The Stonefire building on University Ave. across from the UC Extension Building in the construction phase.

New hotel high rise building on Center St, under design review and waiting for permit approval.

The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive on Center St. completed.

New high rise building proposed near Berkeley BART station.

Harold Way, high rise building across Berkeley Public Library approved for construction.

Proposed building on Bancroft Ave. next to Bancroft Clothing.

Lower Sproul Redevelopment, MLK Jr. Building and Eshleman Hall completed.

After a walk through I've concluded Jacobs Hall is a fine building indeed.

socaliganbear;842671642 said:

---

Yes, that would certainly help. And I've heard that Bob Lalanne wants to do just that. But I do not believe that the faculty or staff would back the university in the epic fight that would ensue. Bigger than the CMS remodel imo. In fact, I strongly believe our faulty would come out against it.

Side note, I did hear there's a plan for a university parking structure on Oxford.

---

I was at Cal in the 80's when they had a huge student housing problem. A friend of mine was in a triple in Spens-Black. They basically stacked their beds to make room to walk around. I am from the peninsula and was deemed to be too close to Berkeley to qualify for housing so I ended up paying very high rent in an apartment. The rental situation was so bad the students registered to vote and got rent control voted in. At the time EVERYONE wanted people's park bulldozed for a housing complex but the city said they would block it. UC paid to maintain and own the property (taxes,etc) but could do nothing with it. There was also some discussion about liability for the crimes on the property since the city said it was UC property they are not liable. Frustrating situation and would love to see it developed into housing.

The campus is committed to destroying parking and open space while eliminating any faculty and staff that support "Cal culture."

cal85;842671760 said:

---

I was at Cal in the 80's when they had a huge student housing problem. The rental situation was so bad the students registered to vote and got rent control voted in. At the time EVERYONE wanted people's park bulldozed for a housing complex but the city said they would block it.

---

The city cannot block the University demolishing People's Park. They are afraid of the volleyball fiasco that plated out when they they tried to make it a real park. The cost of building on that site is tremendous due to contractors fear of sabotage, violence and protests.

Tolman being obliterated? Solid. Can Barrows be taken down too? Every other hall or building I had a class in I would like to see left alone. But these two I thought were cheap with no positive characteristics.

1979bear;842671784 said:

---

Tolman being obliterated? Solid. Can Barrows be taken down too? Every other hall or building I had a class in I would like to see left alone. But these two I thought were cheap with no positive characteristics.

---

Unfortunately Barrows was retrofitted to provide additional resistance to seismic loads. They kept the damn thing.

GoCal80;842671539 said:

---

http://www.berkeleyside.com/2015/11/16/uc-berkeley-plans-8-story-building-with-student-housing/

All of these projects plus the new art museum and aquatics complex represent a loss in parking capacity for the university.

---

Put a,parking garage in People's Park

CaliforniaEternal;842671584 said:

---

The best news is that Tolman Hall is being torn born after this new one is done. That is a major improvement to campus!

---

If Tolman is being torn down, what is going to happen to that space? The building has a huge footprint, plus there is a lot of land around it: A huge parcel and, unlike all the buildings that "oskirules" has showed us on this thread, it's "on" campus.

Big C_Cal;842671850 said:

---

If Tolman is being torn down, what is going to happen to that space? The building has a huge footprint, plus there is a lot of land around it: A huge parcel and, unlike all the buildings that "oskirules" has showed us on this thread, it's "on" campus.

---

And why isn't the psychology department getting that land?

okaydo;842671851 said:

---

And why isn't the psychology department getting that land?

---

Back when the downtown expansion was gaining steam, it was brought up that some of the space in the large new buildings downtown could serve as overflow for when older buildings on main campus were retrofitted or demolished. Between demolition, planning, and new construction, who knows when that land will have something rise on it again. The department obviously needs something more immediate, but I do wonder if things will be rearranged in say... 6 years.

Big C_Cal;842671850 said:

---

If Tolman is being torn down, what is going to happen to that space? The building has a huge footprint, plus there is a lot of land around it: A huge parcel and, unlike all the buildings that "oskirules" has showed us on this thread, it's "on" campus.

---

The land will become open space, but probably not permanently. The northwest portion of the lot fits in nicely with the biosciences cluster on that part of campus that includes Barker and Koshland. There's also a need for space when other projects eventually happen like the Evans Hall rebuild.

Part of Tolman's existing footprint will remain open space, which will improve the view of campus from the Hearst/Arch/Leconte intersection.

CaliforniaEternal;842671879 said:

---

The land will become open space, but probably not permanently. The northwest portion of the lot fits in nicely with the biosciences cluster on that part of campus that includes Barker and Koshland. There's also a need for space when other projects eventually happen like the Evans Hall rebuild.

Part of Tolman's existing footprint will remain open space, which will improve the view of campus from the Hearst/Arch/Leconte intersection.

---

A much needed improvement to the edge of the northside.

cal85;842671760 said:

---

I was at Cal in the 80's when they had a huge student housing problem. A friend of mine was in a triple in Spens-Black. They basically stacked their beds to make room to walk around. I am from the peninsula and was deemed to be too close to Berkeley to qualify for housing so I ended up paying very high rent in an apartment. The rental situation was so bad the students registered to vote and got rent control voted in. At the time EVERYONE wanted people's park bulldozed for a housing complex but the city said they would block it. UC paid to maintain and own the property (taxes,etc) but could do nothing with it. There was also some discussion about liability for the crimes on the property since the city said it was UC property they are not liable. Frustrating situation and would love to see it developed into housing.

---

Define EVERYONE in the quote above.

A very vocal minority (if, indeed, EVERYONE was a majority) wanted to keep People's Park as it was and as it is now. Members of the City Council wouldn't touch the issue with a 10 foot pole for fear that it would prove to be the third rail to their political careers. Consequently, the City had a de facto position supporting preservation and the campus administration didn't want to rock the boat with the City for whatever reason.

Its moment passed many, many years ago.

cal85;842671760 said:

---

I was at Cal in the 80's when they had a huge student housing problem. A friend of mine was in a triple in Spens-Black. They basically stacked their beds to make room to walk around. I am from the peninsula and was deemed to be too close to Berkeley to qualify for housing so I ended up paying very high rent in an apartment. The rental situation was so bad the students registered to vote and got rent control voted in. At the time EVERYONE wanted people's park bulldozed for a housing complex but the city said they would block it. UC paid to maintain and own the property (taxes,etc) but could do nothing with it. There was also some discussion about liability for the crimes on the property since the city said it was UC property they are not liable. Frustrating situation and would love to see it developed into housing.

---

Wow, so you couldn't get housing even though you lived all the way out in the Peninsula. Wow.

I was affected by the huge housing problem in the late '90s, which resulted in me living near Albany Bowl for my final years at Cal.

----> http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Needed-Place-to-Sleep-UC-Berkeley-housing-2995311.php

Part of that was the first dot-com boom. A lot of techies were moving into Berkeley apartments that would normally go to students, if I recall correctly.

And as that article note, the end of rent control was coming at the start of 1999, so landlords kept their vacant properties off the market in 1998.

As for People's Park, you have to wait for the people in the video below to start dying off. The father/founder of People's Park, Michael Delacour is closing in on 80.

I remember in 1999, Chancellor Berdahl floated the idea of putting dorms at People's Park -- which, of course, wasn't met with a lot of popularity. (My recollection is that the chancellor proposed the idea at a Residents Hall Association meeting. And then the chief spokesman for the university, who was essentially Berdahl's spokesman, publicly disagreed with the chancellor's comments.)


Even the L.A. Times covered the controversy ------> http://articles.latimes.com/1999/may/09/news/mn-35495



[video=youtube;moOm7OdY6oc][/video]

okaydo;842671951 said:

---

I was affected by the huge housing problem in the late '90s, which resulted in me living near Albany Bowl for my final years at Cal.

---

You speak as if living near the hotsy totsy was a bad thing?

CaliforniaEternal;842671584 said:

---

The best news is that Tolman Hall is being torn born after this new one is done. That is a major improvement to campus!

---

Tear down Evans. Evans is a heck of a lot uglier than Tolman and more in the public eye being near the Campanile.

It's good to see all this new housing near campus, most of it need to be reserved for students though. There should be a lot of highrise student housing on Telegraph, which would solve the student housing issue, and would rehabilitate the neighborhood at the same time.

Yes, People's Park will probably be build soon enough, the demographics are changing.

GivemTheAxe;842672361 said:

---

Tear down Evans. Evans is a heck of a lot uglier than Tolman and more in the public eye being near the Campanile.

---

The concept drawing below from the Berkeley's New Century Plan shows Evans Hall being replaced by two smaller buildings. The opening in between them restores the view from Hearst Mining Circle to the Golden Gate. John Galen Howard would be happy too.

Cal88;842672367 said:

---

It's good to see all this new housing near campus, most of it need to be reserved for students though. There should be a lot of highrise student housing on Telegraph, which would solve the student housing issue, and would rehabilitate the neighborhood at the same time.

Yes, People's Park will probably be build soon enough, the demographics are changing.

---

There are height limits on Telegraph. UC is allowed to build 2 high rise buildings under the Berkeley Downtown Plan, one of them will be an academic building. The second one may be for another hotel.

Here are some thoughts and ideas to remake Telegraph Ave.

http://www.berkeleyside.com/2012/04/18/can-berkeleys-telegraph-avenue-get-its-mojo-back/

http://elsarch.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/telegraph-project.pdf

Thank you for posting these again.

oskirules;842672392 said:

---

The concept drawing below from the Berkeley's New Century Plan shows Evans Hall being replaced by two smaller buildings. The opening in between them restores the view from Hearst Mining Circle to the Golden Gate. John Galen Howard would be happy too.

---

The architectural virtues of the new buildings on the left aside, the scale depicted is handsome. Cal could have a central space as imageable as Columbia's formal composition in front of the Low Library. Can't get rid of Evan's fast enough.

Sadly, the planned downtown high rises will block many views of the Golden Gate from campus - like from the base of the Campanille down the wide thoroughfare

FiatSlug;842671937 said:

---

Define EVERYONE in the quote above.

A very vocal minority (if, indeed, EVERYONE was a majority) wanted to keep People's Park as it was and as it is now. Members of the City Council wouldn't touch the issue with a 10 foot pole for fear that it would prove to be the third rail to their political careers. Consequently, the City had a de facto position supporting preservation and the campus administration didn't want to rock the boat with the City for whatever reason.

Its moment passed many, many years ago.

---

EVERYONE = students that could not get into the dorms and were paying outrageous rents in an out of control rent market in Berkeley.

Number 031343;842672946 said:

---

The architectural virtues of the new buildings on the left aside, the scale depicted is handsome. Cal could have a central space as imageable as Columbia's formal composition in front of the Low Library. Can't get rid of Evan's fast enough.

---

Looks fantastic. Let's do it!

GoCal80;842672950 said:

---

Sadly, the planned downtown high rises will block many views of the Golden Gate from campus - like from the base of the Campanille down the wide thoroughfare

---

Why was this not clear in the EIR? Or was it?

oskirules;842671666 said:

---

The lot on Bancroft and Dana, across from Haas Pavillion, will be an 8 story building reserved for student housing, currently in the RFP or design phase.

---

Construction is underway. Updated project info here:

http://realestate.berkeley.edu/bancroft-residence-hall-student-housing-project

Webcam here:

https://app.oxblue.com/open/acc/bancroft

oskirules;842671681 said:

---

New Apartment Building on Durant Ave. next to Top Dog in construction phase.

---

The project is complete with a new Taco Bell Cantina at ground level, next to Top Dog. It turned out to be a gorgeous building, imho, in an area that badly needs some new life. Rent cost, however, is another issue.
The SouthGate apartments on 2526 Durant Ave:

http://www.thesouthgate.com/

oskirules;842671677 said:

---

Haas School of Business Addition in construction phase.

---

The Haas addition building has been topped out. Construction webcam here:

http://www.workzonecam.com/projects/haasschool/haasnorthacademicbuilding/workzonecam1