HOPE VI CHESTNUT COURT
Oakland, CA

Client
Oakland Housing Authority

Scope
Master Plan

Cost
$34 million, est.

Completed
1998

PROJECT DETAILS

The sites range in size from a 6 unit development to a 79 unit development (Chestnut Court), all approximately 30 years old and in very bad shape. Our work included organizing the tenants and investigating the economic feasibilty of various non-traditional solutions as well as architectural design.

As in other Hope VI projects, the goal was to leverage needed improvements to the housing to also improve the overall health of the neighborhoods the housing is in. We developed various design solutions for each site, with projected costs and impact of each.

In some cases, the best solution was drastic ( i.e tear it down). In other cases the best solution involves a minor change (like changing the entry to the site.) One of the main problems of the older public housing projects is they lack any sense of individual dwellings with defensible space. Our proposal for Chestnut Court, shown above, involved reconstruction to put  back the old neighborhood street pattern.

This not only enhances the sense of "home" for each person living there, but also increases security by opening up the neighborhood to public view.