{"id":300212,"date":"2026-05-05T03:17:48","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T03:17:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/300212\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T03:17:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T03:17:48","slug":"a-new-oakland-mosswood-rec-center-is-opening-10-years-after-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/300212\/","title":{"rendered":"A new Oakland Mosswood Rec Center is opening, 10 years after fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ten years after a fire burned it to the ground<\/a>, the Mosswood Recreation Center in Oakland<\/a> is opening again for business \u2014 and of course play.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, May 2, the new center is hosting a grand-opening event at 3612 Webster St. with Oakland mayor Barbara Lee<\/a> and free tours for community members from 10 a.m.-noon. Locals will be able to check out the new 12,200-square-foot building, which is two-stories tall and has a maker space, computer lab, kitchen and classrooms.<\/p>\n

The news was first reported by Oaklandside<\/a>, which notes that the architecture comes from San Francisco firm Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects, with a landscaping master plan done by Oakland outfit EinwillerKuehl.<\/p>\n

\u201cChampioned by place-keeping and a definition of history and historic preservation that includes the last 50 years of social movements and community resistance to structural racism,\u201d write the EinwillerKuehl folks<\/a>, \u201cthe Mosswood Park Master Plan is an example of how planning documents can support equity, environmental justice, community stewardship and community-based design.\u201d<\/p>\n

The original 1950s-era center was a popular spot for after-school activities and summer camp<\/a>. Its basketball courts are reputed to have nurtured future NBA players. The center stood in Mosswood Park \u2014 sited between Webster Street, Broadway and W. MacArthur Boulevard, near Interstate 580 \u2014 which is the site of the annual Mosswood Meltdown music festival. The park over the years also cultivated a sizable community of unhoused people, who got their own free music festival in 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Mosswood Recreation Center was damaged extensively in an early morning two-alarm fire in Oakland, Calif., on Saturday, Nov. 26, 2016. (Anda Chu\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

In November 2016, a two-alarm fire totally razed the structure and its dance studio, computer lab and kitchen. The cause of the fire was arson, according to a report in the magazine East Bay<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Construction on a new center and park improvements began in 2023 under then-mayor Sheng Thao, which put the cost at about $21 million funded by bond measures and grants from the state of California and Kaiser Permanente (which has a nearby hospital). \u201cThe new community center and revitalized park will be a vibrant destination for Oakland families to once again gather for civic, cultural and recreational activities,\u201d the mayor said at the time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects describe the reborn center<\/a> as a \u201cstate-of-the art\u201d entity that blends into park\u2019s \u201cverdant, pastoral setting.\u201d The firm write: \u201cInformed by the strong community engagement process and the rich history of this site, the vision for the future of Mosswood Park protects and nurtures the ecology, history, sports, and performance that have long been central to the community gathering at this site.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ten years after a fire burned it to the ground, the Mosswood Recreation Center in Oakland is opening…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,127043,144],"class_list":["post-300212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-mosswood-recreation-center-rec-mosswood-park-homeless-unhouses-meltdown-summer-camp-classroom-school-public-parks-2026-fire-arson","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}