Berkeley Campus

The Berkeley campus encompasses approximately 1,232 acres (499 ha), though the “central campus” occupies only the low-lying western 178 acres (72 ha) of this area. Of the remaining 1,000 acres (400 ha), approximately 200 acres (81 ha) are occupied by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; other facilities above the main campus include the Lawrence Hall of Science and several research units, notably the Space Sciences Laboratory, the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, an undeveloped 800 acres (323.7 ha) ecological preserve, the University of California Botanical Garden and a recreation center in Strawberry Canyon. To the west of the central campus is the downtown business district of Berkeley; to the northwest is the neighborhood of North Berkeley, including the so-called Gourmet Ghetto, a commercial district known for high quality dining due to the presence of such world-renowned restaurants as Chez Panisse. Immediately to the north is a quiet residential neighborhood known as Northside with a large graduate student population^{[citation needed]}; situated north of that are the upscale residential neighborhoods of the Berkeley Hills, where many faculty members live^{[citation needed]}. Immediately southeast of campus lies fraternity row, and beyond that the Clark Kerr Campus and an upscale residential area named Claremont. The area south of the university includes student housing andTelegraph Avenue, one of Berkeley’s main shopping districts with stores, street vendors and restaurants catering to college students and tourists. In addition, the University also owns land to the northwest of the main campus, a 90-acre (36 ha) married student housing complex in the nearby town of Albany (“Albany Village” and the “Gill Tract”), and a field research station several miles to the north in Richmond, California. Outside of the Bay Area, the University owns various research laboratories and research forests in both northern and southern Sierra Nevada.