While the Chinatown TOD Senior Housing project enters construction at the entrance of Lake Merritt BART Station, developers EBALDC brought on local artists to adorn the construction fences along the site’s 8th and 9th Street frontages. Project artists Civic Design Studio worked with librarians to collect poems and sayings through patron and community engagement, incorporating these messages in the mural design as well as in the project’s permanent public art. The murals themselves were painted by Oakland art collective Illuminaries. Here’s a primer to some of the symbolism behind these works.

The characters beside the watchful tiger read, “live and work in peace and contentment.” The Vietnamese phrase “an cư lạc nghiệp” translates to settling down and establishing a career, implying stability and a secure life. In Cantonese, a similar concept can be expressed as 安居樂業, which also aligns with the notion of settling down and establishing oneself in a new place.

“Chinatown BART” (in English) echoes the local campaign to rename Lake Merritt BART Station in honor of Oakland’s Chinatown, several blocks of which was displaced and demolished for the station’s original construction in the 1960s & 70s.

The phrase 落地生根 can be translated into English as “take root” or “settle down,” often describing someone or something that has become firmly established or is well-settled in a particular place, and representing an aspiration very familiar to Chinatown’s immigrants. Elsewhere two Chinese characters are arranged as a “chop,” connoting “Oakland.” A chop is a stamp or seal, traditionally carved from stone, often used as an identification / signet for business and official documents.

These characters will also be incorporated in the permanent hung artwork above the entrance of the Chinatown TOD Senior Housing project, with some extra dimensionality by Civic Design Studio.

Illuminaries also developed murals for the 8th Street fencing frontage, a selection of which is represented here, but all enjoyable in person on your next trip to Lake Merritt, Laney College, OMCA, or Oakland Chinatown!