Berkeley Students Contribute "Tidal City" Ideas

Kristina Hill's students at UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design are contributing their ideas to the All Bay Collective's collaborative design process. ABC's "tidal city" concept explores floating housing blocks within managed ponds that allow communities to remain in place as water levels rise.

Six student teams presented their initial tidal city site plans for various areas of the larger Oakland Coliseum region. ABC professionals provided critical feedback. We were lucky to have Criselda Cruz representing the East Oakland community at the UC Berkeley review. She asked great questions, made constructive comments, and is going to share back to the larger group of communities.

ABC has set up a stakeholder engagement process through RBD to gain as much community input as possible in the timeframe of the challenge. This engagement is being led by representatives from East Oakland Collective, Oakland Climate Action Coalition, Communities for a Better Environment and Merritt College Institute for Sustainable Policy Studies. They are sending representatives to ABC’s project working group meetings, and to student reviews like this one where possible. We are very pleased to have this input.

The students' next steps are to: ground their concepts within the communities; tie the six concepts together from a perspective of social cohesion, cultural connections, and hydrology; and craft a compelling story for how the tidal city concept can create stronger and more resilient communities that are living in the edge.