NEWS & EVENTS

Sustainable Bamboo Shed Takes Shape at Fox Courts for Childcare Center

June 15

Designers from Pyatok Architects have contributed time recently to create a sustainable bamboo storage shed for the Building Bridges Child Development Center at Fox Courts. The work is part of a Natural Construction Techniques studio at Merritt College. Over five workdays, the team has erected a bamboo structure onto which they applied homemade plaster by hand (after mixing it with their bare feet). By the end of the month, they plan to construct a ‘living wall’ irrigated by captured rainwater and to be planted by the children at the center.

   

Totem Poles Installed in Native American Health Center at Seven Directions

April 2

Two handcrafted totem poles now frame the entrance to the Native American Health Center at Seven Directions in Oakland. Rising to the ceiling, the totem poles depict an expecting mother cradling her belly and a young child feeding. Their warm molded shapes and gentle images make the medical and dental care entrance an inviting and spiritual place to be.



         

Designer Christine Kahm Runs In Oakland's Reborn Marathon

March 29

After weeks of training with her husband, Jeremy, her baby, Aria, and their dog, Savannah, designer Christine Kahm ran her second half-marathon through Oakland on Saturday. "It was great! The plaza was filled with thousands of people. Every time someone cheered for us, I felt a great sense of pride for Oakland."

After a 25-year hiatus, the Oakland Marathon was reborn by city officials this year to reinvigorate the streets and neighborhoods of Oakland. 5,000 runners jogged along the streets as part of the marathon, the half-marathon, the relay race, and the 5K. "This wasn't a desitination race - it was a race in Oakland for Oakland."

Rene Yung, Civic Engagement Artist, Tells Stories of Communities

March 17

Rene Yung calls herself a "civic engagement artist" for good reason - her art installations arise as personal expressions by people in a community about people in the community. Our Oakland: Eastside Stories is Yung's most recent project. It is an integrated public art project based at the East Oakland Community Library that has created a new platform for East Oakland residents to tell their stories about their history, their culture, and their dreams.

The project includes a public art display in a 64-foot clerestory window in the library, a digital, web-based archive of stories by the East Oakland community, an interactive pod in the library to explore those stories, and community-building storytelling events to build stronger communities in East Oakland and beyond.

To see more of Rene Yung's work, visit Women Artists of the American West and Yung's presentation, “Chinese Whispers: Sierra Stories.”

James Vann, Hometown Hero, Helps Protect Oakland's Lake Merritt District

November 30

James Vann, a long-time Oakland resident and architect at Pyatok Architects, was named a "Hometown Hero" by The Oakland Tribune for his work protecting the Lake Merritt district. Vann (with co-founder Naomi Schiff) founded CALM, the Coalition of Advocates for Lake Merritt, an organization that preserves nearby parkland, oversees bond measure money for improvements, works on lake upgrading projects, and ensure that Lake Merritt remains safe, clean and accessible for all. Vann and Schiff were instrumental in the community organizing that took place before the adoption of the plan to redo Lake Merritt with funding from the $198 million DD bond measure passed by voters in 2002. Read Tribune article here
(image courtesy of Oakland Tribune)


Park Design Voting During Lion Creek Crossing Halloween Party

October 31

At Lion Creek Crossings on Halloween, Pyatok Architects invited residents to vote for what they would most want to see at their park - ball fields, a skate ramp, shade structures, a BBQ, or a community garden. Residents young and old turned out to give their opinion and enjoy the general fesitivities of the Halloween party. The results will be evaluated and taken to the City of Oakland for approval. Thanks to all for your hard work!


Newly Opened Fox Courts Earns 143 Points – Second Highest Multifamily Dwelling in California!

October 20

Fox Courts Rated 143 points in GreenPoint Rated System

When Fox Courts officially opened last week, it was both a boon to the Uptown Oakland neighborhood where it is located and to the state of Califonia as a whole. Using numerous energy-saving techniques, Fox Courts earned 143 points from GreenPoint Rated, an environmental rating system used in California. The project included photovoltaic panels on the roof, self-irrigating planters, low-VOC carpeting and flooring, porous concrete walkways, and Energy Star appliances throughout. Furthermore, this affordable housing is a TOD - located in downtown Oakland one block from BART and a major bus lines.

30th Annual Non-Profit Housing Association Conference in San Francisco

October 13

30th Annual Non-Profit Housing Conference

Pyatok Architects joined other Northern California developers, funders, property managers, and housing industry experts at the 30th Annual Non-Profit Housing Association Conference on Tuesday. The conference was "dedicated to the basic training and community building which we have found provides the means for us to persist" and included sessions on tax-credit financing, federal housing policy, and tenant organizing. Pyatok Architects presented their recent work through various materials, including table cards and copies of their recent newsletter.


Fox Courts Celebrates Its Grand Opening

October 8

After eight years of effort by Resources for Community Development and Pyatok Architects, Fox Courts Apartments celebrated its grand opening on Thursday. Developers mingled with new tenants, local politicians congratulated the community on its success, and community activists celebrated the fact that they convinced the City of Oakland to include affordable housing in their development plans for this burgeoning area.

Pyatok Architects “Parks” on Telegraph Avenue For A Day

September 18

As part of PARK(ing) Day, designers from Pyatok Architects re-purposed a parking spot along Telegraph Avenue in downtown Oakland into a temporary “park,” complete with greenery, places to sit, and background music. Originally created by Rebar, a San Francisco art and design collective, PARK(ing) Day is an annual, one-day, global event where artists, activists, and citizens collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spots into PARK(ing) spaces: temporary public parks.


Pyatok Presents at Residential Architect's REINVENTION Conference

September 16

Reinvention 2009 Conference

At the REINVENTION conference, Mike Pyatok joined Bill Kreager of Mithun Partners, Andres Duany of DPZ in Miami, and Steven A. Moore, a professor of architecture and planning at The University of Texas at Austin, to discuss how architects can use their specific projects to change government policies and public opinion. Mike presented the case of Fox Courts, an affordable multifamily housing project completed this year, to illustrate how carefully organized advocacy and protest must sometimes be used to overcome the myth that including lower income families in middle income neighborhoods will be detrimental to the marketability of those communities.

Associate Karen Smith Teaches Affordable Housing and Neighborhood Design Studio at UC Berkeley

Fall 2009

UC Berkeley Department of Environmental Design

Associate Karen Smith is co-teaching the Affordable Housing and Neighborhood Development Studio with Michael Smith-Heimer at UC Berkeley for the fall semester. In the studio, students design projects for actual sites with nonprofit developers serving as "the clients." In the course of their work, students develop a wide array of project and neighborhood development skills, including project conceptualization, market and feasibility analysis, project design, and financing and planning approvals. The course serves as the capstone studio for students in the Housing and Community Development Concentration within the Department of City and Regional Planning.

Mike Pyatok Speaks to Students and Faculty at SUNY Buffalo

September 10

At the University of Buffalo, Mike spoke to planning and architecture students about how the gross imbalance of wealth and income in the United States contributes to serious housing difficulties for 40% of American households. Mike emphasized that, as architects, we can positively impact this situation -- we can use our talents to create good designs that serve low-income and medium-income residents both functionally and inspirationally. We can design buildings that work for them and design buildings that make society view affordable housing positively.

Pyatok Designers Share the Wonders of REVIT

June, July and August

Designers Caroline Nassif and Stephanie Osorio are sharing their knowledge of REVIT this summer. For eight weeks, Nassif and Osorio are heading over to San Francisco to teach developing architects as part of the UC Berkeley Extension program. In addition, Nassif and Osorio are teaching young architecture students in the CalPoly Summer Studio in Oakland (see item below).

Mike Pyatok Presents at "Solutions for Working Families" Conference

June 28

Mike Pyatok travelled to Chicago to speak at the "Solutions for Working Families" conference hosted by the National Housing Conference and the Center for Housing Policy. Mike's talk focused on designing high quality high-density affordable housing that meets the critical safety and security needs of families and children.

Pyatok Pushes for High Quality, High Density Workforce Housing in DOWNTOWNDallas

June 24

Mike Pyatok served as the keynote speaker at a symposium hosted by DOWNTOWNDallas, a member organization committed to revitalizing the housing, commercial, and entertainment development of the downtown area of Dallas. Mike's talk focused on how to create high quality high-density workforce housing in urban areas that works best for both its residents and the surrounding neighborhood.

Fox Courts Joins Uptown Unveiled Celebration

June 18

As part of the June 18th celebration of the Uptown neighborhood of Oakland, Pyatok Architect's Jordan Rose and muralists Eduardo Pineda and Joachin Newman presented slideshows on Fox Courts and the murals that will go up on the east facade this summer. Guests were able to learn about the community design process, energy-saving features of Fox Courts, and see how murals are produced.

Pyatok Architects' Summer Studio Opens in Downtown Oakland

June 18

Students from Cal State – San Luis Obispo and from other regions up and down the West Coast convened in Swan's Marketplace in downtown Oakland to take on a critical Summer Studio project – the redevelopment of Oakland's Broadway/Auto Row region. More than 20 students are focusing on designing plans for specific regions of the redevelopment zone during this eight-week studio course led by Mike Pyatok and Peter Waller. Included in the studio course are regular panels featuring architects, developers, economists, government staff, and policymakers all discussing the possibilities for and challenges to redeveloping this area.

Betsy Yost on Panel at Housing Califonia Conference

April 28

Partner Betsy Yost sat on the panel, "Walking the Value Engineering Tightrope," at the annual Housing California conference in Sacramento last week.

Pyatok Participates In Rebuilding Together Oakland 2009

April 2009

On three Saturdays in April, Pyatok Architects put on their work gloves to contribute to Rebuidling Together Oakland, an organization dedicated to rehabilitating community centers and housing for low-income seniors and the disabled. This year RTO focused on rehabing a family home that housed three generations. Volunteers carted junk and refuse out of the yard, replaced peeling wallpaper, repaired a heating unit, replaced bathroom fixtures, and removed a rotting tool shed. Despite their aching muscles, they cannot wait until next year's RTO event!

Fox Courts' Muralists Engage Oakland Students

April 15

Oakland-based muralists, Eduardo Pineda and Joachin Newman, presented their designs for the Fox Courts murals to Oakland School of the Arts students last week. They introduced students to the rich history of mural-making, showing examples from 1960s Chicago and present-day San Francisco and Oakland. Students recognized many of the murals as being part of their own neighborhoods. Later in the week, a small group of students will meet with Pineda and Newman to assist in the final designs of the two murals. Joachin and Newman plan to start painting on the Fox Courts walls within a month.

Director of Communications joins the Pyatok Team

March 30

Shannon K'doah Range, a communications strategist and graduate of Stanford University's School of Education, recently joined Pyatok Architects as the Director of Communications. He comes to Pyatok after eight years with NASA's Gravity Probe B mission as their Education Outreach Director, two years as a communications consultant for the Sierra Club, Earthjustice, and PlayNotSpray, and several years studying political advocacy and social movements for his Ph.D. in education policy. At Pyatok Architects, Shannon will direct both the outreach and marketing efforts by shaping and sharing The Pyatok Story through multiple forms of media.