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Architects: David Baker Architects
- Area: 79752 ft²
- Year: 2022
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Photographs:Bruce Damonte
Text description provided by the architects. The six-level building includes 59 affordable homes and social services for low-income and formerly unhoused families, including households gaining assistance through the Oakland Housing Authority.
The building is centered on a highly visible green "core" with an open-air stair that focuses attention on the connection between social zones, active uses, views, plantings, and art. Common spaces emphasize natural materials and a biophilic color palette. A leaf-inspired perforated metal screen across the façade balances views, heat gain, and filtered daylight for homes. Custom benches and a kinetic ceiling designed and fabricated by DBA_Workshop evoke a tree canopy in the entry lobby.
The six-story building offers excellent views of downtown Oakland, the East Bay Hills, and the San Francisco Bay from the residences, stair tower, glass-capped corridors, and bicycle rooms.
Part of the International Living Future Institute's Living Building Challenge Affordable Housing Pilot, the design is focused on achieving high levels of sustainability within a budget, combining simple massing and solar orientation as the basis for ambitious energy-consumption-reduction goals. The all-electric, ZNE-ready building features decentralized heat pump water heating and a 98 kW PV array that offsets 100% of common loads.
