Excerpt:

Exhibit:

1. Block 9 Design Plans

...

BACKGROUND

In 2016, the Planning Board held several workshops to review the initial designs for Block 9. While the workshops were productive, neither City staff nor APP felt that the design for the site was improving substantially. As the result, APP made the difficult decision to select a new architectural firm to design the building. After interviewing a number of different firms, APP chose Pyatok Architects for the job. Pyatok Architects is a well-respected architectural design firm that has designed a number of attractive buildings throughout the Bay Area, including Avalon Hayes Valley and Avalon Ocean Avenue in San Francisco, and 901 Jefferson Avenue in downtown Oakland. With over 30 years of experience in multi-family housing design, Pyatok approaches each project with the goal of uncovering the unique needs of the community being served. Its design principles include the consideration of history and culture, the expression of ecological responsibility and people-centered effort.

The Pyatok team began work on the design in March and began showing staff their initial concepts in April. Based upon these initial design meetings, staff believes that the design concepts for the building have improved substantially over the prior designs and that the Pyatok team is bringing some interesting new ideas to the design of Block 9 and Site A. For these reasons, staff would like the design team to share its initial design concepts and thoughts with the Planning Board and community. Exhibit 1 includes the current working drawings for the design of Block 9.