Metro Walk

From the parking lot (Dec. 9 2006)

Metro Walk is a transit village in downtown Richmond, California. It is a major public-private works project, and one of the first transit villages in the world,^{[citation needed]} and the first^{[citation needed]} with single-family houses as the primary housing units, instead of more traditional condos. It was built on the former parking lot and an adjacent vacant parcel of the Richmond BART and Amtrak (Capitol Corridor) station. It is a mixed-use project spearheaded by the Richmond Redevelopment Agency, in partnership with a large consortium of local, state, and federal agencies. Some of the most notable of these agencies include the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, BART, and the Olson Company. The project consists of multi-level row houses, some of which come with a ground floor area with a free business license, in addition to commercial space, a planned parking garage, parks, and a greenway path connecting the station with the downtown area, in particular the Social Security Administration building and Kaiser Hospital. The plan also included the remodeling of the approach to the station which was seen as antagonizingly suspicious and met with apprehension due to the recessed entry which is being presently replaced with a more modern escalator-driven, well-lit entrance with a police substation to provide peace of mind to passers-by.

External links

• Description on official City of Richmond website
• Map and overview from Metropolitan Transportation Commission
• Seifel Consulting report and plan
• Description with photographs