THE BAY AREA | Projects from San Francisco's Surrounding 8 Counties

[1977]

Thanks Peanut Gallery! Here's a rendering courtesy of the SJ Mercury News:


Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_17946619

[Cory]

http://e2ma.net/userdata/1407594/images/e1304969539.jpg

OAKLAND, CA, May 23, 2011---Oakland will celebrate the groundbreaking of the first phase of the MacArthur Transit Village today at 544 West MacArthur Boulevard. The program begins at 1:45 pm, followed by a groundbreaking ceremony and refreshments.

MacArthur Transit Village is a planned, mixed-use Transit-Oriented Development located adjacent to the MacArthur BART Station in North Oakland. The Transit Village is the result of more than 15 years of effort by community members, the City of Oakland, BART and the development team of BRIDGE Housing and McGrath Properties, which worked faithfully and consistently to achieve community support as well as financial commitments for the project. The vision is to redevelop and revitalize this underutilized site to create a community of over 600 housing units with enhanced access to the BART station and connecting public transit lines.

Read more: http://www.bridgehousing.com/Default...8-58cb4c0cffa2

[Gordo]

Apple's looking at building a new campus on the HP site that they bought last year:

http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/07/steve-jobs-cupertino/

...Paving the way for these plans, Apple purchased about 100 acres from Hewlett Packard in 2010 and added them to the 50 it owns adjacent. Jobs says he has corralled “some great architects … some of the best in the world” to come up with a design that will house 12,000 people in one four story high building on the property. The area is now mainly apricot orchards.

With the futuristic design Apple apparently is relying heavily on its experience building retail stores, and it will be creating one massive piece of curved glass if the proposal goes through. “There’s not a single straight piece of glass in this building,” Jobs says. The parking will be underground...

More pics at the link, plus a video of Jobs at the Cupertino City Council.

[peanut gallery]

The area is now mainly apricot orchards.

That's a misstatement. The area once was mostly orchards, as was most of the valley, but is currently mostly parking lot. Replacing that with orchards and underground parking are great ideas. Funny, instead of the ol' tower-in-a-park, it will be a saucer-in-a-park!

I take it that series of structures along 280 is the energy center? That might look cool from the freeway. I'm also curious how much (if any) of the landscaped area outside the saucer will be accessible by the public. That's something I'd ask for if I was on the city council.

[pesto]

It looks like most of the existing buildings are being removed and the parking lots taken undeground. However, nothing over 4 stories, which is a little unfortunate since that area has two large shopping and entertainment centers and hotels and could form a fairly walkable dense core. Vallco Village in particular would seem ripe for apartments, condo and more hotels (it already has 20 Asian restaurants).

[Gordo]

^Cupertino already struck down a plan by the owners of Vallco (It's called "Cupertino Village" now - great name! ) and some of the surrounding areas to build residential in the area (2008 ballot initiative enshrined the area as commercial-only). I agree that it could be a nice, walkable area, but Cupertino has already made it very clear that they intend to be a jobs exporter and only build the minimum amount of residential required by the state, so I wouldn't get your hopes up. The small amount of condos built along Stevens Creek will be the last residential allowed for a huge swath of the city. The plan for Cupertino to build their requirement of SB375 housing for the next couple of decades is out closer to De Anza CC.

The plan is for the whole thing to be four stories, with a four story parking garage underneath parts of it. Not really my idea of a good development, but it would be unique.

[peanut gallery]

I agree, Gordo. Normally I'd prefer to plug into the existing grid (such as it is), build to the street, include retail, etc. But it's Cupertino. It's just not a place that's ever going to have a dense core like that. Given that, going the other way entirely -- creating some green space, dramatically increasing the number of trees, and hopefully basically building the city a new park -- isn't a bad approach. It could be a nice, large oasis for all those single family homes surrounding it.

[llamaorama]

Its like the Pentagon, but a circle instead

Cool how tech companies are now building distinctive headquarters-first the Googleplex and now this.

[brantw]

Would have been cooler if it was in the shape of an Apple.

[San Frangelino]

Here's another image from http://www.reuters.com/article/slide...9Q20110608#a=1

[pesto]

Another interesting aspect is that there will be only curved glass in the building. No flat glass.

Public access strikes me as a security problem for Apple; they have to maintain order or get sued by anyone injured.

In any event, parks are the city's responsiblity, not private industry's and that area has no great shortage of parks. As Jobs noted, if you exempt Apple from taxes then you can ask them to help provide city services; otherwise, that's what the city is for.

[rocketman_95046]

A few more graphics from the SJ Merc.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/ci_18233004

[pesto]

I'm guessing that the 9500 HP employees is a theoretical number. Some of the buildings are not fully occupied and haven't been for some time.

The biggest single effect will be the landscaping. The area between 280 and Pruneridge is pretty much all parking lots, one running into another (classic Silicon Valley from 40 years ago). Nice to see this change.

It's not obvious how you get into the parking structure or why it is so far from the buildings. With the closing of Pruneridge, you would either have to enter from Homestead (a long way) or Wolfe or Tantau, each of which would be jammed most of the time. I guess the good news is that staggered working hours is typical, with lots of people coming at 7:00 and even more rolling in around 10:00.

Right across Wolfe is Cupertino Village, which is quite busy for extended hours in the middle of the day, so I'm guessing that Wolfe is going to need reconfigured on/off ramps and turning lanes. A pedestrian over/underpass would be useful for lunch time rush.

I guess the Main Auditorium is going to be used for announcements, important meetings and such. Again, Tantau could use some expanding; it is not DeAnza by a long shot.

[llamaorama]

OMG it is as big as the Pentagon. Sorry I couldn't resist drawing attention to the similarities earlier, the person who made that graphic saw it too I guess. I wonder if they have a war room for when Apple takes over the world, James Bond villain style. Everyone must submit to sleek modern design and overpriced electronics.

[peanut gallery]

^^ It is a little strange that they have that parking structure so far away. Maybe they hope it will force employees to get in some walking everyday. As for accessing it, that diagram above seems to indicate it will be accessed from Tantau on what will be the extension of Giannini. They don't show Calabazas Creek on there, but it looks like they plan to run Giannini right along its path. That route seems really dumb to me. People arriving on northbound 280 will drive in a complete circle to access that parking structure, going through several signals to do so. Looks like a traffic jam waiting to happen. Hopefully, they'll extend that stub from Pruneridge down around the apartment complex in the southwest corner of the complex.

[rocketman_95046]

^I'm thinking that the parking garage shown on the graphic is only the portion that is above ground. I imagine that the parking garage will be under most of the park.

[peanut gallery]

So that little stub from Pruneridge might actually dip underground at that point, not end. That makes sense. I'm sure it all will once more details become available.

[RST500]

New Northgate shopping center debuts



http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/...entry_id=51574


Thats kind of a shame. I like the old design much better.

http://www.bigmallrat.com/shopping-m...gate-mall.html

[peanut gallery]

That post is well over a year old. Northgate has been reopen almost 2 years now and I think it looks 1000% better. You might not be able to tell from that one picture, but it looks clean and stylish, and most importantly is filled with natural light now. I thought it was very dated before. But in the end, it's still a mall and not my cup of tea.

[CyberEric]

Would this building be anywhere near public transit like Caltrain?