This new Bike Station provides free bike parking for 268 bikes in the center of downtown Berkeley. The facility breaks new ground as the largest bike station on the West Coast, providing bike parking, rentals, repairs, sales and bike advocacy all under one roof.

Fitting over 260 bike parking spaces into the 3,550-square-foot former shoe store was a welcome challenge. We exceeded the target number by designing a new racking system that puts bikes up on three tiers and makes the third tier easy to use by the general public.

The design provides a light and lively interior with warm materials, bright colors and vibrant graphics to communicate the feeling of freedom that biking affords and to set the station apart from more hard-edged bike repair shops.

The station was designed to emphasis environmental responsibility. In addition to helping to take cars off the road, the station is finished with sustainable materials including Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) wood panels, retail displays clad in cork, low urea formaldehyde cabinetry, and low VOC wood stains and paints. To make use of existing features, the old pendant lights were rehabilitated and the original concrete columns and floor stripped and sealed. Rather than build a new structure, the Bike Station is housed in the 100-year-old Shattuck Hotel building, strategically located at the center of Berkeley's transit hub.