Redwood Hill | Oakland, CA

In Oakland, a 0.71 acre lot at 4868 Calaveras Ave held the potential to answer one of the region's most pressing needs: affordable housing for large families. Satellite Affordable Housing Associates set out to create permanent affordable rental homes, with rents ranging from 30%-50% AMI.

The program asked a modest site to do a great deal. Twelve two-bedroom and sixteen three-bedroom units, a total of 72 bedrooms, had to share the lot with twenty-eight parking spaces and generous community space. Working with the client, BDE Architecture helped organize the answer as a 4-story, U-shaped building in Type VA construction, wrapped around a large interior courtyard, with parking tucked into a ground-floor podium garage so the outdoor space could belong to residents rather than cars.

Completed in 2019, Redwood Hill Townhomes gives families a place to put down roots. The courtyard offers landscaped seating areas and a playground, and residents share a spacious community room with a full kitchen and dining area, a resident lounge, a landscaped community porch, a resident garden and bay-friendly landscaping. Twenty-eight households now have stable, affordable homes built around shared space.

Address: 4868 Calaveras Ave, Oakland, CA, 94619

Client: Satellite Affordable Housing Associates

Number of Units: 28

Construction Type: VA

Year Completed: 2019

The entrance of a modern residential building with a yellow door and a gray exterior. There are large windows with white frames and a sign that reads "REDWOOD HILL" above the entrance, along with the number 4868.
Multiple-story residential apartment buildings with gray siding, white window frames, and small trees in front. Fenced sidewalk and street in the foreground, clear blue sky overhead.
A row of modern multi-story townhouses with white siding, white-framed windows, and black fences along a sidewalk with trees and bushes, under a clear blue sky.
A courtyard surrounded by multi-story residential buildings with gray exteriors and white trim. The courtyard features a paved walkway, small trees, and grassy areas, with children and adults walking and sitting. There are benches, a trash can, and a