Public Comment

It is no surprise to anyone paying attention that the current wave of uncontrolled, primarily market-rate (and higher) development is bringing unprecedented gentrification and erasing many of the most fascinating, well-loved treasures of Berkeley's architectural, historic, cultural, and educational heritage. The Village is an iconic Berkeley building located at Telegraph Ave. and Blake St, situated on "5th Block" of Telegraph Avenue in the famous South of Campus area. This area has enormous historic significance as a center of the Anti-War, People's Park, and Free Speech Movement Demonstrations of the 60's and 70's, and this unique building completely exemplifies the community spirit of the time.

I am part of a group of neighbors who are currently APPEALING the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s refusal to grant landmark status to this uniquely Berkeley structure. The Village is a visionary and pioneering example of adaptive re-use in the shell of a former auto showroom. This skylit, indoor semi-public arcade of small independent restaurants and stores was imagined & created in 1971 by and for residents of the South Campus community. It is one of the only still-existing examples of the historic period known as the “Era Of Change” - specifically, the ‘60s/early 70s “hand-built architecture” school, part of what is known as the “Hippie Modernist” art and design movement. This movement combined a diverse palette of design ideas with transformative new philosophies of adaptive reuse within the urban environment – a movement which has been profoundly influential in our ways of thinking in a modern world where recycling, adaptive reuse, and sustainability are very important underlying philosophies.  

The Hippie Modernist movement is being embraced by the art world everywhere as a forward-thinking expression of its time and place, while simultaneously reflecting current and progressive values. A New York Times article called “Experiencing Architecture Through ‘Hippie Modernism’ and Retrospectives” (September 13th, 2015) describes the form as “embodying a sense of activity and progress”, and a way to make older-model urban structures “work and adapt to the needs of subsequent generations” in more pedestrian-friendly urban environments – a structure like the Village, built to fit a high-ceilinged older auto garage structural shell, provides a prime (and rare) example of this movement. 

Built by local Berkeley Craftspeople at the height of the Free Speech Movement, The Village features precedent-setting use of recycled materials, skylighting, hand-crafted signs and architectural details. Hippie Modernism will be featured in an upcoming exhibit at the new BAM/PFA in Spring 2017, and has been featured at exhibits all over the world. It would be an unacceptable, terrible irony for the city to have refused landmark status to, and greenlit the destruction of, an extremely rare, very local architectural exemplar of this art form just as it comes into worldwide acceptance as a movement of great historic significance. 

When the original application for landmarking The Village was denied at the Landmark Preservation Commission meeting on January 7, 2016, these important aspects of the building were outright dismissed and even openly derided by some commissioners. Though the The Landmark Commission addressed a very few specific concerns within their purview that they have since stated were the primary guides for their decision, their positions on those concerns are controversial at best. Claiming, as commissioners Schwartz, Kiran Shenoy, and Christopher Linvill did, that all that was being presented was simply “nostalgia” was dismissive of Historic Preservation in general, and further indicated that those members failed to read the extensive Landmark Application which provided historic evidence supporting The Village’s compliance with the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance Evaluation Criteria. 

While the commission generally ignored historic, cultural, and educational significance, another concern was their central question of whether the architecture's exterior facade was of sufficient significance to merit landmarking on its own. However, interior vs. exterior in this case is a simplistic approach, and ignores the whole story. In the ordinance, you don't have to ignore the interior of a building, particularly when notable features such as an open foyer/lobby could be considered partially exterior or, in this case, around an area specifically designated as “the common” in the original blueprints. The term “the common” explicitly implies exterior, an important concept that was revived in the 1960s and 70s in emulation of a pre-industrial conception of public spaces that are open to all; this presents a sharp contrast to modern enclosure movements around increased privatization and gated mega-developments that have reduced shared public space to a fraction of what it once was.  

In the case of the Village, this designated “common” is the wide-open courtyard in the middle of all the separate businesses, fully open to the public during the entire business day until late at night when the exterior gates close. Natural light from the skylights above and the handbuilt rooftops of the individual shops create a unique indoor-with-an-outdoor-feel space that draws passerby in from the sidewalk. Some other examples of such semi-exterior and interior building areas that have received landmarking designation include 2211 Harold Way’s soffit- ceilinged arcade that is open to the public, and the Shattuck Hotel's atrium (which is entirely interior). 

While the Village is not as old as these examples, there are at least 19 Berkeley properties that have been designated as landmarks that were under 50 years of age at the time they were landmarked. Additionally, the garage “shell” the village was adaptively constructed under is well over 50 years old, and this adaptive re-use was completed 44 years ago. Other places from the 50s/60s/70s era (The Era of Change) have been landmarked, such as Peoples' Park and Peoples' Bicentennial Mural. However, no building associated with that iconic period on Telegraph from Bancroft through Parker has been designated (other than a plaque on Amoeba Records), and with the current rezoning and drive to turn these older buildings all into commercial buildings for housing we should preserve this building – a plaque is not enough. 

OUR APPEAL to the City Council is based on what we consider to be a failure of the Landmarks Commission to act in accordance with procedure and actually read and consider the application by the guidelines of the landmark ordinance – something it was very apparent many of them did not do. What WAS discussed at the Landmark Commission meeting, rather than the merits of the application itself, was outright derision of the building based on differences in personal aesthetics and disdain for this significant architectural period, speculation about the supposed “viability” of the many successful, fully-independent local businesses located there, a refusal to even consider the semi-exterior/common area spaces as an important component of the architecture, and little to no consideration for the significant cultural and educational significance of the site. 

Also, the meeting was repeatedly taken off-topic via public comments from a coordinated group of representatives from the pro-developer lobbying group called Livable Berkeley, who, despite an initial request from the commission to stick to the merits of the building as a potential landmark, took up a great deal of speaking time ruminating about the supposed “necessity” for a new building on the site – a position that several of the commissioners, improperly, took into consideration in their own comments and final votes/decisions. Commissioner Paul Schwartz, for example, commented, “Anything would be an improvement, (there’s) nothing worthwhile in (The Village).” He also stated, “The 60’s and 70’s were the worst period of American Architecture and this is an example of bad architecture of the time.” In response to this, we assert that Historic Preservation is not a BEAUTY CONTEST - it is a mechanism for which our cultural history can be preserved for future generations to understand Berkeley’s roots, an important part which are very much planted in the Free Speech Movement of Telegraph, and the Era of Change throughout the country. 

CULTURAL, EDUCATIONAL, and HISTORIC value are also listed as equal to architectural significance in the ordinance (Section 3.24.110: 1a, 1b, 1c, 2, 3, 4). The significance of the Village in all three of these categories as delineated in the ordinance, as well as the actual wording of the ARCHITECTURAL category, has been largely ignored by the LPC, despite being prominently included and delineated in the original application and reiterated in the appeal. Specifically, The Village is a rare example of Hippie Modernism in architecture (and the only still-existing example in Berkeley), born in the Era of Change, which sprang from the Free Speech Movement’s roots in the very neighborhood The Village sits. It would be a huge loss to let this part of our local history go unprotected and not preserved. 

In addition to the historic, cultural, and educational significance, The Village adds exceptional value to the very fabric of the neighborhood by providing DENSE retail space for 12 LOCAL and INDEPENDENT (non-chain) retail spaces with GREEN construction (recycled materials, natural lighting) on a very small footprint, as well as providing walkable shops, hair stylists and restaurants adding to the SUSTAINABILITY of the neighborhood (see Section 3.24.110: 1c). Several iconic Berkeley businesses were able to get their start in The Village, such as Ajanta, Joshuya Sushi, Fondue Fred, FinFine, and Norikonoko. The Village is currently home to a variety of diverse, fully-independent, and family run businesses (including the latter three mentioned above) that have been operating for decades, many of which are owned and operated by immigrants and/or people of color. 

To reiterate: At The Village, the described built features, which are landmark-eligible in their own right, are tied explicitly to the significance of the building as a prime (and very rare) example of the Hand-Built Architecture/ Hippie Modernism movements. It is an architecturally pioneering, adaptive re-use of an industrial shell with an unusual public “courtyard” that presented a forward-thinking design to help redefine public spaces in a changing urban environment. The structures around the building’s common, a very dense collection of 12 independent businesses, have their own roofs and are self-contained, and as the common is a de facto exterior space the significance of architecture in these areas can and should be considered in any landmarking decision - but were ignored by the commission. 

Unlike our opponents, who either are or represent development interests and real estate speculators, we truly consider ourselves strong advocates for Berkeley's civic culture and history, and we are fighting for recognition of this important structure in our own neighborhood. We urge you to send this application back to the commission – or approve the landmark today, here and now - for a new hearing that takes in mind the clear and obvious significance of this inherently BERKELEY structure of historic, cultural, and educational merit, a fascinating building full of an innovative and dense cluster of well-loved, genuinely independent local businesses, one of the gems of the city that actually does make Berkeley LIVABLE. 

UPCOMING ACTIONS: 

1. Please sign our petition to PRESERVE THE VILLAGE at change.org: 

http://chn.ge/1THsry8 

2. There will be a “Night Out” at the village on Saturday, June 11th from 6-9pm, where we encourage supporters to come out, enjoy dinner at one of The Village's excellent restaurants, and chat with neighbors and community members about this issue. We hope to see you there. 

3. The city council will be meeting again on Tuesday, June 14 (7pm, 2134 MLK) to make a final decision on whether to send the application for landmarking back to the commission for re-consideration. If you wish to have your voice heard on this matter, we encourage you to show up then for public comment, and/or to submit a letter to the city clerk (clerk@cityofberkeley.info) any time before noon on June 14 for inclusion in the meeting's information packet.  

View the Landmark Application here.