A Case for the Disappearing Commons
San Francisco / California / USA /RMIT - Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
1799
It is a strange experience walking down Haste Street from Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, California. Tall double-storey shipping containers, topped with gnarly chain-wire fencing and security cameras, loom above you, while a host of security guards sit under marquees on each corner, watching as you move down the street. They monitor the hidden site 24 hours a day. What is it that the University of Berkeley is preventing you from accessing? As a visiting student living in an apartment overlooking this strange, forlorn dustbowl, I learned that this was once the infamous People’s Park— a site that has seen its fair share of excitement. There is no doubt that this place has lost its identity and purpose.
