News

BERKELEY – Renowned wilderness advocate David Brower’s legacy is set to extend into the urban landscape as construction gets under way on a $75 million downtown environmental center bearing his name. Contractors began laying the groundwork this week for the four-story David Brower Center, slated to house eco-conscious retailers and environmental non-profits. The building, scheduled…

Environmental Warrior’s Posthumous Battle None of David Brower’s victories came easy, not even the eco-headquarters to be built in his honor. Brower, the pioneering environmentalist who died in 2000, spent his life fighting to save the country’s most fragile and spectacular wildlands. Fittingly, it took six years of legal wrangling, creative financing and hard-headed determination…

Environmental Warrior’s Posthumous Battle None of David Brower’s victories came easy, not even the eco-headquarters to be built in his honor. Brower, the pioneering environmentalist who died in 2000, spent his life fighting to save the country’s most fragile and spectacular wildlands. Fittingly, it took six years of legal wrangling, creative financing and hard-headed determination…

Green Has a New Home In its gestation, the David Brower Center — an environmental think-tank planned for downtown Berkeley, at the edge of the UC campus — has passed the blueprint stage and is deep in its third trimester. Groundbreaking is scheduled for this fall. The building, which honors the late Berkeley conservationist David…

In May, acting on the recommendation of the Berkeley Housing Department, the Berkeley City Council approved a Disposition and Development Agreement for the David Brower Center, the last stage of city approval needed to allow the project to go forward. CEL cofounder Peter Buckley is chair of the board of the Brower Center, a project…

  Brower Center Project Clears Key City Vote City councilmbers Tuesday approved transferring the Oxford Plaza parking lot to developers Tuesday night, but their vote—the first of two—left as many questions as answers. On a 6-1-2 vote, with Betty Olds voting no and Gordon Wozniak and Laurie Capitelli abstaining, the council voted to approve the…

  BERKELEY — A process that would allow a developer to build a multimillion-dollar building complex dedicated to late Sierra Club leader David Brower has gotten the green light. The Berkeley City Council voted 6-3 Tuesday night to approve a disposition and development agreement that opens the door to transfer the Oxford parking lot to…

In her Feb. 24 letter to the editor, Carolyn Sell mentions both the David Brower Center and plans to develop Ashby BART, an interesting combination which, for me, is an invitation to comment on how the city plans for the use of publicly controlled space. But first, it’s important to correct a factual error in…

  Steve Barton, Berkeley’s housing director, said, “It’s probably the most complicated financial structure ever put together for a non-profit development in Berkeley, and quite possibly the most complicated for any Berkeley project.” But despite the complications, Barton said construction could start as soon as August on the David Brower Center and Oxford Plaza affordable…

  Berkeley city councilmembers voted Tuesday to pledge $4 million in federal funds to pay for community services and affordable housing as collateral for a federal loan to help fund the David Brower Center and Oxford Plaza. The council delayed acting on an appeal from the purported owner of Dwight Way Liquors, after neither he…