Berkeley Opens New Facility With Open Office Design
The 367,000-square-foot building uses an open-plan layout to force departmental collaboration between technical teams.
Updated on Oct. 26, 2026 in Remote Work
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UC Berkeley has opened the 367,000-square-foot Barbara and Gerson Bakar Gateway building, the first new college institution established at the university in over 50 years. The facility serves as the headquarters for the College of Computing, Data Science, and Society.
Why it matters
The building features a design that prioritizes open common areas and removes interior walls between academic disciplines to force collaboration between robotics, AI, and other fields. This shift in physical layout reflects an increasing move away from departmental silos toward integrated workspaces.
The new 367,000-square-foot facility represents the first college-level expansion at UC Berkeley in over 50 years. It marks a significant shift in campus infrastructure following the 2020 arrival of Jennifer Chayes, who previously spent 23 years at Microsoft.
The players
Jennifer Chayes
An academic leader and former Microsoft veteran who joined the university in 2020.
Weiss/Manfredi
An architecture firm specializing in collaborative institutional design.
Gensler
A global architecture and design firm known for workspace strategy and integrated building projects.
The details
Designed by Weiss/Manfredi and Gensler, the building uses curved glass and sleek columns to physically eliminate interior walls between fields. By swapping traditional private offices for expansive common areas, the architecture aims to force daily collaboration between researchers in specialized domains like robotics and artificial intelligence.
Timeline
2020: Jennifer Chayes began her tenure at UC Berkeley.
October 2026: The Barbara and Gerson Bakar Gateway building opened.
Market Landscape
The project signals a move away from the traditional university departmental model of siloed offices, favoring an integrated, open-plan architectural strategy. This design approach reflects a broader industry shift toward prioritizing spontaneous cross-disciplinary interaction in physical workspaces.
Operators looking to drive internal collaboration should examine how their own floor plans create friction between teams. Prioritizing common zones over private, partitioned offices can be a strategic lever for integrating diverse workflows, provided the culture supports the transition.
The takeaway
Architectural design is increasingly being used as a management tool to force integration between specialized business functions. Review your own office space to determine if current physical barriers are preventing necessary cross-pollination between your technical and creative departments.
Further reading
Learn more about the evolution of physical workspaces at Remote Work.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Fast Company.
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