If you had ever wondered what the Tremere Chantry of Berkeley was like, this may help.
This building is Bowles Hall, a men's dorm on U.C. Berkeley campus. Celeste found this place when she was first gaming in Berkeley, in Forbidden Liasons, and declared it "perfect". It is what the chantry was based on from the very start, and has always struck me as Ezra all over.
Ezra is reputed to have bought the place from the U.C. Regents; after seeing the sum she offered, their initial refusal turned into enthusiastic agreement. The Tremere have been there ever since, barring the duration of the Curse of Berkeley, until the clandestine move to another location during the final troubles of the Contra Costa Court. Even after the latter, most of them lived in Bowles, but the core of the books and valuables had been transferred, and there were contingency plans should anything dire materialize -- such as an offensive by the Lasombra who so deftly inserted and removed himself at least once. So far as I am aware, no plan was ever needed.
The actual location is, of course, a dorm, and shows it: in the blue tarps littered about, in the safety railings, in the neglect of building and landscape. The inhabitants had apparently just finished having a lawn party of some kind, resulting in sand, straw, and the tarps -- last time I saw the place, it had a large "C" painted on the lawn, as it was football season and the Bears were doing well.
Needless to say, Ezra would never let the place fall into disrepair, nor tolerate such things as steel railings; I can just imagine her saying, with polite distaste, "remove that." Think of it as it would be under the reign of a diligent and dignified caretaker -- which the Tremere Regent certainly is.
Bowles is massive; I made the composite picture to try to convey that. It has a front face, two main wings jutting out front, and innumerable small ones on the sides. Celeste has mentioned that the Tremere would quite possibly have blocked some areas off, or left them vacant, as the Tremere contingent for the East Bay would rattle around in this old thing like a handful of peas in a barrel. I've never been inside, and that probably won't change, but my imagination would certainly do it more justice than the reality, knowing dorms.
I am working on a (probably wildly inaccurate) floor plan of the place, though to do that I may have to journey to Berkeley campus at least once more (30-40 miles, and through the Caldecott tunnel), and every time I've attempted to visit Bowles to work before, my car has broken down with small but inconvenient problems. I would take BART if I could walk the mile to get to the place, but alas... I'll just have to take my chances, and make sure I've my triple-A card handy. If I can go again, I'll try to get the night photos I couldn't manage last time.
The physical location is just off of Piedmont St. -- the green turf you can see a corner of, in the picture peering down the walk, is the Astroturf of the Stadium for U.C. Berkeley. Any map should show it clearly; turning right off of Piedmont, taking the next right puts you in a parking lot, and Bowles is facing the stadium from the hill. It's actually a straight shot from the Highway 13 Berkeley exit of Highway 24. I recommend visiting if you're in the area.
Enjoy the view. I know I do.
 The roofline (68K) |
 More of the roofline (69K) |
 The back (93K) |
 Looking down the path (87K) |
 The main doors (80K) |
 To the left of the doors (90K) |
 To the right of the doors (58K) |