Sather Tower, Bell tower at University of California Berkeley, United States
Sather Tower is a bell tower at the University of California Berkeley in the United States, rising 93.6 meters (307 feet) above the campus. The structure displays a Gothic Revival exterior with four large clock faces, and inside, staircases climb through eight above-ground floors to an observation platform at 61 meters (200 feet).
Jane K. Sather gave the tower in memory of her husband, banker Peder Sather. John Galen Howard designed it; it was completed in 1915 and opened to the public in 1916, marking a secondary axis in his Beaux-Arts campus plan. The original 12-bell chime, cast in 1915 by John Taylor & Co, was installed in 1917 after delays caused by World War I and the US Customs Service.
The carillon consists of 61 bells that ring out daily during the academic year and play special melodies for campus events and celebrations. Students and visitors often gather on the plaza below to listen to the midday or late afternoon concerts performed by trained musicians.
An elevator carries visitors 200 feet (61 m) up to the eighth-floor observation deck, which looks over the campus, the surrounding hills, San Francisco and the Golden Gate. Admission is free for UC Berkeley students, staff and faculty; seniors, Cal Alumni Association members and those aged 17 and under pay four dollars, everyone else five dollars.
The tower's cool, dry interior stores many of the Department of Integrative Biology's fossils, mainly from the La Brea Tar Pits, because the conditions suit their preservation. The 10,500-pound "Great Bear Bell" tolls the hour and carries bas-relief carvings of bears and the constellation Ursa Major.
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