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Some folks smash cars to challenge university policy. That’s what a Boalt Hall student did a couple of months ago to protest, in his way, a university plan to put a parking structure, a dining commons and offices on a university-owned block bordered by College Avenue, Channing Way, Bowditch Street and Haste Street. 

Some 60 people staged a very different protest Thursday evening. 

These more genteel folk didn’t carry sledge hammers or protest signs. Under the leadership of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, the group took a walking tour of the Anna Head Historic District. Their point, like the car-bashers, was that the Underhill Area Project, now in its environmental review stage, would blight a historic district, comprised of a number of significant structures. 

“The Underhill Area Plan...currently calls for new construction and new land uses, which, in total, would seriously impact the surviving landmark structures,” says a pamphlet distributed to tour participants. 

The university plan calls for the demolition of the Fox Cottage, which BAHA calls “the smallest architectural jewel that survived the university expansion” of the 60s. 

The cottage was one of the stops along the way for the tour group. On the steps of the cottage, BAHA member Carrie Olson made a plea to the crowd to help save the 1930s “Mother Goose-style” structure, with its wavy brickwork and wavy windows. 

“Why not keep (the cottage) as a cafe. Why knock it down?” Olson asked. 

The group trooped across the street to Putnam Hall, where the dining commons is slated for demolition under the Underhill Plan and new housing is to be built. Susan Cerny said the dining commons should not be discounted and that the residence halls have a place in the history of the area. 

She pointed to the nearby square of open space and said it must be preserved. 

“One thousand people live on this block,” she said. “This is their common ground, an oasis in the middle of the complex.” 

The tour began at the Anna Head School, on the west side of Bowditch, near Channing Way. Mary Lee Noonan talked about the history of the more-than-100-year-old former girls’ school. Noonan turned her attention to the problems of today. 

“This building is the victim of neglect and the survivor of neglect,” said Noonan, standing on the steps in front of the school now owned by the university and used for offices. 

The building, the first known as Berkeley “brown shingle,” is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a City of Berkeley Landmark. 

It hasn’t been painted in decades, the roof hasn’t been replaced and visible dry rot is evidence on the structure. “It’s what they call demolition by neglect,” said one member of the group as they walked around the building and into the inner courtyard. 

“Ask yourselves how you can encourage the university to do the right thing,” Noonan said. 

Reached Friday at the UC Berkeley planning office, Planning Director Tom Lollini took exception to BAHA’s point of view. 

“The plan we’re doing is building back the neighborhood,” he said. He pointed to the “big hole” on the Underhill block and said the university’s projects there would bring back life and therefore enhanced safety to the otherwise deserted area. 

The project will include a jogging track and will not be bordered by the unfriendly chain-link fence that rings the surface parking lot today. The dining facility will include a late-night cafe that will serve area residents. Lollini pointed out that 9,000 of the 11,000 people living in the area are students. 

The planning director argued that the architects for the new housing at the residence halls have taken the need for open space into account. Dormitory entrances will be on the street, with open space in the center, he said. 

The new public space at the residence halls will be more usable than it was previously, he added. 

The university is looking at alternatives to demolition of the Fox Cottage, Lollini said. Part of the structure might be re-used, he said, conceding that the cottage is likely to be impacted by the dining commons and offices planned on the site. 

Lollini also addressed the critics who say the university is allowing the Anna Head School to deteriorate. 

“That’s not our perspective or our intent,” he said, noting that there are competing funds for uses of the university’s capital funds, in particular, the seismic upgrading of many of the buildings on the campus proper. 

“The lion share of the university funds have to go to life safety,” he said. 

The university is not, however, ignoring the problem and is considering several solutions. One answer would be to seek gifts to restore the structure. Another would be to partner with a developer to turn the structure into student housing or a conference center, he said.