[2] The four-story building was designed by architect John Galen Howard (1864-1931) in the Beaux-Arts style, like much of the core campus of the University of California, Berkeley.

The building's tiny size was one of the primary constraints on the growth of the law school at Berkeley for over three decades.

Durant Hall was then home to UC Berkeley's East Asian Library from 1951 to 2007.

The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 25, 1982.

In 2010, after a renovation, Durant Hall reopened as the new home for the offices of the deans of the UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science.