Sather Tower is a bell tower with clocks on its four faces on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. It is more commonly known as The Campanile for its resemblance to the Campanile di San Marco in Venice. It is a recognizable symbol of the university.
Given by Jane K. Sather in memory of her husband, banker Peder Sather, it is the second-tallest bell-and-clock-tower in the world. Its current 61-bell carillon, built around a nucleus of 12 bells also given by Jane Sather, can be heard for many miles and supports an extensive program of education in campanology.
Sather Tower also houses many of the Department of Integrative Biology's fossils (mainly from the La Brea Tar Pits) because its cool, dry interior is suited for their preservation.
At 307 feet (94 m) tall, it is the second-tallest free-standing bell-and-clock-tower in the world. It includes seven principal floors and an eighth-floor observation deck 200 feet (61 m) above the base.
Designed by John Galen Howard, founder of the Department of Architecture at the university, Sather Tower was completed in 1915 and opened to the public in 1916. It marked a secondary axis in Howard's original Beaux-Arts campus plan and has been a major point of orientation in almost every campus master plan since.
Sather Tower houses a full concert carillon, enlarged from the original 12-bell chime installed in October 1917 to 48 bells in 1979 and the current 61 bells in 1983.
