer. Some of the other
testing rooms are currently used as offices and have undergone a number of alterations.
The Classrooms
The east and west classrooms are essentially mirror images of one another. They are L-
shaped with the long side of the L facing south, and each can be subdivided by means of
a sliding panel.15
The difference between the two is that the classroom on the west has its
entrance at the front of the complex while the east classroom’s entry is at the end of the
central walkway.
Classroom Materials
Walls are paneled with 12” wide, unpainted re-sawn cedar boards laid vertically. Darker
brown wood pieces set vertically and horizontally suggest structural elements, add
rhythm to the spaces, define openings and built-ins; small pieces of the same color are
used as trim. Display areas are defined by corkboard panels. Floors are linoleum over
the concrete slab. Originally there was radiant heat, but it has been replaced with forced
air heating. Ceilings are white with two types of light fixtures: hanging boxed lights and recessed ceiling lights. Windows overlooking the play yard are the same design, materials
and color as those facing the courtyards.
Classroom Plan
Within the large L-shaped space there are several distinct “work” areas that are largely
defined by movable shelving. Architectural Record notes: “Moveable casework permits
rearrangement of interior spaces into smaller or larger areas for special activities of all
15
See floor plan above, p. 10
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kinds.”16
Each classroom has an entrance hallway with a children’s cubby area, a zone
of immediate interest scaled to a three-foot pre-school child’s level. Esherick
commented: “‘We were concerned all the way through more with the children than with
the adults who would be using [the Center]….Instead of pulling the ceiling down for the
kids, we tried to design their spaces so that a whole world of interest was maintained at
their level with another world 3 ft higher for the adults’” 17
, Just beyond the cubby area is
an open kitchen/preparation area and children’s bathroom, with an adult bathroom off to
one side of the entryway. One emerges from the relatively narrow and rather cozy
entryway into the wide light-filled space of the main classroom area, whose floor-to-
ceiling windows, shaded by a wide overhang, create transparency between the interior
and the ample outdoor play yard.
The interior space, clearly visible through the large floor to ceiling exterior windows of
the approach to the classroom, can be divided by a sliding door into two sections: the big
main classroom facing the play area, and a quiet room (originally a second food
preparation area with a sink and counter top) facing the courtyard. A unique feature of
the main classrooms is a large two-story playhouse located behind the cubby area. within
the main inside classroom space. George Homsey explains: “The “playhouse structure is
another functional space for …. teaching. The structural ceiling goes all the way across.
[The playhouse] is part of the room. It’s not some wall that goes up to the ceiling and
clouds the issue of what the structure is and how big a room it is. It’s all part of the
openness.”18
It is open floor to its ceiling on both floors but orange wire-type fencing
material protects those playing on the second story (Appendix Figure 15). The
classrooms have built-in bookcases, cabinets and storage spaces. Some of the furniture, in
simple light-colored wood, is original, built to Catherine Landreth’s specifications.
16
N.A. (1963). “Teaching and Research Combined: Child Study Center, University of California,
Berkeley, California: Joseph Esherick, Architect.” Architectural Record, April, 133(5), p.175 . 17
Western Architect and Engineer, Dec 1961, p. 26 18
Homsey (2013)
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18
East Classroom showing original shelving, Landreth-designed table, and observation gallery windows
Dividing the west and east class rooms is
the observation gallery that extends out into
the play yard. This gallery is defined on the
classroom side and the play area by dark
grey “windows” approximately 8’ wide that
run their full length at the back of both
sections of the classrooms. Observers can
hear as well as see the children as the
windows are screened rather than glassed-in.
Seating and task lighting in the galleries
facilitate note-taking. Observation gallery
Access to the east classroom is different from the entrance to the west classroom, that
faces into a wall. The entrance to the classrooms is through large glass paneled doors.
The entrance to the east classroom faces into the children’s cubby area. This door has a
side panel with additional hinges that can be opened up all the way to accommodate large
objects. Opposite the door of the east classroom entry is a glass paneled double door
leading to the play yard. Therefore one can see, from the trellised walkway, straight
through the entry area out into the play yard, enhancing again the transparency of the
spaces and the integration of outdoors and indoors.
Exterior: Features of the Play Yards
Outdoor play space predominates in this setting, occupying 70% of the area, in contrast to
the 30% taken up by the inside classrooms. In a 1957 planning document, the exterior
space is designated as Outdoor laboratory (250 sq. feet per child) and Semi shelter
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19
laboratory (25 sq feet per child), distinguished from the Indoor laboratory (40 sq feet per
child).19
The two play yards are more or less twins of one another and continue the same design
elements as the entrance to the complex .Each yard contains two distinct play areas :
one a semi shelter for table-top type projects which is covered by a slightly up-sloping
trellised roof, and a large open active-play area beyond. The covered semi shelters are
the same latticed structure as the entry walkway and “…so they are all of a piece––– and
the exterior color just keeps going around and its all part of the structure too,” Homsey
said, referring to the warm stucco color of the walls and the deep brown of the fixed
elements such as the counter top, sink and cupboards of the preparation and storage areas.
In keeping with the idea of integrating the inside and outside, these areas serve as outdoor
classrooms (Appendix Figure 16 & 17).
Many of the fixed focal areas of the play yard may reflect what Catherine Landreth
wanted rather than Esherick’s design; these elements add much to the educational value
of the space in potential for children’s interaction with natural elements such as sand,
water, dirt, variation in foliage of the planting such as the holly tree over a grassy bank
and fragrant jasmine and flowering wisteria. These focal areas include (a) a low-sided
wood sandbox with a wide surrounding lip for seating, designed specifically for dry
sand experience, under the semi shelter, with wood cover panels to provide an identified,
raised focal surface, (b) child accessible open shelving, also under the semi shelter ,
which defines two separate focal activity areas, (c) a child stand-up-to sandbox with
adjacent water source for combined sand and water experience, with a less-wide lip,
accompanying child-accessible shelving, and wood panel covers, (d) a large sand pit for
full body digging/construction experience with water source, (e) a climbing apparatus,
and (f) a separate swing/climbing apparatus.
19
Child Study Center Facilities for Children (26 per group), September 18, 1957, Esherick Collection,
Child Study Center Project through 31 May 1959, Environmental Design Archives, University of
California, Berkeley.
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20
Play yard with the fixed features of a raised sand box and custom-designed shelving
The observation gallery with its screened windows extends nearly to the end of the
sheltered play area thereby dividing the two classroom outdoor areas. The redwood fence
surrounds each play yard on the south and west sides.
Sandpit & Observation Gallery
Landscaping in the outdoor classroom includes paved cement and tanbark ground cover
across the rear south end of both yards, a center holly tree in the East classroom, and a
ginko tree in the south east corner of the East classroom. Original ivy growing on the
inside East and South fence perimeter has fallen to disrepair. Ivy remains below
observation windows in the East classroom and jasmine in the West classroom.
Storage and Workroom
To the left of the entry to the east classroom a side room was originally an efficient and
commodious space for an on- site custodian. Custodial services are now managed
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21
centrally by the University and little on-site space is needed. Currently the room houses
the ceramic kiln for the school’s use and teacher storage as well as over head ducting and
equipment required for the retrofit and installation of a forced air heating system which
was deemed necessary when the radiant heating system failed.
East and North Perimeter of Site: Retaining walls and set backs
East Side
The two buildings are set back from the east side of the property line. The Classroom
building is only set back approximately 4 feet, a very narrow space. The Administration
building on the north is set back more generously–– about 8-10 feet. The original, tall
(more than 6’) concrete retaining wall, uniform in color to the rest of the building, runs
the full length of the property including the play areas, and is topped by a fence built in
the same style as the ones along Haste and Atherton streets.
North Side
On the north side of the Administration building the setback is quite generous, about 12
feet wide, as this was intended to be an outdoor sitting area for the offices and research
rooms that have floor to ceiling windows and doors. Their doors open onto a landing of
pebble-imbedded concrete just large enough for a chair or two (approximately 6”x4”). A
wider planting area ends at an orange concrete wall that again is topped by the same
fencing as the rest of the property. The original bamboo planting in this area has been
removed; this entire side of the property is not being cared for and is filled mostly with
weeds. There is a utility exit to Atherton Street from this area.
Conclusion/Summing up
The design elements of the exterior such as stucco color, window treatment, trellised
canopy over the semi shelter, as well as the design of the play yard fence ,are carried
throughout the site. These design elements are integral to all the exterior spaces including
the enclosed play yards. In this uniquely transparent environment, glimpses of a holly
tree, part of the original planting, over a large sand area in the east play yard and a raised
mound are visible from the walkway as well as children moving freely from the interior
classroom to the exterior spaces of what Catherine Landreth termed the” Outside
laboratory “ for the children to explore. “Young children spend the greater part of their
time in large muscle activities. They run, jump, climb, pedal, push and pull simply for
the fun of doing it.”20
This perspective has certainly influenced the ample size of the
Child Study Center’s outdoor spaces.
***
George Homsey: “ I think as an example of Joe’s work, it [the Child Study Center] is
very special, because Joe did a lot of elegant homes; for fancy people both here and in the
mountains and various places. And the scale of what he did there was [on] a very elegant
scale. Here he has the elegance, but you can tell he was listening to somebody. He
20
Landreth, Catherine and Howard Moise. “Unit Plan for Nursery Schools” , Progressive Architecture,
March 1949, p.79
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22
didn’t invent this. This came out of an interplay in talking to the client-Catherine and
everybody else. “
Susan Cerny: “Because he wasn’t a child expert. He was an architect.”
GH: “He listened to the client. And that was the important thing. And then when he
thought of the proportions of the other things inside, he had an idea about it. He didn’t
necessarily sit down and sketch it for you. But he had the idea and he made sure that it
was translated. And that was his genius. We did all the drawings but Joe always had the
idea that drove what we did.”21
21
Homsey (2013); Joseph Esherick drawings, Nov. 5, 1958: University of California College of
Environmental Design Archive, Esherick Collection.
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MAJOR FIGURES
Major figures in the creation of this significant building include Harold E. Jones,
Director of the Institute; Joseph Esherick; and Catherine Landreth, Professor of Home
Economics and Director of the Nursery School. Their story is part of this application to
the City of Berkeley requesting Landmark Status for the Jones Child Study Center.
Harold Ellis Jones 1894-1960
Harold E. Jones helped initiate the University of California, Berkeley’s study of children
in 1927 and directed those activities until his retirement in 1960. Jones was born in New
Brunswick, New Jersey but spent most of his childhood in New England. He maintained
a lifelong interest in observing and documenting nature in his surroundings, as in his
description of his Berkeley worksite to his mother: “In the back yard of the Institute, we
are often visited after the children have gone home by flocks of quail. The California
quail are less handsome and tuneful than the Connecticut variety; but on the other hand
they seem much more sociable.”22
Jones attended Massachusetts Agricultural College and Amherst College, majoring in
biology. Robert Frost was one of his professors at Amherst. According to letters found
by his wife, developmental psychologist Mary Cover Jones, Harold and Robert Frost took
walks together while Harold was an undergraduate. Jones and his wife Mary would
name their daughter Lesley, the same name as Frost’s daughter.23
Jones accepted a graduate assistantship in psychology at Columbia, receiving an M.A.
degree in 1920 and a Ph.D. degree in 1923. He stayed at Columbia to become an
Assistant Professor. In 1927 Jones was recruited by Berkeley’s President Campbell to
serve as Research Director of the U.C. Institute of Child Welfare, one of five study
centers in the continent supported by the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial. Initially
an Assistant Professor, he advanced to a professorship in 1931, and from 1935 to 1960
served as Director of the Institute, which he developed into an internationally respected
research center for human growth. Projects under Jones’s directorship enabled the
Institute to trace, for the first time, physical and mental development and personality
change in individuals from birth through age 30 in two studies and from age ten to age 40
in another. As the subjects of the research matured, the Institute was renamed the Institute
of Human Development.24
22
Jones, Mary Cover. (1983). Harold E. Jones and Mary C. Jones, partners in longitudinal studies :
transcript, 1981-1982. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California. An interview conducted by Suzanne B.
Riess in 1981-1982, Regional Oral History Office University of California, The Bancroft Library,
Berkeley, California.
23 Jones, M.C. (1983)
24 The Centennial of The University of California, 1868-1968. Human Development, Institute of (B).
http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb4v19n9zb&chunk.id=div00517&brand=calisphere&doc.view=entire
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24
The Institute’s first setting was on Bancroft Way, where the Boalt Law School Library
now stands. It included a nursery school, the aims of which were:
to promote, through teaching and research, the welfare of children,
a provide a lab for the study of child development by experts,
to collect information on child training for use in parent education,
to offer University students an opportunity for directed observation of children.25
In 1957 the University commissioned architect Joseph Esherick to design a site a few
blocks off campus specifically for these purposes, as the Institute itself was moving onto
the campus. Harold E. Jones chaired the committee that worked with Joseph Esherick to
plan the new center.26
Esherick would find Jones to be “dry and brittle and academic,”27
in part perhaps because
Jones was very unhappy about the decision to move the new child study center off
campus.28
In the Fall of 1960, the new facility began operation as the Harold E. Jones
Child Study Center. Colleague, fellow professor, and founding member of the Institute
Jean Macfarlane would write with other colleagues of Jones: “The aspect that perhaps
stands out most sharply from his energetic and extremely full professional life was his
heroic refusal ever to accept defeat even in the face of budgetary, staff, or administrative
obstacles. The unflagging pursuit of knowledge about the nature and the process of
growth and change outweighed personal comfort and at times even political
expediency.” 29
_text ; Harold Ellis Jones: In Memoriam, University of California Regents, 1961at
http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb2t1nb146;NAAN=13030&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00017&t
oc.depth=1&toc.id=&brand=calisphere ; Jones, Mary Cover. (1991). The Institute of Human Development
Oral History Project: Mary Cover Jones: An Interview with Mary Cover Jones, Ph.D. Interviews
Conducted by Vicki Green, Ph.D. on May 12, 1982 and May 21, 1982. Regents of the University of
California.
25 Jones, M.C. (1983)
26 Child Study Center Design Committee notes (see Appendix for document from U.C. College of
Environmental Design Archives, Joseph Esherick Collection). 27
Joseph Esherick, (1996). “An Architectural Practice in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1938-1996,” 1996,
an oral history conducted in 1994-1996 by Suzanne B. Riess, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft
Library, University of California, Berkeley at:
http://archive.org/stream/eshericksfbayare00joserich/eshericksfbayare00joserich_djvu.txt
28
Macfarlane, Jean. (1991). The Institute of Human Development Oral History Project: Jean Macfarlane:
An Interview with Jean Macfarlane, Ph.D. Interviews Conducted by Vicki Green, Ph.D. on August 5, 1982.
Regents of the University of California 29
“Harold Ellis Jones: In Memoriam, University of California Regents, 1961” at
http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb2t1nb146;NAAN=13030&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00017&t
oc.depth=1&toc.id=&brand=calisphere
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25
Harold Ellis Jones died in Paris, June 7, 1960, at the very beginning of an elaborately
planned six-months' retirement vacation in Europe with his wife.30
Harold E. Jones’ publications include over 160 titles : studies on emotions and emotional
development, motor development, mental development or decline, learning, and nature-
nurture studies of twins. In addition to his own research, he supported and often gave
critical guidance during his thirty-three years at the University to over 450 research
undertakings of others. University President Clark Kerr said of Harold E. Jones, “The
Institute was Harold and Harold was the Institute.”31
In addition to his research and Directorship, at a time when fathers were not regular
participants in child-rearing, Jones shared in bringing up his children: putting them to
bed, feeding them, reading to them, having, as his wife describes “all sorts of little games
with them,” and taking them out a lot on walks. He was a gardener with a broad
knowledge of botany, a photographer. He wrote poetry, jingles, humorous doggerel and
parody, told stories, did original Christmas cards, and continued his letter writing to
previous professors and to his own children.32
Joseph Esherick 1914-1998
Joseph Esherick was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, graduating from the University
of Pennsylvania with a degree in architecture in 1937. While at Penn he also did
anatomical drawings for the medical school, saying later that he learned more about how
buildings are assembled in dissecting a cadaver than through his formal studies.33
Esherick served in the Navy during World War II, then established his own firm in San
Francisco in 1946. His early work, mostly residential, betrays influences of both William
Wurster and Gardner Dailey. Another early and lasting influence was Esherick’s uncle,
the sculptor and woodworker Wharton Esherick, whose artistic vision based in rural
nature was a sustaining inspiration for his nephew Joe Esherick.34
30
“Harold Ellis Jones: In Memoriam, University of California Regents, 1961”
31
Eichhorn, Dorothy. (1991). The Institute of Human Development Oral History Project: Dorothy
Eichorn: An Interview with Dorothy Eichorn, Ph.D. Interviews Conducted by Vicki Green, Ph.D. on July
13, 1982 and July 21, 1982. Regents of the University of California.
32 Jones, 1983; Harold Ellis Jones: In Memoriam, 1961
33 Johnson, Robert & Gary Parsons. (2010). “The Pelican Building – 1956. UC Berkeley Campus. Joseph
Esherick, architect.” City of Berkeley Landmark Application.
34 Johnson & Parsons (2010); Peters, Richard C. & Jean-Pierre Protzen. (1998). University of California In
Memoriam: Joseph Esherick, Professor of Architecture, Emeritus, Berkeley, 1914-1998.
http://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/inmemoriam/JosephEsherick.htm
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26
In the 1960s Esherick's firm began to take on larger projects, such as The Cannery in San
Francisco, and Adlai Stevenson College at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Esherick also designed demonstration houses for The Sea Ranch, a planned community
noted for the sensitivity with which plan and design integrate with the natural elements
of the site. In 1972 Esherick reorganized his office with three longtime associates --
George Homsey, Peter Dodge and Chuck Davis --to form Esherick Homsey Dodge &
Davis, in 1968 the winner of the Architecture Firm Award. The firm continues today as
EHDD Architecture. Esherick’s notable projects with EHDD include Wurster Hall, the
home of the College of Environmental Design on the University of California, Berkeley
campus, called the first large pre-cast concrete structure on the West Coast; the Student
Union at California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo, California; and the
Monterey Bay Aquarium.35
In addition to his work with the firm, Esherick was an educator and consultant. He taught
at University of California, Berkeley (1952-1985), served as the Dean of the School of
Architecture for the University (1977-1981) and established an independent consulting
firm in the early 1980s.
Esherick’s lifelong concern for the quality of architectural education, and his sustained
effort to improve it, brought him the Topaz Award of the Association of Collegiate
Schools of Architecture for excellence in architectural education. Upon his retirement in
1985, Esherick received the Berkeley Citation, the most prestigious award given for
notable achievement and service to the University.36
Influencing generations of
architecture students, Professor Esherick taught that buildings should be designed from
the inside out, making form secondary to aspects like views and light. "Beauty," he said,
"is a byproduct of solving problems correctly."37
A Fellow of the American Institute of Architects since 1965, Joseph Esherick was
awarded the Institute’s Gold Medal for lifetime achievement in 1989, making him one of
only 47 recipients since 1907 and putting him in the company of Frank Lloyd Wright, Le
Corbusier, and Mies van der Rohe among other luminaries. He was cited as an
''outstanding designer, an educator steeped in the arts, and a humanist with a deep
concern for the betterment of the profession and our society.''38
35
College of Environmental Design Archives, Berkeley, web site:
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf35800389/admin/?query=Joseph Esherick#bioghist-1.;
Peters & Protzen (1998); “Joseph Esherick, 83, an Acclaimed Architect,” New York Times Obituary by
Ralph Blumenthal, December 25, 1998.
36 Peters & Protzen (1998)
37
“Joseph Esherick, 83, an Acclaimed Architect,” New York Times Obituary by Ralph Blumenthal,
December 25, 1998.
38
Esherick (1996); Peters & Protzen (1998); “Joseph Esherick, 83, an Acclaimed Architect,” December 25,
1998.
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27
"The ideal kind of building is one you don't see," Mr. Esherick liked to say. Accordingly
his buildings were designed to blend into their surroundings and serve their occupants.
Although his most notable buildings were highly public, some critics felt that his best
work was done for intimate, customized projects. "Daylight doesn't just bathe them, it
comes alive in them - dances and dodges and surprises and glows," the late architect
Charles Moore once said of Esherick's residential work, “controlled and balanced, but
then it is suddenly ... magic." 39
Esherick scorned aesthetic theories of design, advocating that buildings should be
designed for their specific purposes and inhabitants. He taught that no two design projects
were ever alike, and that each project had to be thought through from the ground up, so to
speak, in view of its unique conditions and circumstances. Solutions to the problems of
form and function had to be reinvented for every case.40
The work of Joseph Esherick defies a signature identification of style, displaying a
dramatic range of expressions: the Pelican Building, the University Young Women’s
Christian Association Building, Wurster Hall on the Berkeley campus, seven BART
stations, the McIntyre House in Hillsborough, the Carey House in Mill Valley, and the
Lehman House in Kent Woodlands, the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, the
Tenderloin Community School in San Francisco.41
Two of his projects, the Pelican
Building and the University Young Women’s Christian Association Building, have
received landmark status from the city of Berkeley.
In July of 1957 the University of California, Berkeley formally commissioned Joseph
Esherick to design a research center for the study of young children where the daily life
of play and learning would be paramount (Appendix Figure 20). This Child Study Center
would replace the existing center on Bancroft Way, in what Esherick called “an old
house” with “a marvelously ratty old yard . . . that was the kids’ play yard.”42
He
observed at the old site frequently in 1957, describing it as both “day care for the kids and
an instructional zoo, almost, for the [University] students.” From those observations,
Esherick noticed that “it’s obvious that the children were very, very knowledgeable about
the whole layout.” 43
Two University representatives worked most closely with Esherick
39
Joseph Esherick Obituary by Dan Levy in Joseph Esherick (1996), “An Architectural Practice in the San
Francisco Bay Area, 1938-1996,” in an oral history conducted in 1994-1996 by Suzanne B. Riess,
Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
40
Peters & Protzen (1998) 41
Peters & Protzen (1998); “Joseph Esherick: Theory and Practice” in Western Architect and Engineer,
December, 1961, Vol. 222, No. 6.
42 Esherick, Joseph (1996). “An Architectural Practice in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1938-1996,” in an
oral history conducted in 1994-1996 by Suzanne B. Riess, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft
Library, University of California, Berkeley.
43Esherick (1996)
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as the dedicated clients: Harold Ellis Jones, Director of the Institute of Child Welfare, and
Catherine Landreth, the Director of the Nursery School.
Catherine Landreth 1899-1995
Catherine Landreth, a University of California, Berkeley , Professor of Child
Development in the Department of Home Economics and Director of the Institute of
Human Development Nursery School collaborated closely with Esherick to create the
model environment still in operation. According to her colleagues, it was Landreth who
strove to secure administrative support for the Child Study Center project.44
Landreth was born in Dunedin, New Zealand into a family of educators. She received
her early education in a one-room school taught by her mother. “We each worked at our
own pace on what was assigned and we had some choice of what we might do. We were
in a sense all teaching as well as learning. This may have made it seem natural to me that
a school for young children should provide a range of activities and experiences which
offer some promise of successful involvement for beginning learners as well as
continuing challenge for the more advanced.”45
Landreth graduated in 1920 from the University of Otago. She earned an M.S. in
nutrition and education from the Iowa State University in 1926. In 1929-1930, she held
a Laura Spelman Rockefeller Fellowship that enabled her to study first-hand the newly
established nursery schools at Merrill-Palmer in Detroit, Michigan, Teachers' College at
Columbia, and the University of Minnesota. In 1936 she earned a Ph.D. in psychology at
the University of California, Berkeley under the advisement of Harold E. Jones. From
1936 to 1938 Landreth taught at the University of Chicago as Assistant Professor and
Director of the University Nursery School.
In 1938 Landreth accepted a dual appointment as Professor and Director of the Nursery
School at Berkeley. As Landreth says, “my first responsibility was to make the school an
effective learning laboratory for three- to five-year old children” while at the same time
accommodate University students using the school as a child development laboratory. At
the Bancroft way site, Landreth designed a “one-way vision screen [appended to a
garage] behind which students could observe the children . . . and a separate semi-
shelter” for child activity, which the University Buildings and Grounds Department built
based on “rough sketches” she supplied.46
Landreth’s The Education of the Young Child:
44
Almy, Millie, Dorothy H. Eichorn, Paul H. Mussen, & Read D. Tuddenham. (1995). Catherine Landreth,
Psychology: Berkeley, 1995, University of California: In Memoriam.
45Landreth, Catherine (1983). “The Nursery School of the Institute of Child Welfare of the University of California,
Berkeley,” an oral history conducted by Dan Burke, Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of
California, Berkeley, p. 1.
46 Landreth, Catherine (1982). “Interview, an oral history conducted in 1982, by Vicki Green, Institute of Human
Development Oral History Project,” deposited in the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
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29
A Nursery School Manual (1942) includes photos and a map47
of her design, which
foreshadow the Harold E. Jones Child Study Center’s predominance of outdoor space, the
demarcation of fixed focal areas, and the use of an overhang to define and protect
activities in variable weather.
47
Landreth, Catherine (in collaboration with Katherine H. Read). (1942). The Education of the Young Child: A
Nursery School Manual. New York: John Wiley & Sons. p. 28, 35.
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30
One outcome of what Landreth referred to as “this remodeling activity”48
was a
continuing association with the departments of Architecture and Landscape Architecture,
where Landreth regularly spoke to students on requirements for buildings and play areas
for young children. Landreth collaborated with Howard Moise, a member of Berkeley’s
School of Architecture, on an article in Progressive Architecture, “Unit Plan for Nursery
Schools.”49
In The Education of the Young Child, Landreth outlines considerations that should govern
the planning and equipping of any nursery school. It reads like a blueprint of the Harold
E. Jones Child Study Center: “adequate outdoor space… yard equipment which
encourages development of different levels and types of motor skill …easily accessible
and functional storage shelter for toys and yard equipment affected by the weather…
some provision for water play…play shelter which provides both semi-and complete
shelter…adequate storage space for children’s use which is both functional and
decorative… aesthetic appeal” ( her terse comment: “the opportunities which
furnishings, equipment, and their arrangement offer to introduce color, form, and design
are seldom fully realized”) “…indoor equipment [provision for art, music constructive,
social and dramatic play]… storage space for supplies not in constant use…, well-lighted
locker room providing individual locker space for each child adjacent to the bathroom,
playroom, and outdoor space… bathroom with adequate lavatory and toilet facilities
adjacent to locker room, playroom, and outdoor space… adequate facilities for children’s
resting, and offices for staff and facilities for physical examination and testing
program”.50
In 1943, Henry J. Kaiser invited key figures in child development studies, including
Catherine Landreth, to his shipyards to set up ideal facilities and programs so workers
could build ships without worrying about the safety and health of their children.51
Landreth designed the child care center at the Kaiser shipyard in Richmond,52
which,
along with the center in Portland, Oregon, yielded valuable research results that helped
48
Landreth (1982) p. 2.
49 Landreth, Catherine & Howard Moise. (1949). Unit Plan for Nursery Schools. Progressive
Architecture, 30( 3), March, pp. 79-83.
50 Landreth, in collaboration with Katherine H. Read. Education of the Young Child: A Nursery School Manual, John
Wiley & Sons, New York, 1942, pp. 24-32.
51 “Wartime shipyard child care centers set standards for future.” A History of Total Health: Kaiser Permanente
History Blog: Catherine Landreth. http://www.kaiserpermanentehistyory.org/tag/catherine-landreth/
52 Maritime Child Development Center, Richmond, California. Nomination to the National Register of Historic Places,
Prepared by Katherine Petrin, Architectural Resources Group, San Francisco, May 2004. At http://www.nps.gov/pwro/rori_library/Nat%20Reg%20Maritime%20Child%20Dev%20Center.pdf
ATTACHMENT 2 LPC 06-06-13 Page 30 of 56
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fuel the study of early childhood education for decades after the war. The Landreth-
designed Maritime Child Care Center is now part of the Rosie the Riveter WWII
Homefront National Historic Park and offers additional foreshadowing of the Harold E.
Jones Child Study Center with a long, low building profile, a flat roof, long expanses of
horizontal ribbon windows, flat canopies over doors, classroom exits onto a play yard
through a set of double doors, and child-sized bathroom facilities and drinking
fountains.53
Maritime Child Care Center: Child Study Center: Children’s bathroom
Child-sized sinks
Landreth acted as an advisor to the State Departments of Education and Social Welfare
on programs and standards for state supported child care centers, and, at the national
level, to the Office of Educational Opportunity on Head Start programs.54
She was in
demand as a consultant to boards of education, to curriculum planners, and to Head Start
administrators, both in California and elsewhere.55
Landreth remained at Berkeley throughout her professional career, in the Department of
Home Economics until 1958, thereafter as Professor of Psychology until her retirement in
1964. Her research fell mainly into three broad areas, and in all three she was concerned
53 Maritime Child Development Center, Richmond, California. Nomination to the National Register of
Historic Places, Prepared by Katherine Petrin, Architectural Resources Group, San Francisco, May 2004.
At http://www.nps.gov/pwro/rori_library/Nat%20Reg%20Maritime%20Child%20Dev%20Center.pdf
54 Landreth (1982)
55Almy, et al. (1995)
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with increasing the scientific rigor of investigations in a field that had typically been
descriptive and anecdotal. (1) Early childhood education: She and her students
conducted careful observational studies of teacher-child and child-child interactions. Her
study of incidents of children's crying is still cited. (2) Social perception: Best known are
a series of investigations to trace the origins and development of young children's social
attitudes and prejudices. Landreth found that prejudice is related to parents' education,
and that children as young as three years show prejudice based on skin color. These
studies were among those that influenced the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 decision against
segregated education. (3) The place and value of the preschool in a comprehensive
program of public education: A statewide survey on which Landreth collaborated led in
1947 to a legislative decision to finance child-care centers for children of working
mothers.
In addition to a substantial number of shorter publications, Landreth authored three
classic books that were influential in shaping the scope and nature of early childhood
education: Education of the Young Child (with Katherine Read), 1942; The Psychology of
Early Childhood, 1958; and Preschool Learning and Teaching, 1972.
In December of 1958, Landreth asked to be relieved of her appointment as Director of the
nursery school. One reason for this request was that, with the planned phasing out of the
Department of Home Economics (and with it the child development major), the whole
purpose and function of the new Child Study Center, in Landreth’s view, had changed.56
She remained in communication with Esherick in the planning of the Center, even during
a Fullbright research year in New Zealand, and collaborated with Jones Child Study
Center teachers in one research project and in teacher training as a professor of
psychology.57
Landreth died in her Berkeley home in 1995. Esherick would say of
Landreth: “She was one of those people who just really lived for the kids. Her approach
was direct and with a very strong reality to it . . . there was something very fundamental
about what she did, and direct about what she was up to.”58
At the Child Study Center, Esherick, Landreth and Jones created a physical space
tailored to the interests and abilities of preschoolers, while providing for the multiple and
not always congruent needs of researchers conducting experiments with child subjects,
the needs of teachers with educational objectives, and the needs of the children
themselves.
56 Landreth (1982), p. xi.
57Sanders, Hannah. (1991). The Institute of Human Development Oral History Project. Hannah Sanders:
An Interview with Hannah Sanders, M.A. Interviews Conducted by Vicki Green, Ph.D. on July 27, 1982.
Regents of the University of California.
58 Esherick (1996)
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BACKGROUND
Designing for Children
The Museum of Modern Art’s Modern Architecture : International Exhibition ( 1932)
featured Austrian-American architect Richard Neutra’s model of public schools for
Southern California, where mild climate and abundant space rendered the East Coast
multi-story brick and stone unnecessary.59
A Southern California earthquake in 193360
led to designs featuring the safety of lightweight single-story construction, including “a
dynamic flow between interior and exterior environments” and the structural innovations
of sliding glass walls opening to individual patios that extend teaching space outdoors.61
In the aftermath of World War II, “many designers sought to recover a lost innocence
embodied in the spontaneity of children’s art , and to emulate the constructive, creative
impulses of children’s play. Charles and Ray Eames in California … led the way in
letting ‘the fun out of the bag’ through …toys and furniture.62
A pair of Eames chairs for
children remain in the Harold E. Jones Child Study lobby to this day.
Two Eames children’s wire chairs Lobby of the Child Study Center with Eames Chairs
By the early 1960’s, a playground movement was taking place in the United States.
Inspired by “the radical junk/adventure playgrounds pioneered by Carl Theodor Sorensen
in Copenhagen in 1943 during the German occupation,” this design evolution spread to
the Netherlands and Britain in the 1950’s and 1960’s63
and to Berkeley in 1979 , whose
59
Kinchin, Juliet and Aidan O’Connor. (2012). Century of the Child: Growing by Design. New York: The
Museum of Modern Art, p. 105.
60
On March 10, 1933, an estimated magnitude-6.3 earthquake hit Southern California. The Long Beach
earthquake killed 115 people and damaged buildings throughout the region. Long Beach 1933 Earthquake.
Los Angles Times Archive, http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-longbeach_1933earthquake-
pg,0,3546233.photogallery. 61
Kinchin & O’Connor (2012), p. 105 62
Kinchin & O’Connor (2012), p. 151 63
Kinchin & O’Connor (2012), p. 242
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own adventure playground is still in active use. "The simplicity of the concept is still
startling," writes Susan Solomon in 2005 in American Playgrounds. “ …Children became
the self-directors of everything hat they produced.” In this connection, Solomon
references the Child Study Center design: “ Esherick allowed for a flowing space to
unite the interiors and exteriors…This gave kids as much freedom as possible. [His]
goal, inspired by the curriculum of the school, was to maximize child-directed
exploration."64
The Child Study Center design foreshadows landscape architect M. Paul Friedberg (1970
Play and Interplay) and architect Richard Dattner’s (1969 Design for Play) advocacy “of
experiential, active play encouraged by diverse component structures or zones and
manipulable materials such as sand and water.”65
Landreth, in 1958, prefigures Dattner’s
adult play facilitators and “loose parts” as she articulates the need for component
structures and zones both outside as well as inside. In 1958 Landreth sums up the
physical environmental factors for young children:
“Reports of young children’s indomitable urge to exercise emerging motor skills suggest
that their environment should provide ample and safe opportunities for such activity.
Evidence that they spend the greater part of their time in contact with materials of some
sort, and that they tend to assault their playmates when materials are in short supply,
further suggests the importance of manipulable materials. The character of materials in
a child’s environment, whether they are abstract or representative, is also a factor in the
activity they stimulate. More thematic or imaginative play [is] evoked [by materials]
that represent abstractions rather than exact replicas. One regrets, therefore, the constant
elaboration of amusement parks for young children, by adults with little understanding of
what amuses or interests a young child.”66
In Western Architect and Engineer (1961), Esherick describes the Harold E. Jones Child
Study Center: “The exterior is fuzzy. You are never quite sure where the building is, and
so you have something to be curious about. There is no big imposing entrance either for
the children or the staff and visitors. The building actually fell into place in a natural way
in response to fixed problems of circulation, space, and light. We were concerned all the
way through more with the children than with the adults who would be using it. We
wanted the building to be relatively non-suggestive in form and color, so that the children
would do what they wanted to, but different from their environment at home.”67
Some Child Study Center teachers also conducted their own classroom research, tracking
the children’s interpretation of the environment. These teachers were familiar with the
groundbreaking research work of Robin Moore from UC Berkeley’s School of
64
Solomon, Susan. (2005). American Playgrounds: Revitalizing Community Space. Lebanon, NH:
University Press of New England, pp. 12-13 & 121. 65
Kinchin & O’Connor (2012), p. 244 66
Landreth, Catherine. (1958). The Psychology of Early Childhood. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, p. 385.
67
Western Architect and Engineer (1961), p.25
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35
Environmental Design and his 1971 Environmental Playground in the nearby Berkeley Unified School District Washington Elementary School68 as well as with Jay Beckwith’s designs of “ramps, tunnels, bridges, ladders” in a do-it-yourself movement of local community organizing.69 By the 1980’s teachers were finding that the site’s design was influencing their research. A series of play yard studies, initially an investigation into the replacement of a deteriorating climbing structure and the low use of one focal activity area by children, expanded to explore how social and ecological elements influenced not only children's play behavior, but the children’s own understanding of the meaning of this play environment.70
Child Study Center play yard showing activity centers/focal areas71
68 Moore, R. & H. Wong. (1997). Natural Learning: The Life History of an Environmental Schoolyard. Berkeley, Calif.: MIG Communications. 69 Hewes, Jeremy Joan. (1975). Build Your Own Playground! Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. This book showcases Jay Beckwith’s designs on the West Coast. 70 Scales, B. (1987). “Play: The child’s unseen curriculum.” In P. Monighan-Nourot, B. Scales, B., Van Hoorn, with M. Almy, Looking at children’s play: A bridge between theory and practice. New York: Teachers College Press, pp. 89-103; Perry, J.P. (2001). Outdoor play: Teaching strategies with young children. New York: Teachers College Press; Tracy, R. (2003). Play and play environments. In Harold E. Jones Child Study Center’s 75th Anniversary Symposium. University of California, Berkeley, CA. 71
Van Hoorn, Judith, Nourot, Patricia Monigham, Scales, Barbara, & Alward, Keith. (2011). Play at the Center of the
Curriculum (5th Edition). Upper Saddle River NJ: Pearson Education Inc., p. 77.
35
Environmental Design and his 1971 Environmental Playground in the nearby Berkeley Unified School District Washington Elementary School68 as well as with Jay Beckwith’s designs of “ramps, tunnels, bridges, ladders” in a do-it-yourself movement of local community organizing.69 By the 1980’s teachers were finding that the site’s design was influencing their research. A series of play yard studies, initially an investigation into the replacement of a deteriorating climbing structure and the low use of one focal activity area by children, expanded to explore how social and ecological elements influenced not only children's play behavior, but the children’s own understanding of the meaning of this play environment.70
Child Study Center play yard showing activity centers/focal areas71
68 Moore, R. & H. Wong. (1997). Natural Learning: The Life History of an Environmental Schoolyard. Berkeley, Calif.: MIG Communications. 69 Hewes, Jeremy Joan. (1975). Build Your Own Playground! Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. This book showcases Jay Beckwith’s designs on the West Coast. 70 Scales, B. (1987). “Play: The child’s unseen curriculum.” In P. Monighan-Nourot, B. Scales, B., Van Hoorn, with M. Almy, Looking at children’s play: A bridge between theory and practice. New York: Teachers College Press, pp. 89-103; Perry, J.P. (2001). Outdoor play: Teaching strategies with young children. New York: Teachers College Press; Tracy, R. (2003). Play and play environments. In Harold E. Jones Child Study Center’s 75th Anniversary Symposium. University of California, Berkeley, CA. 71
Van Hoorn, Judith, Nourot, Patricia Monigham, Scales, Barbara, & Alward, Keith. (2011). Play at the Center of the
Curriculum (5th Edition). Upper Saddle River NJ: Pearson Education Inc., p. 77.
35
Environmental Design and his 1971 Environmental Playground in the nearby Berkeley Unified School District Washington Elementary School68 as well as with Jay Beckwith’s designs of “ramps, tunnels, bridges, ladders” in a do-it-yourself movement of local community organizing.69 By the 1980’s teachers were finding that the site’s design was influencing their research. A series of play yard studies, initially an investigation into the replacement of a deteriorating climbing structure and the low use of one focal activity area by children, expanded to explore how social and ecological elements influenced not only children's play behavior, but the children’s own understanding of the meaning of this play environment.70
Child Study Center play yard showing activity centers/focal areas71
68 Moore, R. & H. Wong. (1997). Natural Learning: The Life History of an Environmental Schoolyard. Berkeley, Calif.: MIG Communications. 69 Hewes, Jeremy Joan. (1975). Build Your Own Playground! Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. This book showcases Jay Beckwith’s designs on the West Coast. 70 Scales, B. (1987). “Play: The child’s unseen curriculum.” In P. Monighan-Nourot, B. Scales, B., Van Hoorn, with M. Almy, Looking at children’s play: A bridge between theory and practice. New York: Teachers College Press, pp. 89-103; Perry, J.P. (2001). Outdoor play: Teaching strategies with young children. New York: Teachers College Press; Tracy, R. (2003). Play and play environments. In Harold E. Jones Child Study Center’s 75th Anniversary Symposium. University of California, Berkeley, CA. 71
Van Hoorn, Judith, Nourot, Patricia Monigham, Scales, Barbara, & Alward, Keith. (2011). Play at the Center of the
Curriculum (5th Edition). Upper Saddle River NJ: Pearson Education Inc., p. 77.
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The school remains one of the longest continuously running child study centers in the
continent, attracting researchers and visitors both nationally and internationally from a
variety of disciplines. Research psychologist and Child Study Center administrator
Nancy Bayley crafted the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (a growth measurement
device) in part at the Child Study Center. Bayley received multiple honors and awards
for her work, including the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award in 1966 - the
first woman to receive this award.72
Sociologist William Corsaro spent over a year in the Child Study Center play yard
collecting data for his Friendship and Peer Culture (1985). Doctoral students, under the
direction of U.C. professors like Elliot Turiel, Millie Almy, Larry Nucci (Graduate
School of Education); Jonal Langer, Fei Xu, and Alison Gopnik (Psychology); Thomas
Laqueur (History); Thomas Boyce and Abbey Alkon (School of Public Health); Sharon
Inkelas and Keith Johnson (Linguistics); and Susan Ervin-Tripp and Dan Slobin
(Psycholinguistics) have been among those using the observation and testing facilities for
studies in social domain theory, moral development, origins of intelligence, causal
learning and theory of mind, history of child study, children’s self-regulation, language
acquisition, communication and development. U.C. undergraduates conduct research for
their honors theses at the Center, where education classes meet on a regular basis.
Students or staff from other institutions use the Center for training or observation
purposes: in 2012-13, for example, observers came from San francisco StateUniversity,
Merritt College, Children’s Hospital, Nightingale Vocational Nursing Program, and St
Mary’s College. ( Harold E. Jones Child Study Center Activity and Use archival records)
Thelma Harms taught at the Institute of Child Welfare’s Nursery School and went on to
be the Head Teacher at the Harold E. Jones Child Study Center during its final design and
construction stage. Harms was intimately involved in evaluating blueprints and
responding to architectural design choices. Her influential work in environmental
assessment, incubated during her 15 years at the Child Study Center, has had a major
impact on educational practice with the development of her Environmental Rating Scales
for early childhood settings now in use worldwide.73
Child Study Center teachers have
generated important contributions to knowledge about early childhood education,
physical environments for children, and the central role of play in young children's social
and intellectual development based on research stimulated by the Harold E. Jones Child
Study Center design-in-use.74
72
Nancy Bayley: IHD Members of the Past, at: http://ihd.berkeley.edu/bayley_profile.html
73
Harms , T. , Clifford , R. M. , & Cryer , D. (1989, 1998, 2003, 2005 ). Early Childhood Environmental
Rating Scale, Revised, Updated . New York , NY : Teachers College Press. 74
Harms , T. , & Tracy , R. ( 2006 ). “Linking research to best practice: University laboratory schools in
early childhood education.” Young Children , 61 ( 4 ), 89 – 93; Perry , J. P. (2011). “Outdoor play.” In Van
Hoorn, J., pp. 289-316; Perry, J.P. & Branum, L. (2009, Fall). “Sometimes I pounce on twigs because I’m a
meat eater”: Supporting physically active play and outdoor learning. American Journal of Play, 2(2), 195-
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Joseph Esherick advocated for basing architecture on “what is alive and vital in our
culture .” The Harold E. Jones Child Study Center continues its vitality of design. As
recently as 2012, the American Educational Research Association, in a Special Issue of
Early Education and Development on University Laboratory Preschools reference the
Child Study Center as “uniquely positioned as a setting for the intensive study of teaching
and learning . . ideally suited for innovation in early education and care,”75
and includes a
design-inspired research report by Child Study Center teachers.76
In 2012, the World
Forum and the Global Collaborative Conference “OnDesign for Children” featured the
Harold E. Jones Child Study Center for its space, design and pedagogy.77
Ning de Coninck-Smith, referring to design for “lived lives of children,” says of the
Harold E. Jones Child Study Center: “Seen from a distance of more than forty years, it is
not the building’s aethetic qualities that strike us most, even though it is a handsome
institutional building. It is the centre’s transparency and panopticon character that
catch’s the eye as well as the inbuilt tensions between the ‘being’ space of childhood and
the ‘knowledge’ space of research, between having a regard for children and keeping an
eye on children. . . [T]he inbuilt tensions which we find in this building . . . reflect the
modern view of childhood, in which consideration for play and learning, and for the
child’s own develoment as opposed to that planned by adults, represents constant
dilemmas.”78
The Children’s Programs
U.C. Berkeley’s Institute of Child Welfare was founded in 1927 with a grant from the
Laura Spellman Rockefeller Memorial for the purpose of conducting research studies in
child development, adolescent guidance, parent/child relations, health and nutrition. The
Memorial established similar research centers at the Universities of Minnesota and
Toronto, at Teachers’ College Columbia, and Yale, ; Berkeley’s was to be the only
214.; Scales , B. , Almy , M. , Nicolopoulou , A. , & Ervin-Tripp , S. (Eds.). ( 1991 ). Play and the social
context of development in early care and education. Part II: Language, literacy, and the social worlds of
children. New York, NY: Teachers College Press, pp. 75–126.
75
Elicker, James and Barbour, Nancy. (2012). “Introduction to the Special Issue on University Laboratory
Preschools in the 21st Century.” Early Education and Development, 23, p. 141.
76
Scales, Barbara, Perry, J. & Tracy, R. (2012). “Creating a classroom of inquiry at the University of
California at Berkeley: The Harold E. Jones Child Study Center.” Early Education and Development, 23:
165-180. 77
2012 International Working Forum OnDesign for Children “Study Tour: Space, Design and Pedagogy.
The Harold E. Jones Child Study Center,” June 27, Berkeley, California; Jane Perry, Rebecca Tracy, &
Barbara Scales. 2012. “Design that Supports a Social Ecology of Children’s Learning: The Harold E. Jones
Child Study Center.” 2012 International Working Forum OnDesign for Children. June 27, Berkeley,
California.
78
Coninck-Smith, Ning de. (2005). “The Panopticon of Childhood: Harold E. Jones Child Study Center,
Berkeley, California, 1946-1960.” Paedagogica Historica, (41): 4&5, August, p. 505.
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Rockefeller-funded center on the West Coast. The first director was Herbert Stoltz, MD;
Harold E Jones came from Columbia to act as its Research Director.
The Institute organized a Nursery School79
so that students and researchers could
observe children and evaluate the effects of teaching and social experience . Its first
Director was Pearl Crawford ; Professor Catherine Landreth became Director in 1938.
From 1927 to the spring of 1960 this Nursery School shared space in “the old LeConte
House” 80
on Bancroft Way with the Institute, whose projects soon filled the house to
overflowing. Thirty children were enrolled, primarily occupying the garage and the
large back yard. Most children attended 9:00-12:00, with a smaller group enrolled in the
afternoon.
A good deal of attention was given to children’s physiological development—height,
weight, cranial circumference, --and parents were expected to keep records of eating,
sleeping, illness and elimination patterns. It quickly became known as a desirable
preschool for Berkeley children. Families were encouraged to enter their children as
infants and to participate in research on their child’s physical growth and cognitive/social
development from early infancy on, as well as to attend parenting classes . Data
collected was merged and compared with similar data collected from the wider
community. “The ‘alumni’ return each year for a physical and a mental test.”81
By 1957 Boalt Law School was expanding into the area and the Institute was outgrowing
its accommodation as increasing numbers of U.C. students competed for space with
other research projects . The Institute, now the Institute for Human Development
(IHD), moved to Tolman Hall, and the Nursery School was re-created on Atherton
Street at the brand-new Harold E. Jones Child Study Center (1960), expressly designed
as both a nursery school and a center for research in child development.
When the Child Study Center was designed, its twin classrooms were intended to allow
for comparison of two demographic groups or of different teaching methods. But by
1960 the University had phased out degrees in Child Development and Early Childhood
Education. In these circumstances, Catherine Landreth proposed making one of the
classrooms available to the Berkeley Unified School district (BUSD) whose popular
Parent Nursery program , administered by BUSD’s Adult Education Program, consisted
of several parent co-ops with a trained director at each site82
. This arrangement had the
effect of bringing a community-based cohort of 3 and 4 year olds (and their families) into
the research setting of the Child Study Center along with the predominately University-
based population of the Nursery School in the east classroom. The west classroom was
79
Jones, M.C. (1991), p.22.
80
Bayley, Nancy. (1982). “Interview conducted in 1982 by Vicki Green, Institute of Human Development
Oral History Project,” deposited in the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, p.4
81
“The Nursery school”: Bulletin No 8, Institute of Child Welfare, University of California, no date 82
Landreth, Catherine (1982), p.11
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thus staffed primarily by parents enrolled in an Adult Education class working under the
direction of a credentialed teacher, the east by a professional Head Teacher and graduate
student Teaching Assistants. Both classrooms offered a morning program (9:00-12:00)
for 24 3-year-olds and an afternoon program (1:00-4:00) for the same number of 4-year
olds. An additional program for 2-year-olds and their parents was occasionally offered
by the Parent Nursery as well.
By the mid 1980’s more mothers of young children were entering the workplace.
Families increasingly sought full-day child care, and enrollment in the part-day parent
nursery began to dwindle. As a result, BUSD ended its Parent Nursery program at the
Child Study Center in 1989. IHD offered the use of the west classroom to the University
Child Care Services, already operating programs for children of student families at a
number of sites on or near the campus. This additional space would allow Child Care
Services to include U.C. faculty and staff families for the first time. In September 1989
full-day care –7:45 AM-5:30 PM -- at the Child Study Center became available for 24
children of UC employees .
University cut-backs slowly reduced the extent to which IHD could continue to subsidize
the Nursery School in the east classroom. At IHD’s request, Child Care Services
assumed responsibility for that second classroom in 1994. Full–day care was now
available at the Child Study Center Preschool for 50 faculty, staff and student children,
and continues today as part of the University’s Early Childhood Education Program, a
division of U.C. Residential and Student Services. Research on child development also
continues—in 2012-13, five doctoral or post-doctoral researchers conducted studies at
CSC, and a number of undergraduates collected data for honors theses. Child research in
fact now extends to all six of the University child care sites.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SITE
The Harold E. Jones Child Study Center is significant under the following LPC criteria:
3.24.110.1b Architectural merit:
1) As an example of an architectural movement, it is an important example of
mid-20th
century school architecture designed to maximize children’s freedom of
movement and independence of choice. By making the outdoor play space larger than
the indoor classroom, (70%-30%) , and by differentiating structurally between children’s
and adult’s perceptual zones, (a three-foot high zone, rich with interest for children, and
a higher area for adult display and storage) the designers communicate expectations
congruent with a “progressive”, humanistic pedagogy.
2) As an example of architect Joseph Esherick’s more notable public work,
in contrast to his work as a domestic architect. Esherick is nationally recognized as a
major 20th
century Bay Area architect (AIA Gold Medalist, 1989).
3.24.110.2/3 Cultural/Educational Value:
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1) As a structure identified with the University’s commitment to research in
child development , the Child Study Center is associated with studies by a number of
internationally known scholars including sociologist William Corsaro’s important work
on the sociology of childhood and developmental psychologist Alison Gopnik who with
her students continues her research on theory of mind.
2) As an ideal pre-school environment, where the design itself communicates
curricular expectations through the use of open space, adaptable to many educational
approaches and conducive to the self-directed play of children conducting their own
investigations of the world in a safe environment.
3) As an innovative outdoor play environment which has been frequently studied
by designers (notably Robin Moore and Jay Beckwith in the 1970’s) seeking to re-
configure play yards and outdoor spaces in more “natural” ways.
Jones Child Study Center: Features to Preserve
Preservation should extend to both exterior and interior features of the building
play yards and semi-shelters
visual transparency of outdoor/indoor view
fixed features in play yards (sand pits, sand kitchens, prep areas, yard storage, etc)
small paned window walls with sliding exit/entry elements
courtyards
walkway, ramp, and railing
trellises and beams, colored panels
gate and perimeter fence
public entrance, reception area, and lobby
sign
exterior walls: color and design
flat roofed building forms
landscaping and signature trees
interior features of classrooms: entryways with cubbies, children’s bathrooms;
playhouses; built-in storage; wall treatment; lighting; open floor plan with sliding
wall dividers
observation galleries
testing and research rooms
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I
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Allen, Peter. (2011). “The End of Modernism?” Journal of the Society of Architectural
Historians, Vol. 70, No. 3 (September), 354-374. University of California Press on behalf of
the Society of Architectural Historians.
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Almy, Millie, Eichorn, Dorothy H, Mussen, Paul H. & Tuddenham, Read D.
“Catherine Landreth, Psychology: Berkeley, 1995, University of California: In Memoriam.”
http://texts.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb238nb0fs&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00050&toc.d
epth=1&toc.id=
“Biography,” Joseph Esherick Collection, (1974-1), Environmental Design Archives. College of
Environmental Design. University of California, Berkeley. Berkeley, California.
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Esherick#bioghist-1.;
“Child Study Center Facilities for Children (26 per group),” September 18, 1957, Esherick
Collection, Child Study Center Project through 31 May 1959, Environmental Design
Archives, University of California, Berkeley.
Coninck-Smith, Ning de. (2005). “The Panopticon of Childhood: Harold E. Jones Child Study
Center, Berkeley, California, 1946-1960.” Paedagogica Historica, Vol. 41, Nos. 4&5,
August 2005,495-506.
Corsaro, William A. (1985). Friendship and Per Culture in the Early Years. Norwood, NJ:
Ablex Publishing Corporation
Dattner, Richard. (1969). Design for Play. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co.
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Elicker, James & Barbour, Nancy. (2012). “Introduction to the Special Issue on University
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Harms, Thelma, Clifford, Richard M., & Cryer, Debby. (1989, 1998, 2003, 2005 ). Early
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Hewes, Jeremy Joan. (1975). Build Your Own Playground! Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Company.
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Princeton Architectural Press.
Homsey, George. (2013). Interview during Harold E. Jones Child Study Architectural Walk
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Jones, Mary Cover. (1991). The Institute of Human Development Oral History Project: Mary
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Center of the Curriculum (5th Edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
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VI
APPENDIX
Figure 9 & 10: Original landscaping plan by Thomas Church, with Church’s Landscaping specifications (Esherick
Collection, Child Study Center Project, Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley).
Figure 8: Caps on perimeter fence
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VII
Figure 11: Trellised walkway
Figure 13: The first courtyard with
Japanese Maple tree
Figure 14: Public Entrance
Figure 12: Transparency of classroom and
yard seen from walkway
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VIII
Figure 15: The playhouse, “a
functional space for teaching”
Figures 16 & 17: The semi-shelters function as an
outdoor classroom.
Figure 18: View from observation gallery to yard
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IX
Figure 19: Transparency of outside to inside and visa versa
Figure 20: Esherick contract letter from
University of California, Berkeley, July 24,
1957 (Esherick Collection, Child Study
Center Project, Environmental Design
Archives, University of California,
Berkeley).
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X
IVXLCDM
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XI
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XII
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XIII
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XIV
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XV
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XVI
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