Downtown Oakley

Oakley, CA

Our assignment was to transform an under-utilized parking lot into the center piece of new downtown for the City of Oakley. To foster a sense of place in this newly formed city, we added two new restaurant buildings and a retail building flanking a new public plaza.

The large corner restaurant building features a curved landmark tower to mark the gateway to the district. Opposite the gateway building and across the plaza sits a second restaurant building, sited to embrace the plaza and help create a feeling of arrival and place.

The new buildings and plaza sit opposite the recently built City Hall creating the beginnings of a new civic center. Both of the restaurants feature outdoor dining areas that flow onto a central plaza, adorned with a large fountain, rain garden and benches shaded by a stand of London Plane trees.