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Wheeler Hall is a building on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, California in the Classical Revival style. Home to the English department as well as the university's College Writing Programs department, it was named for the philology and university president Benjamin Ide Wheeler.
The building was opened in 1917. It houses the largest lecture hall on the Berkeley campus, Wheeler Auditorium.
On February 29, 1940, UC Berkeley professor Ernest O. Lawrence received the Nobel Prize in Physics in Wheeler Auditorium from Carl Wallerstedt, Consul General of Sweden, due to the danger of crossing the Atlantic during World War II. The building was the site of many of the Free Speech Movement protests in the 1960s and is a focal point of the Berkeley campus. In the 2010s, it has been the site of many university protests and several building takeovers.
The facade's central part has three horizontal zones. The base is rusticated and includes nine deeply recessed, arched entrances leading to the lobby. Above this, the middle section spans two stories and includes a colonnaded gallery in a modified giant Ionic style. This gallery is bordered by end bays featuring paired Ionic pilasters and recessed, round-beaded windows. The attic story, set back from the classical entablature, features six monumental urns over the columns below.
Following the middle zone's layout, the attic story is highlighted by fluted pilasters that support a molded cornice capped by a blank frieze.
Inside, the southwest side of the building contains a lobby and a large auditorium encircled by a wide hall. The second and third floors have Hallway providing access to the balcony. While there have been some interior modifications, these changes have not affected the building's exterior architectural integrity.
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