Creekside marsh

This beautiful patch of wetland sits within the Goodspeed Natural Area, one of the three designated green areas on central campus. The diversity of plants at this spot includes sedges, rushes, grasses, and other herbaceous plants near the creek bottom, as well as a couple big ferns higher up on the bank. A big-leaf maple sapling grows inside a protective cage, and the redwoods tower overhead. Juncos, wrens and Song Sparrows flit about in the streamside vegetation. The university’s active investment in stream rehabilitation is evident in spots like this. In the early 1900s, the Berkeley campus was known for its stench, as raw sewage was disposed directly in the creek, including from the student cabins that were built streamside. The log cabin on the south side of the creek, Senior Hall, harkens back to a previous era. The building was constructed for the semi-secret society known as the Order of the Golden Bear in 1906, and it long served as a social space for the male student body. Senior Hall was constructed by the First Dean of the College of Architecture, John Galen Howard, who was also responsible for the beaux arts design of the Campanile, Doe Library and Wheeler Hall. Howard was inspired in his architecture by themes of the California landscape at the time of nascent statehood. However, administrators worried the structure made Berkeley appear too provincial, and the building's redwood logs and rustic frame were regarded by some as a blight on the campus. Howard’s successor as campus architect, Julia Morgan, designed a complementary structure on the opposing bank of Strawberry creek to provide community space for the female students. In 2014, that building, called Girton Hall, was relocated to the UC Botanical Garden. Today, both spaces continue to serve as important hubs for campus and student life.