The Street Today

Combining retail, entertainment, hospitality and residential uses, Bay Street Emeryville invites customers to escape into a casual village designed for strolling, shopping and having fun. 

The character of Bay Street Emeryville is drawn from the rich history of its bayside site as a place where people have gathered for decades to live, work and play. Designed as an eclectic urban village set in an industrial landscape, Bay Street Emeryville uses architecture, lighting, landscape and environmental graphics to create a unique, contemporary atmosphere.

Organized in three city blocks connected by a main street, the project reflects the industrial architectural heritage of the area throughout its streetscapes, plazas and green spaces. Movie theaters, residences and a hotel complement the shopping and dining venues.

Bay Street Emeryville is a place full of activity; a social hub where friends and family can gather to shop, stroll, dine or be entertained. 

Click here to take a virtual leasing tour of Bay Street Emeryville.

The Project

• 400,000 square feet of retail and entertainment
• 264 apartments and 82 townhouses
• 230 room mid-rise hotel
• 16-screen cineplex (+3300 seats)
• 2000+ convenient parking spaces in multi-level structured facilities and surface lots
• A multi-level main street setting designed by The Jerde Partnership
• A diverse collection of restaurants and specialty food retailers catering to the sophisticated palates of Bay Area residents.
• Adjacent to the Bay Area's first IKEA location, which has dramatically enhanced the area's regional drawing power.

The Street Yesterday

Bay Street Historic Shellmound District

History
Three thousand years ago, the San Francisco Bay Area was a very quiet place. You could go for days without ever seeing another human being, but there were many animals and lots of open space.

One day, a group of people, the Ohlone, arrived at the Bay. They stopped to gather oysters and mussels to eat. These were easy to collect from the marsh along the shore of the bay. There was also a large creek where they could drink fresh water. The edge of this creek was a great place to camp. When the tide was low, anyone in the village could gather oysters from the gravelly bottom of the bay or use a stick to dig clams out of the mud of the tide flat. This was a great place to live, with plenty of everything people might need: water, food, space, and the materials to make shelters. The Ohlone decided to stay and call this place home.

Today
Today Bay Street Emeryville, an urban village where people can shop, dine, live and be entertained, calls the site home. Bay Street Emeryville celebrates the rich cultural and natural history of this site through a contemplative historical park.

The Bay Street Historic Shellmound District is surrounded by Temescal Creek, the very water source that provided sustenance to the Ohlones for generations. Native vegetation once again flourishes and artistic elements speak to Ohlone history.

Over time, the Native Americans inhabiting the site created an elevated landmark known as a "Shellmound" that they used for daily activities as well as a burial ground. By the late 1920's the upper Shellmound had been demolished and the site transformed with industrial development ? the Bay Street Historic Shellmound District incorporates physical artistic elements that call attention to the historical and cultural significance of the Shellmound.

The Bay Street Historic Shellmound District is a place where people can gather with others or peacefully reflect. Most importantly this place is an interactive educational experience that invokes thought and understanding about the lives of the Ohlone peoples. 

Shellmound Meaning

Natural history, geology, aquatic plant life, biological systems and elements that formed past cultural patterns form the lifeblood of character for this contemplative historical park. A series of interactive physical elements reconstruct the memory of this special place.

Meaning
This contemplative historical park derives its image and character from the rich cultural and natural past. The Bay Street Historic Shellmound District offers the following experience:

• A strong sense of the past: prior cultures, prior natural systems and prior events will embody in the form and experience of the area.
• Interpretive components of an historic timeline of cultural events and activities. Temescal Creek and its prior vegetative character will be regenerated.
• A visual sectional window of the Shellmound is offered for interpretation.
• The ground surface depicts materials, elements, and events of past histories. Relics, artifacts, creek vegetation and cultural elements will be exposed to people experiencing the plaza. The history will unfold through the physical appearance.
• The creek wetlands are re-created.

Shellmound Features

Art Walls

Granite art walls graphically incorporate Ohlone history and that of the Shellmound. You are invited through a stone portal into a garden where the art walls are located. Each of these unique art walls tells a historical story about the elements and activities of Ohlone life.

Timeline

A textured band on the concrete floor of the plaza tells a story of time and change. A band of pavement with shells, plant imprints, bones and other relics draws you through the space showing mimages of the past. Moving from a pre-history up to the cultural present, the story unfolds.

Exterior Exhibit Elements

Metal Basket - A metal framework depicting the volumetric space of a typical Ohlone food storage container.

Fountain - A fountain brings the sound and character of the Temescal Creek up to the people in the plaza. It is composed of natural and cut boulders with an open section showing the inside midden layers typical of the Shellmound.

Geologic Section - The geologic sectional walls tell the story of the layers of deposition of relics, forms and shapes that were part of the story of the past.

Wetlands in Metal - The railing that surrounds the boxed creek recreates the essence of the creek's former character. Plant, animal life and cultural patterns are depicted in the form of key sections of the necessary guardrail surrounding the creek.

Native Landscaping - The native species of sedges, rush, tules and wild rye now flourish along the box culvert that now contains Temescal Creek. The historic communities used these indigenous plants for weaving baskets, shelter and food sources.

Depiction of the Shellmound

The Shellmound is a 50-foot metal arch representing the Shellmound. It is meant to suggest the original Shellmound that previously sat near this site. The seat wall at the base replicates the geological history in cross sections. This section also depicts cultural artifacts that were part of the sediment deposition. Integral colored concrete poured in horizontal lifts have various relics inserted.

Interpretive Exhibits in Community Room

Exhibits featured in the Bay Street Community Room include Native American artifact reproductions displayed in shadow boxes with a short narrative descriptions.