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ProVen

Berkeley, 2014

ProVen Management is a national construction company which specializes in building large-scale infrastructure projects. In addition to their involvement in construction, the owners of the company are serious art collectors. During the decade prior to Proven purchasing the site, the buildings were abandoned and became a canvas for graffiti artists.  When ProVen purchased the site they invited the graffiti community to come back and over a period of several months the buildings, inside and out, were adorned with a lot of new art. The event is captured in a great short video (here’s a link).

The existing landmarked buildings were constructed over a hundred years ago as an ink manufacturing plant. Their unusual cast-in-place concrete trusses and roofs will be exposed and featured in the final design. The program for the site calls for a contractor’s yard for storage of heavy equipment, a new 5,000 sq. ft equipment repair shed, and renovation of the existing 35,000 sq ft of existing buildings for use as storage, offices, conference, and art exhibition. This project has received Landmarks and Zoning Approvals and is currently in for a building permit.

Trachtenberg Architects:  David Trachtenberg, Mauricio De la Pena, Robert Nishimori
Owners: ProVen Management
Structural Engineer:  Yu Engineering
Landscape Architect: Robert Trachtenberg / Garden Architecture
Lighting Design: Anna Kondolf

Budget: Confidential