Located on the corner of Telegraph Avenue and Blake Street, the proposed five-story building will be one of the taller, and more prominent, buildings between Downtown Oakland and the Berkeley campus, and will serve as a gateway to the Telegraph Avenue commercial district. Care has been taken to emphasize the excitement and dynamism of shared student living while being respectful of the neighborhood setting.

In response to the site’s history as “The Village”, a quirky 1960s wood and shingle clad building wrapping a brick-paved sky-lit interior street that housed several small restaurants on two levels, the new building will provide two live/work lofts as well as two ground-floor retail spaces, the largest of which is sub-dividable into small shop components.

In a neighborhood primarily of two-story buildings, The Laureate has four active frontages all with good views to the bay and hills. Exterior materials and lighting exhibit a campus-like, prestigious level of quality, while eschewing any dorm-like references. The main entrance is off of Telegraph in order to limit the impact of student traffic on side streets and promote interaction with the activity of the main commercial street.  A fourth floor roof deck, open to the quiet residential street of Chilton Way, provides outdoor space for residents while also shielding neighbors for privacy.

The large residential units are designed around a compact circulation core. Each have innovative arrangements of kitchens and baths for reduced plumbing fixture counts while also providing privacy and accommodating the flexible schedules of undergraduate students.

The inherently sustainable location is further enhanced by quiet decisions: an emphasis on bike storage, no on-site parking, massing to address solar gain, incorporating NetZero electric opportunities with a potential for rooftop solar panels and probable storm water storage in structured retaining areas.