Design Time for Downtown

You are invited to help shape the future of downtown Burlingame this Saturday, September 30, at a collaborative design workshop called a "charrette."

The event will take place at the Burlingame Recreation Center, 850 Burlingame Ave. Admission is free. It is sponsored by the City of Burlingame and AIA San Mateo County, a chapter of The American Institute of Architects.

Members of the public are invited to come anytime between 8:30 a.m. and 8 p.m. to the workshop. The best time to voice ideas is from 8:30 a.m. to noon, the brainstorming? portion of the charrette. During the afternoon, the public is still welcome, but there is less interaction as the architects rush to complete their sketches. The architectural teams will present their visions to the public from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

At the all-day event, dozens of architects and other design professionals will volunteer their time to create design concepts for revitalizing the area around Howard Avenue in downtown Burlingame between El Camino Real and California Drive. A key focus of the study will be the side streets and pedestrian ways that connect Howard Avenue to the bustling Burlingame Avenue shopping area one block north.

The workshop is named Destination: SOBA? to highlight Howard Avenue's South of Burlingame Avenue (SOBA) location.

What is a charrette? Click here to learn more.

- Written by Terry Nagel

Comments

[arco]

The design meeting was very good yesterday. I heard one person say that they would never look at Howard Ave the same again. I heard another person say that the Hatch Ln idea was also great but would need some kind of a zoning change. People had tried to put offices on Hatch before and it was not allowed. The same spot on Hatch is now empty because its not good enough for a store and an office is not allowed so it sits empty. Overall a good day. Thanks to the City for putting it on. Oh, and I heard lots of comments that said this council is much better than the ones in the past.

I thought the charrette was pretty exciting. I could find great ideas in each of the four plans, and wish that more people could see the outcomes. I hope the boards will be displayed somewhere, like the library or city hall.

[Angela]

I really enjoyed the entire day. All four groups did well my favorite was the last group.

I liked the idea of closing the street by Sam's sandwiches.

Thank you Terry Nagel and for all of the hard work that went into the Charrette.

The last one was my favoite, too, with the open creek running through town., lots of green. I hope these will be displayed around town. There are certainly enough empty businesses; perhaps one of the landlords would allow them to be displayed in the vitrines until the space is rented.

[fred]

no press on charette
wanted to know who showed up
see the four designs

were the landlords there
big elephant in the room
I'm talking safeway

Good questions! Isn't there anything in the paper this morning??
Safeway was supposed to be there, but they (he/she?) didn't announce themselves. It's better that way, I think, otherwise the focus would have become entirely that first block. It was nice to see the street approached as a whole unit. Too bad you didn't join us, Fred. (We don't bite!)

I do think some landlords were there, but I wouldn't have recognized them, in any case. The crowd consisted of several city staffmembers, who put on a great spread for our visiting designers, councilmembers, CBBers, other interested residents of Burlingame and Hillsborough.

I do hope that these will be shown (off) , preferably somewhere on Howard. Maybe they could be made laminated and made into kiosks!

By the way, if anyone from the city reads this, the street light at Lorton and Howard is (still!!) unlit. Please fix!

Howard at sunset
Darkness fall fast upon street
Hasty step not wise

Cobra not asleep
Why City cannot fix beast?
Man fall sue city

I'm not sure I can say it in Haiku, but both David Bowlby and Mark Hudak were there representing Safeway. They came during the morning session, but David said he came to "listen" and not influence the process. He spent a lot of time talking to people in the crowd and was there for the final presentations Saturday night. Councilwoman Ann Keighran and I have a follow-up appointment with Mr. Bowlby next week and we will give an update on this particular meeting at our October 16th City Council meeting.

[Angela]

Mr. Bowlby seemed to listen to what we had to say. It seemed funny that the four groups skipped over the Safeway project.

One of the best and most fun was presented by a young boy. He put some good thought into it. I hope it also gets displayed.

I see there is a summary of the charrette posted on the city website. It's not in haiku though!