Students offer ideas for historic train station |
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10 May 2005 ATTENTION: Education, urban planning, historic preservation writers, editors |
Contact:
Kathleen Maclay, Media Relations
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WHAT
A presentation by 30 students from McClymonds High School in West Oakland of two different design plans for restoring a historic train station in their neighborhood. The Beaux Arts landmark, once the terminus of the transcontinental railroad, closed after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
About a dozen University of California, Berkeley, graduate students in urban planning, education and other disciplines have spent 10 weeks mentoring the McClymonds students and teaching them fundamentals of planning and design. All the students are part of the Y-Plan - Youth Plan, Learn, Act Now - a program offered under the umbrella of the Center for Cities and Schools at UC Berkeley's Institute of Urban and Regional Development.
WHEN
5 p.m.-7:30 p.m., Wednesday, May 11
WHERE
Hearing Room 2, Oakland City Hall, 14th Street and Broadway
DETAILS
A review panel with design, development, housing, advocacy, education and local government representatives will examine the McClymonds students' "youth friendly" proposals for the station itself and the outside plaza. The Oakland City Council has endorsed plans to add about 1,500 housing units in the area around the station, and the developers, who support station restoration, have asked the students for input.
Last year, McClymonds students in the Y-Plan developed designs that spurred a dramatic renovation of what was considered one of Oakland's most dangerous parks, located just 20 feet from McClymonds High.
Walter Hood, a UC Berkeley professor of landscape architecture and environmental planning, has worked with the Y-Plan since its inception three years ago. Hood, a member of the review panel, says the students "bring to these projects their dreams...They bring hope, they bring vision, they bring excitement."
For more information about the Y-Plan and the station project, contact Deborah McKoy at the Center for Cities and Schools at (510) 643-3105.