New building permits have been submitted for the proposed project located at 1899 Oxford Street in Berkeley. The permits reflect a small reduction in the total number of proposed units from 222 to 216. The new permit also describes plans to construct the residential portion by using a modular unit style, which was not previously reported by SF YIMBY. Otherwise, the permit details reflect a size and presentation that remain in line with earlier project iterations. Berkland Foundation remains the project’s developer.
The 78-foot-tall structure is expected to yield around 90,000 square feet, including 65,000 square feet for housing and approximately 4,000 square feet for ground-level retail. The building’s 216 apartments will be constructed using a modular unit design that allows for rapid building assembly. Past applications indicate that up to 33 of the units are to be deed-restricted affordable apartments. This could include 17 units for very low-income households and 16 for moderate-income households.
SDG Architects is the original project architect. However, the new permits do not indicate how the changes to the proposal may affect the building’s exterior. The previous plan included an articulated facade visually separated by white and black insulated metal panels. The ground floor will be improved with transparent floor-to-ceiling glass for the lobby and retail spaces.
The half-acre property is located at the corner of Oxford Street and Hearst Avenue, across from the northwest corner of the iconic UC Berkeley campus. Future residents will be a couple of blocks away from Shattuck Avenue and close to the Downtown Berkeley BART Station. Parking will be included for 14 cars and 74 bicycles.
1899 Oxford Street, image via Google Satellite
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Really nice looking design for a modular approach. Happy to see more of this method being employed (hopefully) with reasonable success.
I am so bullish on Berkeley right now. They have truly seen the light. I have no faith in anything related to Oakland right now, but I could absolutely see a world where Berkeley becomes a real alternative to SF on a small scale: where companies set up shop, where young people move to. Great weather, multiple BART stations, good freeway access, the magnet of talent and jobs that is UC Berkeley, the bones of a nice downtown, nice single family housing stock.
Oakland has better food, better outdoor access, and cheaper housing than Berkeley… And its already the Brooklyn to SFs Manhattan. Maybe Berkeley will be there one day.
Brooklyn is a stretch… they gotta curb the severe anti-social behavior. It’s such a ghost town of wasted potential. The constant destruction of stuff is the biggest thorn.
Hopefully, the speed cameras turn the page on some lawlessness being sniped. Getting West Oakland BART’s parking lots cleaned up next. Peel back some affordability requirements like SF is toying with. Oakland just needs to develop. Do as Brooklyn, then yes.
Unfortunately Oakland is in decline.
Hotels are closing. The airport is struggling. Three sports teams gone. Downtown and JLS are dead. Universities are closing. No tourism. Very weak corporate office anchors. I just don’t see the growth / upside story to Oakland right now. Do you?
I always thought that parking lot was ridiculous, great project!
Good. This is decades overdue. The notion that THAT plot of land, in that location, could be a flat parking lot that can only fit 40 cars, is crazy.
I would prefer a 30-story housing tower that overlooks the entire campus and has great views, but this is still great relative to what has been there for ages.
The problems are all political. Do the basic city services stuff and permit a bunch of new density right around the BART stations, peeling back red tape on construction, and it could change quickly.
And when the young people who want to live here grow up and outgrow their studio apartments, what happens then? They will look for someplace nice to raise their families, or to grow a tomato plant. They will look around and realize that Berkeley is not it anymore.They will move and leave empty high-rises behind. So go ahead and do your YIMBY thing. But realize that there could be a better way to increase housing without destroying our City. But that would not involve big out of town developer$.
EXACTLY
Isn’t there not enough student housing right now?
Like, yeah it’s not family housing but we still need it for the students. My point being, we need both kinds of housing.
Maybe I’m missing something but this seems like a good use for a parcel across the street from Cal