Do you know the names behind our hallowed halls?
Note: there are way more building namesakes than can fit here. (We’re looking at you, graduate schools, UC San Diego Health and Scripps Institution of Oceanography.) Go further down the recognition rabbit hole at: tritonmag.com/names
College Composition
Roger Revelle was not only a founder of UC San Diego but also a bigwig at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Thus, his college halls bear nautical names: Argo references a Scripps ship circa the 1960s (as well as Jason’s ancient vessel), the HMS Challenger performed the first oceanographic expedition around the world, and the Beagle is best known for its notable passenger, Charles Darwin. Galathea and Atlantis may have mythical connotations but were also research vessels, as were Discovery (not the space shuttle) and Meteor (not the space rock).
Buildings at John Muir College follow the naturalist’s wilderness travels through the Yosemite area— Tenaya hearkens to a lake named for an Ahwahneechee chief, while Tioga is a mountain pass referencing the Iroquois and Mohawk term for “where it forks.” The tree known as Tamarack yields “wood used for snowshoes” per the native Abenaki language, and while Tuolumne has many meanings, here it references the Yosemite meadow where Muir once led a flock of 2,000 sheep.
The college now named for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall once had residences that were merely alphabetical, but they now correspond to full words honoring its grassroots origins as Third. From A for Activism to V for Voice, go online to see what your dorm now stands for: tritonmag.com/thirdnames
Earl Warren was the first Supreme Court justice to be honored by a college, and its halls take inspiration from people and cases of his court: NAACP leaders Daisy and L.C. Bates led the way on Brown v. Board of Education, and Justices Frankfurter, Black and Douglas were part of the unanimous decision to desegregate schools. Later justices of Warren’s court include John Marshall Harlan II, Potter Stewart, William Brennan Jr. and Arthur Goldberg. Hmm, nine buildings—coincidence?
Eleanor Roosevelt’s quest for worldwide human rights earned her the nickname “First Lady of the World,” so her college’s halls are named for global geographic regions. Two other college buildings are named for former newspaper owners James and Helen Copley, and Theodore E. Gildred, Jr., former U.S. ambassador to Argentina.
Sixth College still has a numerical name, but its new buildings evoke the college’s focus on culture, art and technology: Catalyst honors the start of any transformative endeavor, and Mosaic references the enduring art form that brings distinct pieces into a novel whole. Tapestry references the ancient artistic and cultural technology of the loom, which inspired some elements of modern encryption tech, and finally, Kaleidoscope represents the many angles and reflections that arise from shifts in perspective.
And while our newest, Seventh College, has not renamed its towering north campus residence halls known as the Village, who knows? UC San Diego students may well give the area their own name, like they did decades ago with Camp Snoopy, now the official name of the Pepper Canyon complex. Its pitched-roof residences and grounds of green grass and pine needles certainly speak to a summer camp, but as to how the cartoon beagle got involved, we’re at a loss. If you know or have any leads or ideas, reach out! tritonmag@ucsd.edu
Professors
Given a history like ours, there’s no shortage of professors and administrators to be honored with concrete and glass:
George Mandler was the founding chair of the psychology department, and also a leader in the “cognitive revolution” of the mid-20th century.
With groundbreaking work on isotopes and a Nobel Prize to his name, Harold Urey can add this physics building to his list of accolades, as well as a “Urey Burger” once served at the Coffee Hut (Named for coffee, of course.)
Public health pioneer Faustina Solís has a hall in Marshall College honoring her tenure as the college’s provost, the first Latina to hold such a position at UC San Diego.
David Bonner was not only the founding chair of the biology department but was also instrumental in establishing UC San Diego’s School of Medicine and its novel curriculum.
The academic duo of Joseph Mayer and Maria Goeppert Mayer have a physics building to their name, given that the former is a renowned physical chemist and the latter a Nobel Prize-winning physicist.
His eponymous curve first brought mass attention to the planet’s greenhouse effect, so it’s fitting that the Charles Keeling Apartments held our campus’ first LEED Platinum certification for green buildings, with elements such as solar panels, rooftop gardens and gray-water irrigation systems among other sustainable features.
And the School of Engineering was named in honor of former engineering professor and founder of Qualcomm, Irwin Jacobs and his wife, Joan Jacobs.
New Hall on the Block
In an engineering building in early ’70s UC San Diego, a single open door changed the life of Franklin Antonio ’74. The door belonged to then Professor Irwin Jacobs, and Antonio remembers it well: “Late in the day, when all the other office doors were closed, Irwin’s door would be open, and there would be a line of undergraduates waiting to talk to him. And he didn’t just talk to students about coursework; he talked to them about their projects, gave them guidance and ideas and suggestions. And this had a tremendous impact on a large number of people.”
It certainly had an impact on Antonio, who went to work for Jacobs’ company, Linkabit, after graduation and then partnered with his former professor and others to co-found Qualcomm in 1985. Given that Qualcomm would ultimately go on to fuel the mobile revolution in the ensuing decades, one might say that open door—and the connection it made—has in turn touched the life of anyone who has ever used a cellphone.
Just as Antonio’s work at Qualcomm has transformed how we live, his generosity is now transforming the student experience at UC San Diego. Franklin Antonio Hall is an archetype for the future of education, facilitating the kind of student access and interaction with faculty that made all the difference for Antonio.
“I don’t like the idea of professors being behind a locked door,” says Antonio. “One of my main requests for this building was that students be able to access professors’ offices and have direct interaction. Undergraduates, especially—they benefit tremendously from direct interaction with professors.”
Approximately 25 percent of Jacobs School faculty will be based in the new building. In addition to offices and classrooms, 11 collaborative research spaces will make up the heart of Franklin Antonio Hall. Known as “collaboratories,” these collaboration-focused laboratories will house five to seven professors and their respective research groups, all coming from a mix of different academic departments within the Jacobs School of Engineering.
“We are designing this building to encourage more of the innovative collaborations that are a hallmark of the Jacobs School,” says Dean Albert P. Pisano. “Collaborations that cross between academia and industry multiple times are critical for developing systems-level solutions to challenges in medicine, energy, security, robotics and more. I won’t be surprised when I see our industry partners starting to collaborate with one another in the new building.”
With longstanding ties to UC San Diego both personally and professionally, both Jacobs and Antonio know the amazing things that can happen through partnerships between academia and industry. And as an alumnus, Antonio is especially pleased to help the next generation of Triton innovators use their skills and education to improve and enhance lives. “It’s been fun to watch the incredible growth and evolution of UC San Diego since my graduation,” says Antonio. “I’m privileged to be a small part of it.”
Chancellors
All UC San Diego chancellors leave a mark on campus, but some marks have roofs and windows. Nuclear physicist Herbert York was our first chancellor, and has a physical science building that bears his name. John Galbraith believed so much in libraries that his hall once housed our university’s first. Psychologist William McGill’s building was initially devoted to that discipline, but the building named for psychologist Richard Atkinson houses all kinds of innovation with the Qualcomm Institute, while his spouse and fellow psychologist, Rita Atkinson, has a residence hall.
Philanthropists
Writer, priest and newspaper editor Ernest Mandeville was an early supporter of UC San Diego arts, while the auditory arts honors their patron with the Conrad Prebys Music Center.
As for other notable centers, well-known retailer Sol Price puts the “Price” in Price Center, and Price Club—which may be better known by its post-merger name, Costco.
It’s the hall with the hill, but it was named for Robert O. Peterson, philanthropist and innovator of the drive-thru in his role as the founder of the Jack in the Box restaurants.
Engineer Charles Lee Powell fittingly has his name upon a structural engineering building, and he shares a marquee with San Diego Superior Court Judge James L. Focht on a bioengineering building.
If you notice a strikingly modern building among the classic designs at Revelle College, that would be Tata Hall for the Sciences, named for one of the largest philanthropic organizations in India, Tata Trusts.
What hall do you recall most? Share with us: tritonmag@ucsd.edu
Expanding Campus
The newly-opened Design and Innovation Building offers trolley riders an instant glimpse of the university’s prestige and distinction in creative exploration. The building currently houses The Basement, an alumni-founded student innovation space, along with the forward-thinking Design Lab and a host of other creative resources. Known as DIB for short, the Design and Innovation Building will unite changemakers from across the region, incubating new concepts and accelerating novel ideas, right on the very doorstep of campus.
Further extending accessibility to the San Diego community is the forthcoming downtown building on yet another stop of the UC San Diego Blue Line. UC San Diego Park & Market has been designed with a purposeful mix of public, meeting, arts and educational spaces for civic engagement, learning, collaboration and cultural experiences for people of all ages and from all walks of life. Learn more about this and other developments at: tritonmag.com/transform