Westwood, California

Atelier V team of architects and engineers have completed the construction drawings for Baker Street Village in Bakersfield, California.  Baker Street Village is a mixed use complex that originally started as a Public-Private partnership between a private developer and the City of Bakersfield’s Redevelopment Agency back in 2007.  The recent financial crises took its toll on the project and rendered it economically unfeasible as a private development.  Fortunately,  in early 2010 the Housing Authority of the County of Kern came to the rescue and purchased the project with the new mission of transforming it into Affordable Housing.  Atelier V and the Housing Authority went through a series of cost-cutting iterations to achieve the new budget objective.  The re-designed project is now ready for construction and slated to start in the next 3 months.

Baker Street Village is a multi-phase mixed use project. Phase I  is comprised of two distinct housing prototypes.  First (Building A) are a series of twenty four 3-story 3-bedroom townhome units in 4 separate buildings totaling approximately 62,000 sf.  The second part (Building B) of the complex is a 3-story 27,000 sf mixed use building with 13 one-bedroom units and 10,000 sf of retail on the ground floor along Baker Street. The complex’s various components are connected via pedestrian walkways enhancing the urban character of the project.  The townhome units are designed as walk-ups with the main level approximately 4 feet higher than the pedestrain sidewalk, while the garages are sunken at the lower level and accessed from the back side.  Again, the idea was to enhance the pedestrian experience on Lake and king avenues with the structures hugging the property line. The townhome facades are a combination of wood siding and cement plaster with painted wood trims.  The mixed use building (Bldg. B) along Baker street takes on a completely different look while staying true to the urban nature of the project.  Large expanses of glass and corrugated metal panels in combination with cement plaster and a brick veneer base add to create the setting for a more sophisticated urban lifestyle.  “We worked closely with the County of Kern Housing Authority to try and preserve as much of the original features of the project as possible while meeting new and completely re-defined objectives” Said Mark Vaghei, AIA Principal in Charge of atelier V: architecture (www.atelierv.com)

atelier V: architecture would like to thank Messieurs Stephen Pelz, Randy Coats and Mike Ruiz of the County of Kern Housing Authority for their invaluable efforts to resurrect the project.  The Selected General Contractor for the project is Wallace and Smith General Contractors of Bakersfield, California.

For more information and photos on this and other atelier V projects, please visit : www.atelierv.com  projects/residential/Baker Street Village Phase I

Credits:

atelier V team:  Vanessa Ablegas, Margaret Liu, Hamid Ashki

Structural Engineer :  APSG Engineers , Mr. Avtar Pall, Principal

Civil Engineer :  Porter-Robertson Engineering and Surveying, Inc,  Mr. Matt Carson, Project Manager