The Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board is scheduled to have its final vote tomorrow evening on the 26-story residential tower proposed for 2128 Oxford Street in Downtown Berkeley, Alameda County. The proposal, named the Hub at Berkeley, is one of three in the city’s pipeline poised to redefine the city skyline and would be the first to be approved. Chicago-based Core Spaces is responsible for the application, with planning and CEQA consultation from the Rhoades Planning Group.
If built, the Hub at Berkeley would rise 285 feet above street level, making it the tallest building in the city of Berkeley. The current tallest building in Berkeley is the 1971-built Chase Building, with a rooftop height of 186 feet. However, Core Spaces’ project would not earn the title of the tallest structure in Berkeley, a title currently held by the 307-foot Sather Tower Campanile. The only proposal in the city’s pipeline poised to earn that title is the 317-foot tall residential tower proposed by NX Ventures for 1998 Shattuck Avenue.
The Hub at 2128 Oxford Street podium view overlooking Center Street, rendering by DLR Group
The Hub at 2128 Oxford Street podium detail, rendering by DLR Group
The structure is expected to yield around 713,700 square feet, with 537,260 square feet for the 456 homes, 14,400 square feet for retail, and 7,400 square feet for the first-floor garage. Parking will be included for 36 cars with stackers and 304 bicycles in a dedicated room. Unit types will vary, with 72 studios, 97 two-bedrooms, 265 three-bedrooms, and 22 four-bedrooms. Of the 456 apartments, there will be 40 units of affordable housing, with six units for extremely low-income households and 34 units for very low-income households.
The Hub at 2128 Oxford Street view over Oxford Street, rendering by DLR Group
The Hub at 2128 Oxford Street seen from Shattuck Avenue, rendering by DLR Group
DLR Group is responsible for the design. Plans for the Hub at Berkeley would carve out a slab tower with four deep-set lightwells to make the looming block appear like three narrower adjacent towers. The facade palettes of white, terracotta red, and dark grey are evocative of the city’s color scheme.
The tower’s most prominent perspective will be from the UC Berkeley Campus across Center Street and Oxford Way. The project team writes that the “prominent corner tower element accentuates the verticality of the building while incorporating cementitious materials that reflect that of Spanish colonial tiles found throughout the campus and within the surrounding downtown context.”
The Hub at 2128 Oxford Street landscaping map, illustration by Site Design Group
The Hub at 2128 Oxford Street seen from the UC Berkeley Campus, rendering by DLR Group
Site Design Group is overseeing the landscape architecture. The primarily outdoor amenity space will be centralized on the 25th and 26th floors, with a sprawling program spread across two-thirds of the floorplate. The deck will feature a pool deck, lawn, ping pong table, outdoor seating furniture, and a dog run. A series of balconies and four carve-out decks at the bottom of the structure’s deep-set lightwells will provide a few other select units with private open space.
The project spans around 0.82 acres at the corner of Center Street and Oxford Street on a block bound by Shattuck Avenue and Allston Way. The Downtown Berkeley BART Station is located on the other side of Shattuck Avenue, less than a block away. For students, Oxford Street is significant as the western border of the UC Berkeley campus.
The Hub at 2128 Oxford Street retail activity, rendering by DLR Group
2128 Oxford Street lot approximately outlined by SF YIMBY, aerial view via Google Street View
During the Zone Adjustments Board meeting, members are expected to vote on the certification of the Final Environmental Impact Report and potential approval of the use permit. The event is scheduled for tomorrow, September 12th, starting at 7 PM. The hybrid event will be held in person at the Berkeley Unified School District Board Room at 1231 Addison Street in Southwest Berkeley. Virtual participation will be available through Zoom. For more information, visit the city website here.
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Great to see this project progress. Exactly the kind of height we need by BART and a housing-starved campus.
“We” from someone who mostly likely lives nowhere near Berkeley. Typical so-called “YIMBY”.
I’m in district 2, but you probably wished I were homeless because people like you opposed my building. Go figure.
Relatedly — I played my part in getting Cheryl Davila booted from office. Good riddance. It was about time Berkeley stopped being where environmentalism meant composting while forcing servants to drive from Stockton. Housing is progress and housing is sustainability.
I want this type of housing everywhere in the Bay Area, ESPECIALLY, near Caltrain and BART stations. Build, baby, build!
It’s about time that Berkeley builds more affordable housing to accommodate people of color, LGBTQ+ , homeless and newly arrived Haitian and other people of color immigrants.the city should submit a plan to accomplish meeting it’s deversity goals.
Are you that nut who lives on Arlington with the Kennedy 24 flag? If so, I got news for you buddy, the only person eating cats and dogs is your now MAGA puppet, Robert Kennedy Jr.
Frank, go eat a cat. We’re trying to fix our city here.
How is it that you can go on Craigslist and find so many apartments available and offers of move-in specials within easy commute distance from UC? This is just a developer created myth that the students are deprived of housing. There are plenty of units out there.
The only people who seem to really want this are real estate people and developers. Now that big tech is laying off thousands rents are coming down and landlords are offering move-in specials. This was a beautiful block now slated to look like Manhattan for mostly unaffordable apartments.
Imagine if rents could keep going down. Lowering property values is the only way to achieve true affordable housing, not just a petting zoo of feel-good stories. And producing housing is what makes the difference.
Berkeley gotta be one of the strongest examples of a population living by “do as I say, not as I do.”
For such a “smart” population, how hard is it to grasp the concept of supply and demand? Are they so full of themselves that the success of Austin, TX, can’t be comprehended because it comes from a conservative state?
Most spaces throughout Berkley that are under $2k/month are either student-oriented or under 500 SQFT. Does no one understand raising a family in a studio apartment is not desirable or practical? Cities that don’t account for all family types are doomed for failure or at least present an unsustainable lifecycle.
Thank goodness developers haven’t given up on this city. Y’all are exhausting…
The hypocrisy here is nuts. All these so-called progressives doing their best William Buckley impression, standing athwart history.
So what was the result of the vote?