Features

UC Berkeley has temporarily gnawed off yet another hunk of city turf, moving the Bancroft Library collection to a downtown building while the campus library is retrofitted. 

The deal, however, will make no difference to the city tax burden since the space is destined for another non-property-tax-paying institution, the non-profit Judah L. Magnes Museum. The museum plans to move into the new building after the Bancroft Library collection returns to campus.  

The Magnes features collections of Judaica, especially items involving the settlement of Jews in the American West. It will relocate its treasures from its current home at 2911 Russell St. to the building they purchased at 2121 Allston Way across from the Gaia Building. 

The new lease to the Bancroft Library puts off the museum move for at least two years while allowing the larger and even more valuable collection to find a temporary home. The Bancroft Library and its archives needs a new home while that institution’s usual home in the Doe Library Annex on campus undergoes a $64 million retrofit. 

Magnes spokesperson Robin Wander said the lease will give the museum time to plan and raise more funds for its eventual move to the Allston Way structure. 

According to the Bancroft’s website the library will reopen at its temporary new home in October. The relocation involves more than a half-million books, many rare and irreplaceable, nearly three million photographs and five million manuscripts, including those of Mark Twain. 

The rebuilding of the UC library facility is expected to take two years. 

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