Planning Studio:
South Shattuck Area, Berkeley, California
In Spring 2006, CCI Director Heather Hood taught a studio course in city planning in which undergraduate students researched the conditions and created solutions for the city of Berkeley's Shattuck Avenue corridor and neighborhoods between the Ashby BART Station and downtown. Part of the significance and complexity of this district is the varying land uses surrounding it — commercial, mxed-use and single-family housing — and, of course, the BART station adds unique complexity. While it is a throughway to other places as well as a destination, it appears more like the former. The clients were the City of Berkeley's Economic Development Department and Livable Berkeley, a local nonprofit policy organization supporting smart growth.
The City Planning 116 course is an intensive studio course that seeks to give students a real-world experience with city planning. By focusing on one physical area, the course helps students learn about the entire range of city planning — physical building and street design issues, social and economic issues, environmental impacts, analysis methods, legal framework, city government, politics, and community dynamics. During the course, students worked in the field and in the studio, undertaking a series of assignments that culminated in the preparation of a series of analysis and proposals for the area. The class grappled with issues such as: How can the Shattuck corridor comfortably merge the varying surrounding uses and become a welcoming gateway to downtown Berkeley? How big should buildings be allowed to be? How should the city balance the strong need for housing with the impacts on the single-family home neighborhoods to the east and west? How does one create a pleasant character at the street level that encourages walking on this heavy traffic corridor? And how should the city government set standards for the private sector?
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