Destroyed by fire a decade ago, the Mosswood Recreation Center will reopen to the public on Saturday morning.
Mayor Barbara Lee, Councilmember Carroll Fife, and other officials will speak and offer tours to community members from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
The 2016 blaze at the center put an immediate halt to preschool, arts, cooking, and inclusion programs held at the facility, which first opened in 1953. Many of those programs were relocated to temporary structures, but park visitors have eagerly awaited the redevelopment of the full center.
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The new, two-story facility has a social hall, classrooms, a kitchen, a computer lab, a “maker space,” and a terrace. San Francisco-based Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects designed the center and Oakland’s Einwiller Kuehl is responsible for the landscape architecture. At 12,300 square feet, it’s larger than the previous building.
The need to redevelop the center gave rise to a master plan process for the entire 11-acre Mosswood Park, bounded by Webster Street, MacArthur Boulevard, Broadway, and I-580. Beginning in 2019, the city held community meetings to collect feedback on park improvements, focusing on equity and access in a changing neighborhood.
The stated goal was to “create a vibrant destination for civic, cultural, social, educational, and recreational activities.”
The Mosswood Park Recreation Advisory Council also played a vocal role in advocating for the rebuilding of the center.
Construction began on the projected $20.8 million mass-timber center in 2023 and recently finished.
Since it opened in the early 1910s, Mosswood Park, once a private estate, has played host to generations of athletes, picnickers, families, and students. The basketball courts have famously been a training ground for NBA and college players. Each summer, local punks take over for one noisy weekend at the Mosswood Meltdown music festival.
The center, designed by LMS Architects, has a social hall, a kitchen, and a classroom. Credit: Natalie Orenstein/The Oaklandside
In recent years, tensions have reached a fever pitch at the park between unhoused residents and neighbors. In the spring of 2025, the city cleared the large encampment at the park, moving many residents into a shelter at a hotel building in West Oakland that’s lately come under scrutiny.
While the 2016 fire required a full teardown of the recreation center, it did not touch the other large structure in the park, the historic J. Mora Moss House. The 1864 Victorian is a city landmark and was once used as a community center. The Oakland Heritage Alliance has long advocated for its restoration and use, and plans to have a table at Saturday’s ceremony.
“The gleaming new building stands in striking contrast to the J. Mora Moss House — Oakland’s oldest surviving mansion — which sits just steps away in serious disrepair,” OHA said in a recent newsletter.
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