http://bactra.org/notebooks Cosma's Notebooks en http://bactra.org/notebooks/1994/10/03#ecole-ba I actually <em>like</em> Beaux-arts buildings, which, I am authoritatively told, means I have the architectural sensibilities of a gnat, if not a stock-broker. <P>The Berkeley architecture department was begun by one John Galen Howard, a product of the &Eacute;cole. He designed many of the prettiest and most livable buildings on campus (``his monuments you see around you'') and quite sensibly did his best to duplicate the school, to such effect that my father recalls a good many &Eacute;cole traditions from when he was studying architecture there in the mid-'60s.