In the 1920’s plans for campus development forced the Botanical Garden out of its initial central campus location. Between 1925 and 1928, under the guidance Thomas Harper Goodspeed, the Garden was relocated to its current position on 34 acres in Strawberry Canyon above the main campus. Here, he said, “the eastward moving air draft from the Golden Gate … with consequent moderating influences on summer temperature and humidity permit an association of plants, birds, and mammals not duplicated elsewhere in middle western California.”
Although not officially named Curator of the Garden until 1926, it was Goodspeed who planned the Garden with assistance from J.W. Gregg, professor in the Department of Landscape Design, and supervised its construction. In departure from traditional botanical gardens, Goodspeed decided to group the collections primarily by geographic regions in settings resembling the native habitats. This principle remains central to Garden policy today.