PROJECT OVERVIEW 

An effort to create a vibrant mixed-use development that fosters economic opportunities and a sense of belonging while honoring the heritage of city long impacted by spatial injustice.

PROJECT INFORMATION

TIMELINE: 2020 - Present
LOCATION: EAST PALO ALTO, CA
Client: Sand Hill Property Company
Partners:
    Perkins + Will
    Hood Design
Role: Spatial Justice Consultant

ADDITIONAL Project Collateral

Project Website

STORY

EPA is a primarily low-wage community of color, with a significant Latino and historic African American populations.

The city, which is featured as case study in Richard Rothstein’s Color of Law, exists on the edge of Silicon Valley but is an epitome of what the lack of spatial justice looks like. Located across from City Hall, the Four Corners site exists in the center of the city. It is the former home of Nairobi Village, a strip mall that had been a source of community pride and a symbol of self reliance in its heyday, before falling into disrepair in the 1980s.

Sand Hill Property Company purchased the site in 2019 seeking to develop the project into a vibrant and inclusive “Main Street” that blends retail, dining, housing, employment, community services, and inviting public spaces. The initial work here was focused doing a community-engaged process to identify how to create a sense of belonging and create a place that feels truly as the heart of the city.

IMAGE GALLERY