Bay Area
Westlake Urban Interview with Brian Wiedenmeier, Executive Director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition

Our work at Westlake Urban is focused on re-envisioning and redeveloping sites that have outlived their useful lives. Most of our projects are located in existing communities where we have owned properties for decades. These communities tend to be urbanizing places where the pace of change is rapidly increasing, rules are changing, and long-held beliefs […]

Bay Area
Taking impossibility to the next level

Public art provides us with an opportunity for reflection and contemplation, as well as active enjoyment  and community engagement as artists redefine the relationship between viewer, object, place, and time. SHARE:TwitterFacebookLinkedinEmail

Bay Area
Truth is Beauty, San Leandro Tech Campus featured on KTVU

  On Saturday a 55-foot tall statue is being installed in San Leandro. The celebration is going to start with a drive through the streets before she is delivered to her final home. And now Alex Savidge is at the sight where her 20-foot-long legs are already in place. Alex: Yes, it is a beautiful […]

Bay Area
Tactical Urbanism: Connecting people and places through small-scale changes.

To improve public space, little projects can yield big rewards: a pop-up “parklet” on a big-city street, a shopping mall made from shipping containers, or bicycle lanes and other street enhancements produced through “quick-build” projects that use a mix of local funding, volunteer efforts, and creative staffing solutions to bring about long-lasting changes. Known as […]

Bay Area
ConnectOakland: Mending the Urban Fabric for a More Connected Future

Route I-980 Source: ConnectOakland The I-980 freeway is at a crossroads — literally and figuratively. The freeway might have seemed like a good idea at one time, but now many see it as a blight that divides the Oakland community and disconnects neighborhoods from the downtown. It currently acts as a barrier to economic investment […]

2000 Delaware
Synthesis, new kinetic, outdoor sculpture at 2000 Delaware

Westlake Urban, in partnership with Palo Alto Partners, recently completed a new, multifamily rental property for moderate-income households in San Mateo, CA. “From the beginning, the (San Mateo) City Council envisioned a mixed-income housing development for the community,” according to Sandra Council, Neighborhood Improvement and Housing Manager, City of San Mateo. The project, located at […]

Bay Area
Welcome to the new
San Leandro

The new San Leandro Truth is Beauty by Marco Cochrane Photo by Barry Toranto She is the icon of San Leandro’s transformation. Graceful, strong, proud, and reaching toward the future, she imagines a world that is bright and bold, limitless and safe. Truth is Beauty, the 55-foot steel and LED sculpture by artist Marco Cochrane […]

Bay Area
Why offices, not housing, may be the destination for new BART projects

One of the biggest clues for how the Bay Area might grow in the future can be found in a surprising place: the small, suburban city of San Leandro. Despite the region’s insatiable need for more housing, developer Westlake Urban abandoned its initial idea to build apartments on private land just a few steps west […]

Bay Area
New San Leandro Tech Campus

(KGO) – The new San Leandro Tech Campus is expected to open next summer. The S-L-T-C or the San Leandro Tech Campus is under construction. It’s poised to totally change the city. A new 6-story building next to the San Leandro Bart Station is only that start of what’s to come here. Chief Innovation Officer […]

Bay Area
Technology is the “New Plumbing” in the Information Economy

Plumbing. We take it for granted. We turn the tap—and expect water to come gushing out. Plumbing wasn’t always part of our communities, but once introduced it changed everything about how we build buildings and cities. High speed broadband technology is today’s “new plumbing” and it is dramatically changing how we at Westlake build our […]