Blake Garden (Kensington, California)

Blake Garden is a teaching facility for the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design in the hills of Kensington, California, a census-designated place of the East Bay region of the Bay Area in Northern California, approximately 4 mi (6.4 km) north of the main University of California, Berkeley campus. It was originally designed by landscape architect Mabel Symmes for the estate owned by her sister and brother-in-law, Anita and Anson Blake; the trio lived in Blake House, a mansion on the estate designed by architect Walter Danforth Bliss and completed in 1924. The Blakes deeded the grounds to their alma mater, the University of California, in 1957, which took full control after Anita's death in 1962, implementing a redesign by Geraldine Knight Scott starting from 1964. Blake House served as the official residence of the President of the University of California from 1967 to 2008. Since 2009, Blake Garden has been open to the public on weekdays.