A Sundays on Telegraph event in July 2014: the Telegraph Public Realm Plan proposes changes to make the storied avenue more pedestrian-oriented. Photo: Daniel Levine To glimpse Telegraph Avenue as its visionaries and community leaders see it is to view a thriving, bustling European-like utopia, complete with pedestrian plaza, solar-powered trash cans, and enough parklets […]
Matthew Taecker
Posted inCity, Housing & Development
Berkeley ZAB round-up: The Roost approved on Blake, Center Street hotel previewed, Kennedy project put off
“The Roost,” looking east toward Shattuck Avenue, at 2029-2035 Blake St. Image: Devi Dutta Architecture “The Roost,” looking east toward Shattuck Avenue, at 2029-2035 Blake St. Image: Devi Dutta Architecture Thursday night the Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board approved a 5-story mixed-use project near downtown, previewed updated plans for a hotel on Center Street and postponed a […]
Posted inCity, Housing & Development
Berkeley hotel project drops condos; at DRC this week
The hotel proposed at 2129 Shattuck. Image: JRDV Urban International Thursday night, Berkeley’s Design Review Committee will get its third look at the 16-story hotel planned downtown at Shattuck Avenue and Center Street. The 168-foot-tall building is set to include 336 hotel rooms, some retail, and about 11,000 square feet of conference space. A parking […]
Posted inBusiness
Shop Talk: The ins and outs of Berkeley businesses
A Sundays on Telegraph festival. The Telegraph Business Improvement District announced at its annual meeting that there will be fewer Sundays on Telegraph festivals this summer than in years past. Photo: Ted Friedman TELEGRAPH MERCHANTS MEET NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Members of the Telegraph Business Improvement District (TBID) gathered June 29 to meet their new executive director, Stuart Baker, and […]
Posted inCity, Crime & Safety
Open house displays plans for Shattuck Square facelift
The intersection of Shattuck and University avenues is the second most dangerous intersection in Berkeley for pedestrian collisions and near-misses. The city hopes to change that with the Shattuck reconfiguration project. Image: Google Maps Berkeley residents got their first look at the city’s plan to redesign traffic patterns around Shattuck Square on Tuesday night at an […]
Posted inBusiness, City, Housing & Development
Developer of downtown Berkeley hotel offers ‘tapered’ tower; hopes for quick design review
The new plans for the 18-story hotel at 2129 Shattuck Ave. Photo: JRDV Architects Berkeley’s Design Review Committee will get an early peek this week of new, revised plans for the high-rise hotel on Shattuck Avenue and Center Street — part of the developers’ push to get the project through the planning process quickly. The plan […]
Posted inBusiness, Housing & Development
New 16-story downtown condo/hotel project to appeal to empty nesters, visiting professors
Jim Didion of Center Street LLC (left) and Richard Kelleher, CEO of Pyramid Hotels, are teaming up to construct a 16-story hotel in downtown Berkeley. Photo: Frances Dinkelspiel The new developer of a 16-story hotel in downtown Berkeley plans to build up to 35 condominiums and include kitchens in every room so people can stay […]
Posted inHousing & Development
Downtown hotel to feature condos, conference center
The new design of a 16-story hotel proposed on Center Street at Shattuck Avenue will see a more tapered tower than the one shown here. Image: JRDV Urban International The developer of the proposed 16-story hotel on Center Street and Shattuck Avenue in downtown Berkeley has nixed the idea of having office space in the […]
Posted inHousing & Development
New hotel project is a go again after defeat of Measure R
With the defeat of Measure R, the plan for a downtown Berkeley hotel at Shattuck and Center is back on track. Image: JRDV Urban International Now that Measure R, the initiative that aimed to impose stricter standards on tall buildings, has been defeated, the project to build a hotel downtown is back on track. Developer […]
Posted inOpinion
Op-ed: Democracy, transparency and Measure R
Last March after Berkeley’s Downtown Area Plan received a prestigious national American Planning Association award, I wrote the following for the “Cal Planner” newsletter: “In the end, support was overwhelming as eight of nine Council members adopted a new Downtown Area Plan … but what a long, strange trip it has been. The 2012 ‘DAP’ […]
Posted inCity, Housing & Development
Berkeley hotel plans halted pending initiative vote
The developer for a downtown Berkeley hotel proposal said his plans are on hold pending November’s election. (Click the image to see the December 2013 submission from the project team.) Image: JRDV Urban International The developer for a downtown Berkeley hotel proposal said his plans are on hold pending November’s election. (Click the image to […]
Posted inBerkeleyside, City, Events, Housing & Development
At B-Side: Implications of downtown Berkeley initiative
At the first B-Side forum co-sponsored by The Hub and Berkeleyside, participants debated the merits of this fall’s downtown initiative. From left, Lance Knobel of Berkeleyside, Berkeley Councilman Jesse Arreguín and Eric Panzer of Livable Berkeley. Photo: Frances Dinkelspiel At the first B-Side forum co-sponsored by The Hub and Berkeleyside, participants debated the merits of […]