Charrettes

The Bay Area’s diversity, density and growing population are fertile ground for charrettes. Participate in one of these fascinating charrettes and bring home a new tool for helping your own livable community. In these all-day, interactive events, participants will create a concept plan for two station areas. Leading the charrettes will be a team of expert urban designers, transportation planners, real-estate economists, developers, and "deal makers" who help weave everything together. Come learn how to create a one-of-a-kind station area plan that balances parking, private development, bus facilities, pedestrian amenities and density. And this year we’re going to take the charrette results one step further – the results will be critiqued by development experts as part of the conference’s TOD Marketplace.

Lake Merritt BART Station   
Monday, October 27   8:00 am–6:00 pm
The Lake Merritt BART Station Area is a neighborhood ripe for change. During the past decade, Oakland has experienced a resurgence in housing and commercial development – with significant development within one-half mile of the Lake Merritt BART station along Lake Merritt and the waterfront. Despite this transformative growth, the area immediately around the station has seen relatively little change in the past 20 years. Although it’s a hub for governmental and institutional uses and contains moderate density housing, the station area has little in the way of character and identity. The goal of this charrette is to unlock the station area’s strong potential as a new model for transit-oriented development in Oakland, connecting these neighborhoods for the first time in one central location.  Cost: $35

High Speed Rail TOD in the Heart of Silicon Valley
Monday, October 27   8:00 am–6:00 pm
This charrette will focus on opportunities to shape a transit-oriented village concept at a potential California High Speed Rail station in Palo Alto, where the downtown and Stanford University are close to each other – yet separated by regional rail and a major arterial. Across from the station area, Stanford is currently planning to expand and rebuild the Stanford Medical Center and Stanford Shopping Center, two auto-oriented, large-scale regional centers, as well as potential future university housing. The urban design challenge is how to transform the existing and proposed environments into an urban, pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use, transit-oriented environment that links the university,
downtown and surrounding community – as well as connecting to high speed rail, regional rail, bus rapid transit and an extensive shuttle system.  Cost: $35