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Fall 2012

Grand Award:
Ed Roberts Campus Puts Accessible Spin On Transit-Oriented Development

The Ed Roberts Campus is an architectural gem that celebrates disabled access with a central, circular wheelchair-ready ramp clad in bright red panels that has become the symbol for the building. (Photo: Noah Berger)

More than a dozen disability service and advocacy organizations are tenants/owners in the building that is an example of transit-oriented development, across the street from the Ashby BART station. (Photo: Noah Berger)

When the East Bay’s disability community was exploring a fitting memorial to disability rights activist Ed Roberts, the discussion initially focused on something like a U.S. postage stamp or a street name. Luckily for the Bay Area, the tribute morphed into something much grander that will deliver practical benefits to thousands of disabled residents for decades to come — the Ed Roberts Campus (ERC) at the Ashby BART station in Berkeley.

Seven disability service and advocacy organizations formerly spread around the East Bay came together to plan and build the campus, including the Center for Independent Living, the Disability Rights and Education Fund, the Center for Accessible Technology, and the World Institute on Disability. These anchor organizations have been joined by several other tenants serving the disabled community.

The ERC would shine in any architectural contest, and particularly one focusing on universal design — an approach to making facilities as usable as possible by as many people as possible, regardless of ability. But what makes the facility the right candidate at the right time for MTC’s Grand Award this year is its proximity to a bustling public transit hub. A well-marked underground portal allows wheelchair users to easily glide from the BART station’s ticketing platform to a bank of elevators that deposit them in the ERC lobby. It is an example of transit-oriented development done right.

Instead of relegating disabled access to the margins, the architects celebrate it with a central, circular wheelchair-ready ramp that spirals boldly from the first floor to the second. Clad in bright red panels, that ramp has become the symbol for the building, a stylized version serving as the logo. The 85,000-square-foot structure also incorporates a number of smaller accommodations, such as a lobby fountain that serves as an acoustical beacon for vision-impaired visitors.

“I think this is the first time that universal design has happened at this level, from the ground up,” said Dmitri Belser, executive director of the Center for Accessible Technology and the former president of the Ed Roberts Campus.

The campus is a tribute to Ed Roberts, a larger-than-life figure who himself was confined to a wheelchair by polio, and who reportedly became the first severely disabled student to attend UC Berkeley. While the seeds for the ERC were sown shortly after Roberts died in 1995, it took more than a dozen years for the plans and funding to coalesce. Construction took only 18 months, with the building opening in November 2010.

The project’s overall impact was elegantly summarized in the award nomination by Joan Leon, who worked alongside Roberts for many years in several disability organizations that fittingly are now housed at the ERC, and who spearheaded the fundraising for the project. “The Ed Roberts Campus enables thousands of people with disabilities and their families to use a fully accessible, safe and efficient mode of travel to obtain health, education and social services, and to participate in cultural, educational and civic activities,” she wrote.
— Brenda Kahn

Transactions Fall 2012 Issue: Contents