Walker Hall Graduate Student Center

Walker Hall Graduate Student Center is a winner for the 2025 Preservation Design Award for Rehabilitation. Award recipients are selected by a jury of top professionals in the fields of architecture, engineering, planning, and history, as well as renowned architecture critics and journalists. Tickets and sponsorship options are available at californiapreservation.org/programs/awards/.

About Walker Hall Graduate Student Center

The project transformed a vacant, seismically unsafe building into a Graduate Student center shaped by an inclusive and equitable programming process and focused on welcome and belonging. It coalesces history and community at a hub of university life as interactive academic environments advance learning outcomes and facilitate student collaboration.

The original structure, designed to house the university’s growing agricultural engineering program, was one of the earliest buildings on campus. Its two-story Spanish style wing faces north to the central quad and originally housed classrooms and offices. To the south, three lofty, clear-span wings served as large shops for hands-on research and fabrication of farming machinery. Now at the heart of the present-day campus, the project transforms the University in ways that reach beyond its immediate context, demonstrating how revitalizing a single building can reconnect academic precincts across campus.

Community Importance

As a public university, with 40,000 enrolled undergraduate and graduate degree students, equity, diversity, and inclusion are foundational values of the University of California, Davis, which has been recognized over the past two years as a top-ranked university in the nation for student diversity and internationalization. Consequently, EDI values were fundamental design drivers of the Walker Hall project.

The renovated building presents a welcoming, inclusive environment to graduate and undergraduate students alike. The historic northern façade was retained and restored, while the southern façade was transformed with shaded courtyards and transparent facades that welcome everyone. Universal Design strategies exceeded code requirements, including legible wayfinding, automatic doors, and gracious internal circulation, inviting people with diverse abilities. The Graduate Center builds community and fosters cross-disciplinary engagement by providing a range of student services in one place, including diversity resources, mental health counseling, parent study areas, professional development support, and quiet writing lounges. Drawn by these services, graduate students are invited to gather in the Graduate Commons, an inclusive community space that promotes social engagement and collaboration.

“There are not many places on campus specifically for graduate students, so many of us spend time in our respective buildings and labs, disconnected from the rest of campus. But building community among graduate students is a key piece in ensuring our success. Through community we find our friends, establish our support networks, find a cause to fight for, and discover opportunities for collaboration.” – Jonathan Minnick, President, UC Davis Graduate Student Association

About CPF and the Awards

The California Preservation Awards are a statewide hallmark, showcasing the best in historic preservation. The awards ceremony includes the presentation of the Preservation Design Awards and the President’s Awards, bringing together hundreds of people each year to share and celebrate excellence in preservation.

The California Preservation Foundation (CPF), a 501c3 nonprofit, was incorporated in 1978. We now support a national network of more than 36,000 members and supporters. Click here to learn how you can become a member.