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The City Council approved a recommendation Tuesday to add the David R. Brower Center to the list of possible tenants for a proposed downtown building. 

The unanimous council vote puts the center, to be named after the internationally known environmentalist and Berkeley resident, on a list with two other preferred uses – affordable housing and commercial space for the arts. 

The venture’s organizers, which include Brower’s son Robert, say the project will be a “global center of environmental activism and awareness.” 

The structure, proposed for the city-owned lot at 2500 Oxford St. at Allston Way, now a surface parking lot, is still in the planning stages. The three possible uses, plus replacement parking, are only part of a City Council wish list. The ultimate uses of the building, which will be at least five stories tall, won’t be determined until the economics of the project can be thoroughly analyzed, according to Interim Director of Housing Stephen Barton.  

Barton said it is still unclear how much of a rent break, if any, the city would be able to give the center. The center itself would be financially self-sufficient through grants and donations, according to Councilmember Linda Maio who sponsored the recommendation with Councilmember Dona Spring. 

Brower, who was born in Berkeley and lived here until his death in November, was the first executive director of the Sierra Club and built the organization during the 1950s and 1960s. He later founded the worldwide environmental organizations Friends of the Earth and Earth Island Institute. 

The 50,000-square-foot center would be the local home of the Earth Island Institute and a host of small and midsize environmental organizations, according to a proposal from the Earth Island Institute, The Rain Forest Action Network and the International River Network, which are coordinating the proposed center.  

Supporters said the environmental center would be a good fit with arts organizations, also on the building’s list of preferred tenants. 

“I’m so excited, it’s really thrilling,” Maio said. “Coupling environmental organizations with the arts will enhance the synergy between the two.” 

Pointing to a series of books Brower published in the 1960s, known as the Sierra Club Exhibit Format Books, Maio said Brower was an innovator in combining the arts with environmental messages. The books had environmental themes and featured the work of photographers such as Ansel Adams and poets such as Robinson Jeffers.  

“He really understood the connection between the two long before anyone else did,” Maio said. 

Councilmember Betty Olds sounded a note of caution about the financial implications of the center’s proposed tenancy. “Sometimes we get stars in our eyes and tend to forget things,” she said. “This is one of the most expensive pieces of property in Berkeley and we don’t want to lose a financial resource and regret it later.” 

Olds, who voted for the recommendation, suggested organizers not rule out other Berkeley locations for the center. 

Robert Brower said the Oxford Street site would be an ideal location for the center. “My father would have been very pleased with the location because of its proximity to the UC campus and Berkeley High School,” he said.  

Barton said there is a Planning Commission subcommittee currently working out guidelines for the building. Once they are completed and the City Council approves them, the city will begin to seek proposals form developers.  

“It won’t be until we get to that stage that we have a better idea about what’s feasible for the site,” Barton said.  

The project guidelines are expected to come to the council some time in May.