Innovative Student Housing Architecture Can Help Protect People’s Park

by Greg Jalbert

The People’s Park community has innovative solutions to UC Berkeley’s student housing needs, as illustrated here with architectural sketches from Alfred Twu, UC Berkeley alumni.

The Durant Avenue space may get this innovative remake into new wonderfully located student housing near campus and an excellent selection of restaurants and other businesses. Let’s make Berkeley a more inviting city, protect and expand inviting green public spaces, walkable city spaces.

The Durant Avenue project remake three lanes of underused asphalt space into student housing and outdoor green park space, including some isolation barriers from traffic visual and noise pollution, outdoor dining spaces for customers of the local restaurants, cultural events and recreation. The ubiquitous waste of space by automobiles in urban architecture must be dismantled and repurposed for people, the sooner the better. Society and public space would be much better without dreary, polluted, automobile-catering dystopia.

Alfred Twu is a Berkeley designer, UC Berkeley alum, environmental advocate, and serves on Berkeley’s Zero Waste Commission. Alfred Twu put together these sketches of the plan (click images to see high resolution version).

Durant Avenue housing architecture area overview, with proposed areas for new student housing — Alfred Twu

Proposed Durant Avenue housing and green space architecture closeups, converting three out of five traffic/parking lanes — Alfred Twu

Proposed Durant Avenue housing architecture side view cutaway — Alfred Twu

Student housing map UC Berkeley 2-16-2017 — AW

The People’s Park community opposes the UC Berkeley plan to build housing on People’s Park. Their plan removes vital, precious green space from the community. Their plan removes a community gathering place for park visitors of all kinds, neighbors, students, out of town visitors, local restaurant patrons looking for a picnic place, cultural events.

The UC Berkeley People’s Park Development Plan removes vital open public green space, removes vital living trees that do not deserve to have their lives terminated for this human need. There is plenty of other space that can be used for student and supportive housing.

We hope the community engages together to protect People’s Park. Please, get involved. Many resources and links are available on the PeoplesPark.org site.

— Greg Jalbert is a longtime People’s Park community member, having gardened there for several years, played countless hours of acoustic music jams with other community members, and had countless hours of engaging and profound life-enhancing conversations on cultural history, civil rights and social justice, science, gardening, and advocates for the protection of and engagement with this green space.