GivemTheAxe said:

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socaliganbear said:

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If you know Stanley Saitowitz (the lead architect) then this design makes sense. He does a lot of high end minimalist buildings with clean lines, white walls, glass etc. I don't like how it activates the sidewalk on Oxford, but overall, I like it.

Anyhow, will be interesting to see what happens with the site now.

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Sorry man. But to me "minimalist architecture"
means "I don't have to try to be creative in any way. Just put up a big box. You know something that a 6-year old can draw."
Lest we forget: much of that generic 50's architecture the begat the "man in the grey flannel suit" look started with a desire to have very "clean lines" in the building architecture.

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Right on about that 50s architecture. To this day mid century modern remains one of the most sought after home design styles in the country.

socaliganbear said:

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GivemTheAxe said:

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socaliganbear said:

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If you know Stanley Saitowitz (the lead architect) then this design makes sense. He does a lot of high end minimalist buildings with clean lines, white walls, glass etc. I don't like how it activates the sidewalk on Oxford, but overall, I like it.

Anyhow, will be interesting to see what happens with the site now.

---

Sorry man. But to me "minimalist architecture"
means "I don't have to try to be creative in any way. Just put up a big box. You know something that a 6-year old can draw."
Lest we forget: much of that generic 50's architecture the begat the "man in the grey flannel suit" look started with a desire to have very "clean lines" in the building architecture.

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Right on about that 50s architecture. To this day mid century modern remains one of the most sought after home design styles in the country.

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I think a more accurate statement would be to say that mid century modern, after being out of style from the 1980s to the early 2000s, has become popular once again. In fact, the whole Post Modern style was a reaction to the MCM starkness. Personally, older I get, the more I appreciate the simplicity of some modern architecture. But any time they want to dynamite Evans and Wurster, they have my approval.

HearstMining said:

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socaliganbear said:

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GivemTheAxe said:

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socaliganbear said:

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If you know Stanley Saitowitz (the lead architect) then this design makes sense. He does a lot of high end minimalist buildings with clean lines, white walls, glass etc. I don't like how it activates the sidewalk on Oxford, but overall, I like it.

Anyhow, will be interesting to see what happens with the site now.

---

Sorry man. But to me "minimalist architecture"
means "I don't have to try to be creative in any way. Just put up a big box. You know something that a 6-year old can draw."
Lest we forget: much of that generic 50's architecture the begat the "man in the grey flannel suit" look started with a desire to have very "clean lines" in the building architecture.

---

Right on about that 50s architecture. To this day mid century modern remains one of the most sought after home design styles in the country.

---

I think a more accurate statement would be to say that mid century modern, after being out of style from the 1980s to the early 2000s, has become popular once again. In fact, the whole Post Modern style was a reaction to the MCM starkness. Personally, older I get, the more I appreciate the simplicity of some modern architecture. But any time they want to dynamite Evans and Wurster, they have my approval.

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I spent my years at Cal at Wurster, and I didn't like brutalism then, I don't like it now. Evans looks like the ****ty temporary building it was always meant to be.

socaliganbear said:

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HearstMining said:

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socaliganbear said:

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GivemTheAxe said:

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socaliganbear said:

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If you know Stanley Saitowitz (the lead architect) then this design makes sense. He does a lot of high end minimalist buildings with clean lines, white walls, glass etc. I don't like how it activates the sidewalk on Oxford, but overall, I like it.

Anyhow, will be interesting to see what happens with the site now.

---

Sorry man. But to me "minimalist architecture"
means "I don't have to try to be creative in any way. Just put up a big box. You know something that a 6-year old can draw."
Lest we forget: much of that generic 50's architecture the begat the "man in the grey flannel suit" look started with a desire to have very "clean lines" in the building architecture.

---

Right on about that 50s architecture. To this day mid century modern remains one of the most sought after home design styles in the country.

---

I think a more accurate statement would be to say that mid century modern, after being out of style from the 1980s to the early 2000s, has become popular once again. In fact, the whole Post Modern style was a reaction to the MCM starkness. Personally, older I get, the more I appreciate the simplicity of some modern architecture. But any time they want to dynamite Evans and Wurster, they have my approval.

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I spent my years at Cal at Wurster, and I didn't like brutalism then, I don't like it now. Evans looks like the ****ty temporary building it was always meant to be.

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And you can guess from my handle where I spent the majority of my Cal years. This was in the mid 70s - before the major earthquake upgrade that was done on Hearst Mining Building. It's considered such a jewel that they spent more to retrofit than the cost to replace. What's particularly neat is that Cal CE Professor Jim Kelly did a lot of the research on isolating building foundations from earthquakes and consulted on the project. I was fortunate enough to have taken Statics (AKA Engineering 36) from him - a great guy!

socaliganbear said:

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HearstMining said:

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socaliganbear said:

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GivemTheAxe said:

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socaliganbear said:

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If you know Stanley Saitowitz (the lead architect) then this design makes sense. He does a lot of high end minimalist buildings with clean lines, white walls, glass etc. I don't like how it activates the sidewalk on Oxford, but overall, I like it.

Anyhow, will be interesting to see what happens with the site now.

---

Sorry man. But to me "minimalist architecture"
means "I don't have to try to be creative in any way. Just put up a big box. You know something that a 6-year old can draw."
Lest we forget: much of that generic 50's architecture the begat the "man in the grey flannel suit" look started with a desire to have very "clean lines" in the building architecture.

---

Right on about that 50s architecture. To this day mid century modern remains one of the most sought after home design styles in the country.

---

I think a more accurate statement would be to say that mid century modern, after being out of style from the 1980s to the early 2000s, has become popular once again. In fact, the whole Post Modern style was a reaction to the MCM starkness. Personally, older I get, the more I appreciate the simplicity of some modern architecture. But any time they want to dynamite Evans and Wurster, they have my approval.

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I spent my years at Cal at Wurster, and I didn't like brutalism then, I don't like it now. Evans looks like the ****ty temporary building it was always meant to be.

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Couldn't agree more.

oskirules said:

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That corner is such a small plot of land, the architect also had a height limitation to deal with in order to come up with a design that would meet UC's requirements for # of beds. Personally, I think they should use the land across the street where University Hall is located for the hotel/conference center. They can move all the admin people to Oakland.

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Oakland is for UCOP, but Cal still needs its own administration I believe. Who knows what anyone actually does where though. But if admins in the University Hall complex deal with Berkeley campus issues and with other Berkeley administrators, they should be in Berkeley.

And yeah, that corner hotel is quite plain. University Hall is an eyesore too.

But for those wanting a new hotel in downtown, one just broke ground at Center and Shattuck:

http://www.berkeleyside.com/2018/07/09/construction-starts-on-new-16-story-hotel-in-downtown-berkeley-hotel-just-a-block-from-uc-berkeley

Planned to open spring 2020 with 16 stories, 334 rooms, and part of the Marriott chain branded as a Residence Inn. Some kind of 12 floor bar - could have some nice golden gate views.

That hotel project has been dead for two years now so even before the site was added to the housing priority list the hotel wasn't happening. There is great potential for student housing on this block bounded by University, Walnut, Berkeley Way, and Oxford if a few issues can be worked out.

An unfortunate situation is taking place though on the adjacent Acheson Commons project (http://www.berkeleyside.com/2017/03/29/construction-start-summer-berkeleys-acheson-commons). It's not owned or developed by UC, but the project has stalled and it's at a critical intersection at University and Shattuck. As many of you have probably read, there was a fire on the site a couple nights ago (http://www.berkeleyside.com/2018/07/09/breaking-fire-at-the-old-ace-hardware-building-in-downtown-berkeley).

CaliforniaEternal said:

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That hotel project has been dead for two years now so even before the site was added to the housing priority list the hotel wasn't happening. There is great potential for student housing on this block bounded by University, Walnut, Berkeley Way, and Oxford if a few issues can be worked out.

An unfortunate situation is taking place though on the adjacent Acheson Commons project (http://www.berkeleyside.com/2017/03/29/construction-start-summer-berkeleys-acheson-commons). It's not owned or developed by UC, but the project has stalled and it's at a critical intersection at University and Shattuck. As many of you have probably read, there was a fire on the site a couple nights ago (http://www.berkeleyside.com/2018/07/09/breaking-fire-at-the-old-ace-hardware-building-in-downtown-berkeley).

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A comment in the fire article says the commons building permit was just issued in late June this year. So that might mean building starts soon?

ColoradoBear said:

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CaliforniaEternal said:

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That hotel project has been dead for two years now so even before the site was added to the housing priority list the hotel wasn't happening. There is great potential for student housing on this block bounded by University, Walnut, Berkeley Way, and Oxford if a few issues can be worked out.

An unfortunate situation is taking place though on the adjacent Acheson Commons project (http://www.berkeleyside.com/2017/03/29/construction-start-summer-berkeleys-acheson-commons). It's not owned or developed by UC, but the project has stalled and it's at a critical intersection at University and Shattuck. As many of you have probably read, there was a fire on the site a couple nights ago (http://www.berkeleyside.com/2018/07/09/breaking-fire-at-the-old-ace-hardware-building-in-downtown-berkeley).

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A comment in the fire article says the commons building permit was just issued in late June this year. So that might mean building starts soon?

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Hopefully they get it together, but the project supposedly had financing issues.

ColoradoBear said:

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CaliforniaEternal said:

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That hotel project has been dead for two years now so even before the site was added to the housing priority list the hotel wasn't happening. There is great potential for student housing on this block bounded by University, Walnut, Berkeley Way, and Oxford if a few issues can be worked out.

An unfortunate situation is taking place though on the adjacent Acheson Commons project (http://www.berkeleyside.com/2017/03/29/construction-start-summer-berkeleys-acheson-commons). It's not owned or developed by UC, but the project has stalled and it's at a critical intersection at University and Shattuck. As many of you have probably read, there was a fire on the site a couple nights ago (http://www.berkeleyside.com/2018/07/09/breaking-fire-at-the-old-ace-hardware-building-in-downtown-berkeley).

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A comment in the fire article says the commons building permit was just issued in late June this year. So that might mean building starts soon?

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Probably due to the original owner selling the titled project.

Sebastabear said:

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Thank God. Get that blight off of the face of the earth. It's a major failure of the (prior) administration's courage and conviction that this situation has been allowed to continue for as long as it has. Time to use that land for the benefit of it's owner - the University of California and the people of the State of California.

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I for one would not blame prior administrations for a failure of conviction.
1. The farther one gets away from the Peoples Park riots the easier it gets to take the steps now being taken. We are now about 40 years from the PP riots. Memories fade and activists get old and die off.

2. The perspective of the students has changed now that the student housing crisis in Berkeley had gotten so dire thanks to steep rise in rents in the Bay Area. The students may be willing to consider a compromise that provides assistance to the homeless while allowing the creation of more student housing.

i cannot for the life of me understand the desire in california to pander to the homeless industrial complex and bend over backwards for a bunch of meth/heroin junkies, the people who have colonized "peoples" park. it's parhetic and embarrassing.

Acheson Commons currently under construction.



2129 Shattuck Hotel/Conference Center by Marriott just started construction.

Upper Hearst Parking Garage to be replaced with new Goldman School of Public Policy building. New parking garage to be built. Oh yeah, 132 housing units proposed on the site too.

http://www.berkeleyside.com/2018/07/13/uc-berkeley-looks-to-develop-upper-hearst-with-housing-classrooms

Here are some pictures I took last week on a tour of Cal's newest dorm, Blackwell Hall. Each of these instagram posts is a slideshow, so scroll through all of the pictures. Overall, it looks real nice and it's a big step up from the other facilities for freshmen in most ways!

Exterior and ground floor:
https://instagr.am/p/Blgu2LMnXn7

Upper floor common areas:
https://instagr.am/p/BlhcUK-HAYU

Rooms:
https://instagr.am/p/Blj_gVoHqpn

Can you please try posting pictures again? They didn't come out.

oskirules said:

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Can you please try posting pictures again? They didn't come out.

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They're there for me.

oskirules said:

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Can you please try posting pictures again? They didn't come out.

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Click on the camera icon either above text or after it

socaliganbear said:

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oskirules said:

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Can you please try posting pictures again? They didn't come out.

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They're there for me.

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They wouldn't open at first for me but perhaps it's because I don't have an insta account

CaliforniaEternal said:

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Here are some pictures I took last week on a tour of Cal's newest dorm, Blackwell Hall. Each of these instagram posts is a slideshow, so scroll through all of the pictures. Overall, it looks real nice and it's a big step up from the other facilities for freshmen in most ways!

Exterior and ground floor:
https://instagr.am/p/Blgu2LMnXn7

Upper floor common areas:
https://instagr.am/p/BlhcUK-HAYU

Rooms:
https://instagr.am/p/Blj_gVoHqpn

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I like the exterior design of Blackwell Hall. But I agree that the interior design could have used more windows. It gives the interior appearance of a prison cell or maybe a monk's room in a monastery (i.e. Not conducive to the well being of incoming or graduate students).

Perhaps windows could have been put above or next to the existing windows either parallel to or perpendicular to the existing windows.

Agree on windows. But I like the bed partition. Won't feel like you're sleeping next to someone at all times. Clearly they want kids to take advantage of the common rooms with the great views.

going4roses said:

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socaliganbear said:

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oskirules said:

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Can you please try posting pictures again? They didn't come out.

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They're there for me.

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They wouldn't open at first for me but perhaps it's because I don't have an insta account

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I see the pictures now. One of the cool features of the new dorm is the space reserved for retail on the corner. If the right tenant moves in, it could be a destination stop before or after a basketball game at Haas.

nice. thx for posting.

big upgrade over the older dorms.

these days, colleges have improved their student housing, so it's Cal has to do so also, otherwise it would be a factor in where some students go.

http://www.berkeleyside.com/2018/08/02/prefab-housing-complex-for-uc-berkeley-students-built-in-four-days

Had this been posted ?
4 days ??? Wow
Cheaper to ship from china than transport from the port of Oakland up to Berkeley geez us

It's better than my Unit 2 double.

oskirules said:

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It's better than my Unit 2 double.

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Two grand a month for 300 sq ft.

Yeah, Cal could use more housing.

Out of the deepest respect for the history of that hallowed ground, the University has announced that Wavy Gravy has been named Permanent Dorm RA.

ColoradoBear said:

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oskirules said:

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It's better than my Unit 2 double.

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Two grand a month for 300 sq ft.

Yeah, Cal could use more housing.

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They have another new micro development in SOMA and Cal sent students thee as well smh.

More pics http://news.berkeley.edu/2018/07/31/a-first-look-inside-blackwell-hall-berkeleys-newest-freshman-living-space/