Capital Strategies

Project Background

The Berkeley Innovation Zone will redevelop a 1.86-acre campus-owned site in downtown Berkeley to create a public-facing node for life sciences, materials science, and climate research. Immediately west of the Crescent Lawn, the zone will have two main buildings separated by a courtyard space. Construction of the south building and courtyard space will begin first, followed by the north building.

The south building will be a laboratory building known as the Bakar ClimatEnginuity Hub. The building will provide modern laboratory and flexible scale-up space for campus faculty and researchers, as well as campus-affiliated entrepreneurs and their collaborators, to incubate startup companies that provide solutions for energy and the environment.

The Bakar ClimatEnginuity Hub will be designed around highly flexible wet laboratories and spaces, allowing for scale-up capabilities to support startups rooted in chemistry, materials science, and rapid instrument prototyping, propelled by artificial intelligence and machine learning. The building also includes research and administrative offices, meeting rooms, collaboration areas, conference space, and shared administrative support space.

The primary entrance of the Bakar ClimatEnginuity Hub will be from Addison Street, near Oxford Street, where collaboration and prototyping spaces are located. The southeast corner would feature a multi-story, semi-enclosed space featuring a central stairwell. On level two, this space would provide access to an exterior terrace. Floors three through five would feature a mix of flexible laboratory and office space. The building's east-west orientation optimizes natural light and solar exposure, provides opportunities for passive ventilation systems, and optimizes the sawtooth roof form for photovoltaic power generation. The building's service and loading access would occur at the west end of the building. The building's façade would be a mix of glass and brick.

Site preparation is anticipated to start in the summer of 2024 and will last approximately ten months. To prepare the site for construction, the existing campus-owned buildings and features on the site will be demolished, including University Hall.

Work on the Bakar ClimatEnginuity Hub will begin after the site is cleared. Construction is anticipated to last approximately 36 months.