500 Grand Avenue

Location: Oakland, CA
Developer: Elwood Commercial Real Estate

500 Grand Avenue will consist of 40 residential units with 3,000 sq ft of ground floor commercial/retail space. The 47 residential parking spaces are tucked into the hill behind the retail space.

The project sits along a primary commercial corridor, on the edge of a neighborhood of multi-unit low-rise and mid-rise housing, overlooking Lake Merritt and its park space. The site is surrounded by streets on three sides, Grand Ave. to the South, Euclid Ave., to the West, and Burk St., to the North. The proposed project fills a gap in the continuity of building facades and active storefronts along Grand Avenue. 500 Grand Avenue was formerly a gas station and is currently used for surface parking.

The building is six stories high along the busier Grand and Euclid Avenues and steps down a story along Burk Street while the sidewalk slopes up, resulting in four stories at the Northeast corner, creating a smoother height transition towards the lower buildings nearby.

A four-foot ground floor setback along Euclid Avenue allows the units above to be organized by a saw-tooth bay pattern. Each unit along this western property line gets a south-facing balcony looking out to the lake. The balconies are integrated into the angular bays. The residential lobby is located along Euclid Ave with light-filled landings at each story above. The podium-level courtyard is overlooked by two east-facing units on each floor. The north and south legs of the corridor are single-loaded, allowing easy access to the courtyard for all residents.