Fox Courts

Affordable Housing

Oakland, California (map)

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Affordable Housing

80 units

134,000 sf

64-space garage

$19 million

Developer: Resources for Community Development

Contractor: J.H. Fitzmaurice

The 2009 opening of Fox Courts was not simply the culmination of years of complex architectural design; it represented the realization of decade-long dream for high-quality affordable housing in Oakland's Uptown area. When Oakland's Mayor Jerry Brown announced his redevelopment plan of the Uptown area in 1999, he made no accomodation for affordable housing in the multi-block zone. However, local activists, neighborhood groups, housing organizations quickly joined forces to fight his plan. Through years of meetings and marches, the residents got Oakland's City Council to overrule Mayor Brown and set aside a plot for affordable family housing.

From 2006 to 2009, Pyatok Architects designed and directed the construction of Fox Courts. It features a unique corridor-and-court system that creates seven neighbor zones in the building among the 80 apartments. Both families and working individuals living in the units have easy access to jobs in downtown Oakland or transportation to the broader San Francisco Bay area. The building itself meets the highest standard of energy efficiency requirements in California and earned the 2nd highest GreenPoint rating (143) for an apartment building in the state.