BIAN, Jiang
October 10, 2008
CEE215 Goals and Methods of Sustainable Building Projects
Industry Case Project
City of Palo Alto ---- underground Caltrain
Group members: Henning Roedel, Laura Talbot, Jiang Bian
Introduction: The project aims to build underground Caltrain tracks through the City
of Palo Alto, specifically, to build two tunnels under Alma Street and place the rail
system there. This would free up acres of valuable land and a strip park would be built
on that with grass, trees and pedestrian and bicycle paths. Adjacent to the greenbelt,
the rest of the land could be developed in stretches: as high-density townhomes,
apartment buildings, shops and office space. Hopefully, the project will heal the
congested transportation of Palo Alto and connect many neighborhoods to other uses.
What’s more, the group is planning to sell or lease “air rights”, the rights to build on
the land, without acquiring the land itself, in order to collect enough funding to pay
for the added cost of constructing underground rail system.
Teams:
Decision Makers
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Stakeholders
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Designers
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Gatekeepers
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Palo Alto City Council
High speed rail authority
County of Santa Clara
Palo Alto City council
Caltrain Rail Transportation
High speed rail authority
Stanford capital planning and management (CP&M)
Palo Alto Residents
General Contractors
Tunneling subcontractors
Rail system subcontractors
City Councilman John Barton
Former Mayor Bern Beecham
Architect Tony Carrasco
Interim Deputy City Manager Steve Emslie
Tunneling designers
Tunneling consultants
Palo Alto city planning committee
Palo Alto City Council
County of Santa Clara
U.S. Environmental Council
U.S. Transportation Council
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BIAN, Jiang
Goals:
Environmental
October 10, 2008
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Economic
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Social
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Release less waste gas
Increase green lands in the city
Increase air quality
Generate more revenues
Boost city’s development
Attract more investment
Increase people’s life quality
Promote peoples’ healthiness
Beautify peoples’ living areas
Increase types of building in the area
Maintain the tax rate by collecting funding from
investors
Enhance the communication with neighboring areas
Future work:
 Clarify the confusion and mistiness about the project in the meeting with Mr.
John Barton
 Develop more detailed models of teams and goals about the project with the
group
 Meet with experts on tunnel and urban planning to get better understanding
 Develop a narrative with the group
 Apply Stretchup to develop 3D model of the area
 Apply DSS to show impacts of influential factors over time on the project and
its neighboring areas.
Current main concern:
 How to guarantee sufficient foundation of the building above ground if a
tunnel is built 50 feet below the ground?
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