News

The City of Berkeley has launched a survey to get community input about a proposed bond measure in 2022. It lists many potential infrastructure projects, including “Old City Hall and Veterans Building” and one on seismic upgrades to city buildings and asks you to prioritize them. There are also questions regarding how much additional property…

Liam Garland, Director of Public Works, provided a timeline for the next phase of Civic Center planning. During the first half of 2022 the City will get more precise cost estimates for the needed seismic work and will hire consultants for the next phase. This will include more detailed community planning for the specific program…

The Coordinating Committee began working more closely with the Public Works Department to see how the Civic Center renovation projects may fit in with other capital needs and funding measures over the coming years. Public Works is taking a serious look at water damage to the buildings and what can be done to mitigate it…

ELS Architecture and Urban Design provided, pro bono, some ideas and drawings for both a small amphitheater behind 2180 Milvia that would seat about 300 and temporary stage setups for events in the park with as many as 3000 attendees.

At the June 22 general CCCC meeting, Tipping Structural Engineers described a new concept for reducing earthquake damage risk and adding usable space to both buildings for a much lower cost than previously projected. The areas in color on these drawings would be seismically strong additions that would serve as buttresses to stabilize the entire…

After several months of meeting on Zoom as CCCC and as three subgroups looking at ideas for the park, the Maudelle Shirek Building and the Veterans Building respectively, we learned that the City was considering a major infrastructure bond measure and began advocating that the Civic Center projects be included. It is not our role…

Robin Grossinger of San Francisco Estuary Institute gave a Zoom presentation on “Urban Ecology” with reference to the downtown Berkeley area. The video is here.

In a Zoom meeting, Margo Schueler gave an illustrated talk about what lies beneath the surface of Civic Center Park and the surrounding streets. A video of the session is here and the PowerPoint slides are here.