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UC Berkeley issued notice Thursday that it plans a $3 million to $5 million renovation of Cloyne Court, a venerable shingle-sided landmark that has served both as a hotel and as student housing. 

Designed by John Galen Howard, the architect who created the master plan for UC Berkeley, the unique Arts & Crafts-style structure was named after the Irish village that served as the seat of Bishop George Berkeley, for whom the university was named.  

Opened in 1904 as a hotel for university faculty and visitors, it was owned and operated by the James M. Pierce family until its transfer to University Student’s Cooperative Association in 1946. 

The university issued a request for design professional qualifications this week for an architect to draft the plans for renovations that will restore the structure that currently houses about 150 students. 

The building was declared a city landmark on Nov. 15, 1982, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on Dec. 24, 1992. 

Because of the two historic designations, the university is seeking an architect versed in state’s historic building code. 

According to the request for design professional qualifications, the cooperative also hopes to renovate the structure in conformance with the university’s Green Building and Clean Energy Policy, as well as the U.S. Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation of Historic Buildings. 

Daniella Thompson, a Berkeley preservationist who has written about the building for the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association’s website, said the renovation is a good thing, and much needed. 

“”They will do the right thing,” she said, “and anything better than they have right now will be a huge improvement.” 

Thompson the said there have been many changes over the years to the interior and exterior of the venerable structure. 

While the building once had 32 suites, the floor plan has been significantly altered, including the removal of many stairways that once gave relatively private access to the apartments. 

Similarly, many individual entrances to the exterior were removed, all in the course of converting the hotel into student housing. 

Thompson wrote that Cloyne Court was built at the then-substantial price of $80,000 by a group of investors which included Howard, Pierce and Phoebe Apperson Hearst.