The San Francisco call., 1904-04-05
OVAL
PLANS REVISED
Instead of Hole in Ground
and High Banks of Earth
There Will Be Only Fence
WORK TO BEGIN SOON
Committee of Associated
Students Finds Cost of
Old Scheme Too Much
Berkeley Office San Francisco Call,
214S Center Street, April 4.

214S Center Street, April 4.
The football game next year between
Stanford and California will not be
played in a deep hole on the campus
at the University of California. sur
rounded by high embankments of
earth TERED with bleachers rubbing
their backs against the sky. That
plan has been abandoned and instead
there will only be a humble fence,
adorned with humber bleachers and Il
grand stand of the same degree of
humbleness.
The original plan has been abandon
ed for two or three good reasons. First
of these is the monumental expense it
would involve. To carry it out would
cost probably $250,000, and this the As
sociated Students. who would have to
foot the bill. would not feel justified
in spending at this time. Another rea-
son is that the big excavation would
permanently disfgure the field and
prevent anything ever being done with
it in case radical changes are made in
the methods of playing the game. A
minor reason is that the embankments,
which would have to be about sixty
feet wide at the bottom, would take
up too much room.
Now the plan is to simply level off
the Hillegass tract, which will be the
campus under the Hearst plans, and
erect a fence and bleachers where
needed. In time this fence and bleach
ers may become a permanent feature
of the tract, as it is now thought that
there can be designed a more becom-
ing thing than a hole with little hills
around it. Brick walls, with ivy grow
ing upon them and colonnades ami
handsome gates, such as surround
Franklin Field in the East, would be
more acceptable in the end At any
rate it is contemplated that the struc-
| lures to be built under the revised plan
will last for fifteen or twenty years.
/ The cost will be about 800, 900.
LOCATION NOT CHANGED.
! In revising the plan no change has
been made in the location of the foot
ball or baseball fields. The football
! field will lies between Bowditch and
Barrow streets. Bancroft way and
! Strawberry Creek. The bleachers and
I fence on the north side will overlap
Bowditch street somewhat, but these
/ Will De lHdQe portable so that they
may he moved at will.
John Galen Howard. supervisine
architect for the university, has been
/ opposed for long time to the closing
/ of Bowditch street as he wished to
maintain its integrity in order to con-
form to the Hearst plans for the sta
dunn. But Mr.. Howard was prevailed
upon to-day to remove his objections.
/ T. Jnxt-
gether closed, as Mr.. Howard has sub
mitted plan for handsome gates on
each side of the tract that is accepta-
| BILE to the executive committee of the
Associated Students, which has the
| thing in charge.
The baseball field will be at the east
end of the tract. 1t will lie between
Bowditch street and Hearst Hail. Ban
croft way and Strawberry Creek. It's
| diamond will occupy the same relative
position that the diamond on the regu-
: lar campus does now.
MUCH WORK NEEDED.
/ Among the advantages of this con-
! tiguity of the two fields is that they
/ may be turned into one by simply re-
moving the portable bleachers that will
cross Bowditch street This will leave
ample room for cinder track and ath-
letic field. 1t is estimated that a track
at least third of mile around may
be fitted into the space now occupied
/ by the Hillegass tract.
An immense amount of work will
have to be done before this project will
be completed. particularly in the hand
ling of earth. The tract will first be
cleared of its present soil strata and
the clay underneath removed until the
proper depth is reached. Then the soil
will all be replaced and leveled off, this
being necessary in order to provide a
field in which grass may be grown.
This revised plan is in the hands of
the executive committee of the Asso-
ciated Students, who hold daily con-
sultations with Architect Howard. 1t
is now in such shape that it is prac-
tically settled, and all that is necessary
is the official action of the committee,
which meets tomorrow night. Ezra
Decoto, graduate manager for the As
sociated Students, said to-day that he
! did not doubt that work would begin
! within a week.