ShopInBerkeley: Strawberry Creek Park

ShopInBerkeley's Park of the Month: October

Strawberry Creek Park
Running from Addison St. to Bancroft Way,
between Acton and Bonar Streets.

Strawberry Creek Park started the 1980s as a deserted railroad yard. Santa Fe had swapped the land to the City in exchange for not having to re-grade and pave all the roads that their abandoned line crossed.

Neighbors and City staff called for the creation of a park and the "daylighting" of the culverted creek. With the creation of the park, in 1984 the creek was daylighted and returned to its meanders. Cement from the demolished culvert was used to create embankments along the creek to keep them from washing out during storms.

The park now offers a meadow, picnic areas, a children's play area, gardens, and sports courts with the creek as the jewel in the center of it all.

Strawberry Creek Park on the web:

City of Berkeley Strawberry Creek Park web page
Daylighting Strawberry Creek in downtown Berkeley: the City study.
Wolfe Mason Associates who helped with the daylighting process. The Daylighting project won an American Association of Landscape Architects Merit Award in 1995.

Contact Friends of Strawberry Creek Park for information about volunteering to help the creek: email Janet Byron at bjanet@earthlink.net
Jef Poskanzer has a great web site of Berkeley Creeks. Here's the Strawberry Creek page.
California Coast & Ocean article on Citzen Power highlights Strawberry Creek Daylighting.
The Design Center on the edge of the Park provides some insite into the history of the park.

Map to
Strawberry
Creek Park

**Click on any photo below to enlarge it**
+ rain = The creek looking west—and in November after a heavy rainfall	The creek looking east (note bridge handrail on left)
Picnic table next to the creek	Children's play area
The lawn at Addison St.	Next to the lawn is the historic Cooper Woodworking Building.
A path from the lawn to the creek and picnic areas.	Berkeley Youth Alternatives' Neighborhood Garden.
Tennis and volleyball courts (one of the tennis courts has been converted to a small, paved soccer "court").	Two full-length basketball courts usually have pick-up games going on.
BYA's Native Plant Garden at Bancroft Way.	BYA's Vegetable Garden at Bancroft Way (buy produce grown here at the Berkeley Farmers Markets!)