OUSD’s abandoned Lake Merritt headquarters is getting a new life

The former Oakland Unified School District headquarters—two buildings totaling 96,900 square feet that have stood on a 1.6-acre parcel at the southern edge of Lake Merritt for nearly 100 years, and empty for the last 10—is finally set to be reimagined.

A coalition of young people, educators, and community organizations are working to transform the site, which was shuttered abruptly in 2013 due to flooding, into a resource hub for teens and young adults who are transitioning to adulthood out of foster care, juvenile detention, or homelessness. The project has been years in the making, and initially grew out of workshops at Camp Wilmont Sweeney, a residential program for teen boys in Alameda County’s juvenile justice center. [Continue Reading Here].