Plans to level the 24 Hour Fitness at 2072 Addison Street, in Downtown Berkeley, and develop a new seven-story building upon its site are slated be approved by the city this week.

As newly rendered by Kirk E. Peterson & Associates for Ruegg & Ellsworth, the proposed development would rise to a height of 75 feet and yield 66 apartments over a 1,425-square-foot restaurant fronting Addison and a stacked garage for 29 cars.

While the 2072 Addison Street parcel was once the site of the livery stables for the Landmark Francis K. Shattuck Building behind, the existing one-story building on the site, which has been a gym since 1988, was built as a garage in 1923.

And as such, Berkeley’s Landmarks Preservation Commission isn’t opposed to it being razed and redeveloped as proposed.

10 thoughts on “Building Up Berkeley: Refined Designs for Seven-Story Development”
  1. Would look better, methinks, without those crude, simplistic cornices …particularly on the tower. (It might be noted that the building on the right is the longtime home of ELS Architects…curious what they think of the design, since they’ll be neighbors.)

  2. It is NOT hideous. It is not one of his best (the transition between ground floor and upper stories is a little clumsy…in the drawing), but Peterson is one of the better architects working in a traditional architectural language.

    Note that I am not saying all urban architecture should be “traditional,” only that Peterson’s work in Berkeley is almost always far better than hackneyed suburban strip mall Mediterranean, and we should not waste time lambasting it.

  3. Brian M — This is indeed HIDEOUS! — just one more miserable design for Berkeley. Why does this city keep going for these ersatz, faux-historical style projects? Its pretty pathetic at this point in time…

    1. Versus ersatz PROGRESS MODERNISM? Progressive a la 1937, that is.

      Meh. Better this than some of the abominations The Compounds have foisted on us. And I even like a lot of modern design in the proper place.

      But you are right. We need some kind of structurally unsound swoopy rusted metal windowless box-thing here instead. Or maybe we can copy Wurster Hall? The homeless can defecate all over the concrete modules!

      1. Copy ?? NO. But maybe we can do a haircut/move: I’m willing to up my annual ~$100 donation to CED if it becomes an option. 🙂

  4. A perfectly fine — albeit rather mannered — design.

    Kirk Peterson can be trusted to produce well-proportioned classical/vernacular work.

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