With its narrow windows and blank walls, one might mistake this for a penitentiary. Or perhaps a psychiatric ward for the criminally insane. But it is in fact a new public housing project under construction in Oakland.
Tassafaronga Village
Some things never change: for stupendously ugly architecture, one can’t beat a public housing project.
All the charm of an anti-septic hopsital ward
This award winning “Gold Nugget Award of Merit, Best Infill, Re-Development or Rehab Site Plan, Leed-Certified, Best Green Sustainable Community of the Year” project was funded by the Oakland Housing Authority, and supposed to be Transit-Oriented.
Like most such “affordable” housing projects, it is indeed situated near a transit station, but is otherwise quite auto-oriented. As seen in the site plan below, it wastes a huge amount of space to accommodate the the 1.2 parking per housing unit ratio. Even worse, those parking spaces were put in a garage, which probably cost a fortune.
Ironically, this project was recently promoted on the SF-Streetsblog website by New Urbanist developer Peter Calthrope for its “highest level” of green technology. What does it say for the Bay Area environmental community, that such stupendously ugly, auto-oriented architecture can win “sustainable community of the year” awards?
Systemic Failure 
My favorite touch is the sad little row of shrubs running around the base of the building — a true “nature band aid” in Kunstler’s terminology.
Yeah, to me when a building has nothing but a blank wall on the sidewalk, having a little row of shrubs just adds insult to injury.
[…] the Drunk Engineer posted about a parking-packed Oakland project winning a smart growth award, I figured it was an anomaly. And hey, it’s the West Coast – what did you […]
Oh, yippee – it’s LEED-ND certified! http://urbanland.uli.org/Articles/2012/Aug/ul/BertonLEED