Portola Valley Town Center design project kicks off Portola Valley Town Center design project kicks off (June 09, 2004)

By David Boyce
Almanac Staff Writer

The community project to have residents assist in the redesign of a new complex of buildings and facilities at Portola Valley Town Center hits two milestones this week, with two others to come soon.

The special Town Council meeting held Monday, June 7, marks the end of the informal comment period by the Town Center Citizens Advisory Committee and other residents on the desired uses for the new complex at the 11.2-acre Town Center site.

On Thursday, June 10, at 7 p.m., in the multi-use room at 765 Portola Road, the formal participatory design process -- called a "charrette" -- begins by introducing the concepts of the charrette, including its purpose, scope and the process.

With the goal of creating two or three well-defined site proposals over four sessions, the charrette will bring any interested residents and members of the Town Council and town staff together with a facilitator and a group of professionals, generally including architects, landscape architects, engineers and a sketch artist to capture the group's ideas on paper.

The Town Council plans to replace two structures: the administrative offices and an equipment maintenance facility. The results of a recent geological engineering survey confirmed that most of the current buildings are inside the rupture zone of an earthquake fault that runs through the site. The town is now at risk of losing its insurance, council members have said.

Space for rebuilding is at a premium since only 4 acres are outside the rupture zone. Other priorities, according to the results of a recent community survey, are a library, a multi-use room, a preschool, a playground and classrooms. Outdoor facilities such as recreational fields would be relocated to the areas considered unsafe for building construction.

To be considered, an activity or use should serve a diverse community at a reasonable cost without ruining the site's serene, park-like atmosphere. There are other criteria as well.

The community survey, initiated by the Town Council, queried 1,600 residences in the first two weeks of May and received 146 responses by the May 17 deadline. About 70 others came in after the deadline, most in favor of a preschool, town officials said.

After the Thursday meeting, the charrette group is scheduled to meet again at the multi-use room from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 13, to walk the site and discuss the concept of sustainable building design. After a half-hour break, work resumes from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. to develop proposals for the site. Attendance at all the sessions is not required.

Working from the charrette proposals, the Town Council will meet Wednesday, June 30, to choose one as the basis for a master plan to be presented in September.

About charrettes

In an interview with the Almanac earlier this year, Bill Lennertz, executive director of the National Charrette Institute in Portland, said that of the charrettes he has managed, about 75 percent were successful. A design can end up gathering dust on a shelf if an unsolvable issue comes up and undermines it, he said.

"It's a very powerful process, but it can produce a lot of ideas that don't go anywhere," Mr. Lennertz said. "It's all in the preparation. It's all in knowing what you might encounter in a charrette and getting ready for it."

For more information, go to charretteinstitute.org or enter the word "charrette" into a Web search engine.

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