Project Description
2001 RADA
Multifamily / Merit
A casual observer might think the program for Swan’s Marketplace overly ambitious. In redeveloping this historic public market in downtown Oakland, Michael Pyatok, FAIA, and developer Josh Simon planned to incorporate both mixed-income housing and retail space. They wanted the project to serve as a gathering spot for the many ethnic neighborhoods that surround it. And they hoped it would attract new investors to this dilapidated part of Oakland.
After seeing the finished project, that observer could lay his doubts to rest. Pyatok designed a market-rate, co-housing complex on the building’s second story for 20 local residents committed to the idea of living as a community. Eighteen affordable rental units, a children’s art museum, and office space comprise the rest of the second floor. At street level, colorful vendors and specialty markets carry on the original building’s retail tradition “A great example of what mixed-use can be,” said one judge.