BACKGROUND
The California College of Arts and Crafts (later renamed California College of the Arts, or CCA) has been on its present 4.5 acre campus for almost 100 years. In 1875 the College inherited the Victorian Treadwell Mansion (now Macky Hall), designed by architect Clinton Day, and its original Carriage House nearby. Both of these buildings have California State Historical Landmark status, and Macky Hall is on the National Register of Historic Places. Over the years additional buildings were constructed to house studios, library, classrooms, exhibition space, and a cafe to meet the demands of the growing school.
In recent years CCA bought a San Francisco campus; now, with its growth focused across the Bay, the College plans to sell its Oakland campus.
credit: Oakland Public Library History Room
documents related to the cca project
(also see our ‘resources’ page)
city of oakland documents:
Official documents are posted on City of Oakland website - Accela public portal.
Under the “General Search” title, enter the “Planning Number”, ER19003. Scroll to the bottom. Select “Search.”
A page will come up displaying the Planning number, type of application, and current status.
Click on “Record Info” to see a drop-down menu.
Select “Attachments.” There may be several pages of documents. Click on their filenames to view or download.
CCA Campus & History
Neighborhood: context, heritage
cca(c) history & contributions to art and culture
Significant artists have attended and taught at CCA(C). Many artists associated with or drawn by proximity to the college live and/or have studios in the neighborhood. Over the years, galleries and art-related businesses have clustered nearby. And one of California’s first female architects, Julia Morgan, often walked the Campus, and she designed several other buildings near the school.
See the Historic Resource Evaluation (HRE) report requested by the Oakland Planning & Building Department and a report on UBA’s Recommendations of historic resources to be preserved.
cca’s green legacy to the City
The campus hosts many majestic and mature trees including numerous California natives and flowering and fruiting trees and shrubs. With its proximity to College Avenue and several schools, Oaklanders have enjoyed and benefited from this open green space in an area starved of parks. See the Arborist’s report here.
sale and development
As part of their moving and expansion plans, CCA developed a set of “stated values”. These include the pledge to “minimize harm and optimize benefits to the environment and society in our daily endeavors.” Considering the look, scale, and impact of the proposed new development, these values seem not to be applicable to Oakland as CCA focuses on their SF campus.
The proposed “artists walk” and low-cost offices (in the historic Macky Hall, to be renovated and rented to arts NGOs as “benefits to the community”) are not - as far as can be determined - guaranteed enforceable requirements in the future. The planned “affordable” housing (35 units to be developed from the existing 52 unit dormitory on an adjacent land parcel), problematic in conception from the beginning, has now been dropped and the parcel will be sold off, no longer part of the development. See the developers’ May 2020 revised plans for changes and updates
*the very reservation of these “affordable” units exclusively for artists - and segregated to the side of the main development - may be discriminatory and may not enforceable either.)
We appreciate the gesture CCA is making to its legacy in the arts community, but we are not reassured that these plans would be honored in reality.
“We were trying to…leave the campus where we felt proud of it. Alumni don’t want to drive by and just see housing. They want to see something unique about it.”
Fremontia, a California native on Campus