Berthoud Hall

Berthoud Hall opened its doors in 1940 and was named after Mines’ first geology professor, Edward L. Berthoud. It houses the Geology and Geological Engineering Department.

Berthoud Hall was a Works Progress Administration project; WPA was an agency of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. Berthoud Hall was designed by Temple Hoyne Buell. The elaborate ornamentation made the project labor intensive, a prerequisite for WPA projects. The building initially housed geology and geophysics, with a portion designed to accommodate the Geology Museum, which has since moved to a building it shares with the General Research Laboratory. Its iconic structure and architecture remain, for the most part, unchanged.