In 1968, the year before the Oakland Museum opened, New York Times architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable wrote: “In terms of architecture and environment, Oakland may be the most thoughtfully revolutionary museum in the world.” Remarkably forward-thinking in its integration of planted and insulating roof terraces, the three-tiered, exposed-concrete structure seemed to grow organically from the park around it. Dedicated to California’s art, history, and natural sciences, the building’s three main levels were designed to step down a slope, with a veritable Gardens of Babylon cascading over the roof decks.
Here, in a city with significant poverty, was an admission-free “museum for the people,” envisioned as a porous building with multiple casual entrances and exits instead of a grand front portal. Museum and park — the collaboration of architects Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates with landscape architect Dan Kiley — flowed together as a continuous public space, spanning the equivalent of five city blocks.
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