Century-old campus gives way to resi in Oakland with shift to SF

The century-old California College of the Arts has bid farewell to its North Oakland home for new digs in San Francisco’s Mission Bay, making room for hundreds of proposed homes and offices.

The closure this week of the historic Oakland campus, which sits at the corner of Broadway and College Avenue in the Rockridge neighborhood, was announced quietly in 2016 then more officially in 2019, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Renderings of the redeveloped campus (5212 Broadway)

The college said the move was needed because the school wanted to consolidate the Oakland campus at 5212 Broadway with its San Francisco campus. It has entered into an agreement to redevelop the four-acre Oakland campus with community gathering spaces, affordable housing, office space for arts nonprofits and bike parking, while preserving its historic buildings and trees.

In January, the City of Oakland paid $13 million for a 64-unit campus dormitory at 5276 Broadway, with plans to convert it into affordable long- and short-term housing for Oakland seniors and families, according to San Francisco Business Times.

About $10.2 million of the money for this acquisition was granted to Oakland through the state’s Project Homekey program.

A campus makeover includes a development partnership with Emerald Fund and Equity Community Builders, based in the Presidio of San Francisco.

Initial plans for 5212 Broadway called for a project consisting of 554 on onsite housing, including a 19-story residential tower, 35 units of affordable artist housing, artist space, preservation of two nationally registered historic buildings, and a 1.5-acre public park.

Since then, the project has been downsized, with housing options being considered from around 300 to nearly 500 units, with varying degrees of affordable units, office space, historic preservation and parking. An environmental study is expected before summer, according to its website. 

Regarded as one of the top arts schools in the nation, the college was founded downtown Berkeley in 1907 as the California Guild of Arts and Crafts. A year later it became the California School of Arts and Crafts, and was renamed in 2003 as the California College of the Arts.

In 1922, the school bought the 4-acre James Treadwell estate in Oakland and spent four years preparing it for students and teachers to move in. More buildings were added to the campus in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. It closed on its 100th year at the site.

The California College of the Arts will now be housed at its Mission Bay campus, built on the site of a former Greyhound bus maintenance yard at 1111 8th St. The private non-profit college has about 1,600 students, focusing on architecture, fine arts, humanities and sciences.

[San Francisco Chronicle] – Dana Bartholomew

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