Plans have dramatically changed for the residential development at 3403 Piedmont Avenue in Oakland. The proposal now calls for a 20-story affordable housing tower and residential conversion of the Saw Mill Furniture Building, overlooking the intersection of Broadway and Piedmont Avenue. Oakland-based developer oWow is the project sponsor and architect.
The proposal looks to produce 334 dwelling units with residential conversion of the Saw Mill building and construction of a 20-story tower. Four residences will be designated for on-site property managers. The project will provide parking for 98 cars and approximately 200 bicycles. Further details about the apartment sizes and amenities have not yet been shared. The application adds that “an associated lot merger is proposed. Historic review will be processed separately.”
The latest rendering provides a preliminary glimpse of the future addition. The exterior will feature a sand-toned palette meant to complement the adjacent historic Saw Mill Furniture building.
3403 Piedmont Avenue, image courtesy Google Street View
The new filing is the latest and largest escalation by oWow for the surface parking lot. The initial planning process began in 2022 for 73 units and later increased to 105 units across an eight-story complex. The 0.4-acre property is located on a triangular block bounded by Broadway, Piedmont Avenue, and I-580.
The estimated cost and timeline for construction have not yet been shared. Reached for comment, oWow Development Director Jeremy Harris shared that the firm is still working through the details of the project. oWow CEO Danny Haber added, “Build, baby, build.”
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While “The exterior will feature a sand-toned palette meant to complement the adjacent historic Saw Mill Furniture building”, the proposed design screams out affordable & is needlessly ugly.
Oakland deserves better.
Hoo-boy, that tower “design” is absolutely hanging.
Big-ups for rehabbing the Saw Mill Furniture building though.
Gag me with a spoon!
i gag every time i look at the kaiser hospital.
Some people just can never be satisfied.
An affordable housing project costs too much to build per unit = why is it so expensive? corruption!!!
An affordable housing project tries to keep its cost down = its butt ugly.
Well, why don’t you start a project yourself then? 🤷
I agree..Definitely a need for affordable housing, but does it have to scream affordable housing. The design can be far more creative, especially for something that big and that will have a permanent impact on the city’s skyline
Why does Oakland persist in building these UGLY buildings? Is that the best you can do, oWow? I’ve always admired your projects but this is a new low and I’m certainly hoping you go back to the drawing board and fix this because right now, this hurts my eyes! And I’m far from the only person who thinks that.
Some people just can never be satisfied.
An affordable housing project costs too much to build per unit = why is it so expensive? corruption!!!
An affordable housing project tries to keep its cost down = its butt ugly.
Well, why don’t you start a project yourself then? 🤷
I will frequently complain about ugly design, but this is not an ugly design. It’s modest, symmetrical, and with a good ratio of window space. Not a head turner, but much nicer than those anti-massing rubik’s cube apartments you constantly see from new development nowadays.
That already looks like something that should be torn down!
a-men!
20-story…prison?!
i don’t suppose this looks any better from a different angle…
looks like the window pane banding on the facade is already coming apart.
Do any of these “back-seat” designers/architects understand the meaning of the word “affordable?” He isn’t proposing to build a 20-story Class-A apartment tower, clad in glass with rents that start at $7 thousand a month! “Affordable” housing means no frills: you get squares and rectangular shapes, flat roofs and code compliance–nothing more! Oakland “deserves” better? What does that mean exactly? My car was recently broken into again (for the 6th time in 10 years). And not even a week later, I had to outrun a homeless guy chasing me through Laney College with a chef’s knife! Oakland doesn’t need eye-catching and costly skyscrapers! What Oakland needs is a Police Department that is not defunded and neutered! What Oakland “deserves” is unfortunately, its present reputation.
Affordable housing doesn’t have to look like sh*t. Check out the newly completed building across from Golden Gate Park at Haight and Stanyan in The City. Quite handsome.
You sound bitter. Oakland already has enough generic, ugly buildings, that’s why it deserves better. And no one here needs a lecture about how an affordable building should look like because there’s plenty of examples out there that are affordable yet much more appealing than this, just look around. And we all have horror stories to tell but please try to stay on subject.
So true, unfortunately.
On paper, the specs look good. Just wish they’d put a little more thought into the design.
Agreed 100%. They couldn’t even give it a parapet on the roofline to echo the Sawmill Building or something?
Looks like something that would’ve been built in Belarus circa 1972.
Parking nightmare.
In Belarus in 1972 they would have at least included balconies!
oWow! That is beastly.
I doubt if the homeless seniors with Chronic Illnesses that’s been sleeping In a tent next to the freeway looks is the least of their concerns.the majority of the comments have never been homeless winter is brutal a lot don’t make it. It’s about time something is moving forward Alameda county is very unorganized when it comes to the Homeless Population