More Uptown workshops coming

On June 19, over 50 people participated in a design workshop for Uptown Oakland sponsored by Oakland Heritage Alliance and the Northern Alameda County Group of the Sierra Club. Local stakeholders as well as local and regional design and construction professionals began the day with a tour of the site.

After a presentation of Oakland's vision for Uptown by Claudia Cappio, development director, Greg Tung, urban designer of Freedman, Tung & Bottomley gave a presentation on urban public spaces. Armed with information, participants eagerly gathered around site plans at seven tables and went to work.

A report on the workshop is being prepared. Many ideas were generated, but all agreed that a lively focus for the theater district should be created by moving the buildings back from Telegraph Avenue and creating a wide hardscape for the cafes, restaurants, galleries, book and record stores, and market-hall-type retail to spill onto. All the groups also wanted some green park space adjacent to the housing. There were many ideas about how it should be configured and where it should be located, but no one supported the present proposed location off of 20th Street.

A major concern is that when a project designed on a suburban model is inserted into an urban setting, it will become a self-contained community that perceives itself as surrounded by a hostile environment. The site plan must be designed to consciously and vigorously connect to and enhance the surrounding area - to create lively public spaces and be a catalyst for revitalization of the whole neighborhood.

On July 20 the Oakland City Council approved the Development and Disposition Agreement (DDA) and $61 million in subsidies for the developer, Forest City. In the six years the developer has been working on this project, it has not engaged the public in a community design workshop. It has now announced that it will hold some workshops, probably in early fall. We hope that this will give people a chance to refine their ideas and hopefully, reach a consensus.

For more information and to get on our e-mail list, contact Joyce Roy of the Northern Alameda Group Executive Committee at: joyceroy -at- earthlink.net (preferred) or (510) 655-7508

Joyce Roy