Presenter: Eleanor Hollander, Acting Economic Development Manager, City of Berkeley

Originally conceived at the turn of the 20th Century, Berkeley’s Civic Center was master planned and molded by City Beautiful Movement principles, and anchored by the 1909 construction of Berkeley’s second City Hall (now known as the Maudelle Shirek Building at 2134 Martin Luther King Jr Way). The Veterans Building (1931 Center Street) was built in 1928 and designed to honor Berkeley’s war veterans and provide a meeting place for their organizations. This Master Plan will identify a direction for future capital improvements to restore and secure these facilities to maximize their community benefit.

In September 2020, the City Council endorsed the vision for the Civic Center Master Plan. This culminates the first phase of this exciting project, which included:

• a comprehensive community outreach strategy 

• synthesis of a wide-ranging and exciting ideas into a vision statement

• assessment of the existing supporting infrastructures for all three key elements of the plan (Old City Hall, Veterans Memorial Building and Civic Center Park) 

• a menu of programs and functions for the two buildings

• complementary public realm improvements for the Park; and 

• a suite of financial tools and revenue generation strategies for facility maintenance