The new center will provide the community with:

• Larger gymnasium for basketball, volleyball and other indoor sports

• Flexible multi-purpose rooms for after school and summer programs, cultural arts, teen and adult programming, community meetings, and senior programs

• Roof deck and ground-level children's courtyard

• Indoor / outdoor community stage

• Open lobby for socializing and gallery space

• Modern kitchen

• Expanded resilience programming, strengthening the community’s ability to respond to local disasters and emergencies

• Solar panels and battery storage to aid the community in when the power is out

• Energy efficient HVAC system that will provide air filtration, cooling, and heating

• Increased greenspace, featuring new shade trees and drought-tolerant landscaping to advance sustainable water management goals

• New basketball and multi-sport flex courts

• New outdoors seating and small courtyards

• Public Art and donor recognition installation

The new center is designed by Oakland based Shah Kawasaki Architects. You can learn more about the features from the lead architect, Youngchae Lee.

The new center will have green building and design features such as a bicycle storage room, rooftop solar panels, and a roof garden. The center will operate on 100 percent electric power, in accordance with the City's All-Electric Construction in Newly Constructed Buildings Code. It will also include energy efficient fixtures and appliances, efficient plumbing, low water use landscaping, and high solar reflective materials.

The new recreation center will also be Oakland’s first Resilience Hub. Friends of Lincoln Square Park and the City of Oakland are working closely with the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), who has been leading the resilience program planning for the new center. APEN has been a statewide leader in advocating for community resiliency centers.

While a new term, the programs at the park have always been building community resilience. For generations, the center has been a safe haven for strengthening connections, skilling up, accessing trusted information and seeking resources and support during good times and bad.

By making sure our new rec center is also a community resilience hub, the community will be better able to respond to everyday stressors, and more emergencies.

We are intentionally expanding programing at the park to include disaster preparedness, emergency response, and climate resilience features. The City is also building in resilience features into the building design.

As part of the project, the City will remove ten existing trees and plant approximately 40 new trees. There will be 4,200 square feet of new landscaping area including stormwater treatment planters along the building perimeters and the roof garden area on the second floor. The city will repave the existing sidewalks adjacent to the park boundaries, make improvements to the outdoor light pole fixtures and replace perimeter fencing.