As per a recently released statement by BART, the long-awaited West Oakland BART development project is now taking initial steps towards construction. A portion of the West Oakland BART parking lot is closed this week for preliminary site soil testing and preparations. Site remediation, followed by building construction, is to begin later this year.
The massive development is planned to bring 762 new residential units, 300,000 square feet of office space, and 53,000 square feet of retail to the West Oakland neighborhood. The full scope of the project has been approved since 2019, but has stalled for several years. Despite the delays, the project was never discontinued, and the new development will be coming to West Oakland soon.
The project plans will encompass the total area of what is now the West Oakland BART parking lot. Project plans are broken down into four smaller development areas within the total site. Currently, BART has made no commitments on the timeline for full completion, and it is unclear whether the areas will be worked on sequentially or overlap with each other.
Mandela Station Development Area with Zone Labels, base image by JRDV Urban International
Parks within the Mandela Station development at 1451 7th Street, including Mandela Plaza, Undertrack Plaza, Art Alley, and Center Square, drawing courtesy JRDV Architects
Development Area T1 will consist of a 31-story high-rise building with 522 market-rate residential units and 14,350 sq ft of ground-floor retail space. Development Area T2 will focus on a Surface plaza and circulation improvements for the station. Development Area T3 will add a 7-story mid-rise residential building of 240 affordable multi-family units and approximately 16,000 sq ft of ground floor retail space. Lastly, Development Area T4 will construct a 100-ft-tall mid-rise commercial office building with 300,000 sq ft of office and approximately 23,000 sq ft of ground-floor retail space.
The full project is being brought by a team of development partners, named The Mandela Station Partners, and will include MacFarlane Partners, Pacific West, and Strategic Urban Development Alliance. Meanwhile, the design teams for the site include AO and JRDV Urban International.
The designs they have brought include eclectic elements of modern architecture design, with each building holding its own unique flavor. The most recent renderings are from the T3 development zone, showing a bold, multicolored façade design on a blocky podium-style building. Window and balcony articulation are strategically placed to break up the building planes. Meanwhile, older renderings show the T4 development zone as a mostly glass façade with deep inset terraces, and the T1 development area as a slim mixed façade tower.
Mandela Station Parcel T3 seen from the West Oakland BART Station platform, rendering by AO
Mandela Station T1 Tower Rendering, image by JRDV Urban International
Taken as a whole, the development will be a significant increase in building density from the blocks immediately surrounding it. However, planners hope that the injection of new commercial and housing opportunities will help spark development across many of the vacant or underutilized spaces near the current project site.
The area around the project was once highly prosperous, a history supported by the large parks and beautiful Victorian homes spread across West Oakland. However, the area saw a steep economic downturn in the 1960s and onward, instigated at least in part by the construction of the Cypress Freeway in the decade before. After damage in the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, the freeway was fully removed, leaving significant areas of land vacant, including those surrounding the West Oakland BART station. Rebuilding these areas is an important first step in restoring the area.
In recent years, Transit-Oriented Development has emerged as a method for cities to increase housing and commercial opportunities sustainably. This project at the West Oakland Bart Station will mirror others already completed or underway at MacArthur BART, Fruitvale BART, and Lake Merritt BART stations in Oakland, as well as others across the full network.
Mandela Station Development Area Proximity Map With Approximate Pathway of the Former Cyrpress Freeway, basemap via ArcGis Online, with edits by SF YIMBY
West Oakland BART Temporary Parking Lot Closures, image via BART
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1451 7th Street AO AO Architects BART JRDV Architects MacFarlane Partners Mandela Station @ West Oakland Mandela Station Affordable LP SUDA The Pacific Companies