Three
views of the proposed site. Top, looking north,
a publicly accessible green plaza between Berkeley
Way and the entryway to the new five-story Helios
structure on Hearst Street, between Walnut and
Oxford streets. Bottom left, a pedestrian pathway
connects sections of Walnut Street long blocked
by the old DHS building. Bottom right, looking
west from Oxford.
BERKELEY — The Helios Energy Research Facility, originally proposed as a hillside headquarters for Berkeley-based alternative-energy research, appears close to finding a new home west of the Berkeley campus — and to replacing a shuttered neighborhood eyesore with an eco-friendly building and public open space designed to spur downtown revitalization as it seeks solutions to global climate change. Three views of the proposed site. Top, looking north, a publicly accessible green plaza between Berkeley Way and the entryway to the new five-story Helios structure on Hearst Street, between Walnut and Oxford streets. Bottom left, a pedestrian pathway connects sections of Walnut Street long blocked by the old DHS building. Bottom right, looking west from Oxford. (Artist's renderings by Jennifer Mahoney) The brainchild of former Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory director Steven Chu — now head of the U.S. Department of Energy — the Helios project was initially slated to be housed in a large structure, to be built in Strawberry Canyon, for LBNL and UC Berkeley scientists working on solar energy, biofuels, and other ways to curb global climate change. Now, under revised plans set to go to the UC Board of Regents next week, alternative-energy research will be more dispersed.
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