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Building Cities
in Balance
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Oakland, CA 94604
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The Heart of the City and Strawberry Creek Plaza Project

Utilizing ecological rebuilding and design approaches, the Heart of the City/Strawberry Creek Plaza Project proposes to demonstrate practical, sustainable solutions to the serious environmental and related social challenges facing urban communities globally.

IN BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA

Structurally, a Heart of the City Project in Berkeley's downtown embracing an ecologically oriented design concept would:

1. Create a one block pedestrian street on Center Street between Oxford Street and Shattuck Avenue.

2. Create a small public plaza.

3. Incorporate a "daylighted" Strawberry Creek into the site design.

4. Create buildings that utilize sustainable design principles, including solar energy.

The project addresses:

  • Automobile dependence and transportation alternatives
  • Pedestrian streets, public space, and street design
  • The city and region’s housing/jobs geographic imbalance
  • The need to demonstrate effective green building design, materials, and methods
  • Education and outreach to the community
  • Restoration of urban waterways and green space
  • Local biodiversity
  • Energy conservation
  • CO2 abatement/climate change, and related effects
  • Linkages between environmental restoration and sustainable development

In Berkeley, the project could optimize sustainable features in developments on approximately 3 acres (about 131,000 sq. ft.) of downtown real estate owned by the University of California, Bank of America, City of Berkeley and possibly other interests at a time when Berkeley is more open to new urban planning approaches. The Project advocates a mix of residential, commercial, and arts-oriented development and public open space, including a section of a restored Strawberry Creek flowing through the project.

The initial planning for the Berkeley Heart of the City Project, begun in 1997, was concerned with refining the concept, introducing it to the community and building basic interest and support. We have statements of interest, letters of support and/or financial contributions from over 100 citizen groups addressing a broad spectrum of health, social, economic, and environmental issues. (Click here to read the list of supporters of the Ecocity Amendment, which lists the Heart of the City Project as one of its policies.)

If the Heart of the City Project takes on a broader scope and aspires to connect to larger urban ecological reshaping, it could demonstrate how sustainable development can help pay for environmental restoration through Transfers of Development Rights (TDRs) and other land-conservation incentives. For example, development removed along the course of Strawberry Creek between downtown and the San Francisco Bay can, in essence, be added to the more efficient urban center, hence the linkage between downtown development and the creek’s restoration over time.

For more information, please contact Kirstin Miller.

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PROJECT UPDATE

CLICK HERE TO VIEW INITIAL DESIGN POSSIBILITIES

Walter Hood, Principal of Hood Design and Professor and former Chair of theLandscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Department at the University of California,Berkeley, has been commissioned by Ecocity Builders as designer for the proposed Strawberry Creek Plaza in central downtown Berkeley.

Ecocity Builders has received donations to commission the design in the amount of $150,000. The donation was made by the New Jersey based Helen and William Mazer Foundation, and from private donations.

Steven Bercu, a Director of the Foundation, stated: "We believe that, with Strawberry Creek Plaza, the city, community, and university in Berkeley can provide true leadership. It's anopportunity to showcase urban redesign that not only is earth-friendly, but also enhances the localeconomy and quality of life."

Mr. Hood's design for a new urban plaza on Center Street will feature Strawberry Creek inaccordance with the guidelines of the current Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee's CenterStreet recommendations and the 2004 Berkeley Planning Commission's UC Hotel Conference Center Task Force recommendations.

Mr. Hood has worked in a variety of settings, including community design, urban landscape design, art, and research. Recent commissions by Hood Design include the landscape design forthe deYoung Museum in San Francisco, the garden of the new Jackson Hole Center for the Artsin Jackson Hole, Wyoming; the Poplar Street improvement project in Macon, Georgia; Splash Pad Park and Lafayette Square Park in Oakland; and a number of new park and trail designs forthe Oakland Waterfront. In 1997, he was a fellow at the American Academy in Rome inLandscape Architecture. In 2003 he was awarded the American Society of Landscape Architecture National Award of Honor.

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