CAW Architects recently completed a facility for the Oakland, Calif., school district that feeds students and teaches them how to grow, harvest, and cook produce grown onsite. The production kitchen at the Unified School District Central Kitchen, Instructional Farm, and Education Center (“The Center”) prepares and distributes about 30,000 meals a day for district schools lacking their own kitchens.
The site also provides training for school district cafeteria workers and educational programs for students to learn about culinary arts, science, health, wellness, and agriculture. A greenhouse and demonstration garden illustrate growing cycles and how to identify different types of produce. The greenhouse produces starter plants from seed to supply about 60 school gardens. Culinary instruction takes place in a classroom outfitted with a full-service demonstration and teaching kitchen, and in an outdoor kitchen equipped with a pizza oven.
A courtyard serves as the facility’s central hub, connecting the production kitchen, indoor classrooms, and outdoor classrooms. Large glass roll-up doors open the indoors to the courtyard. An expansive wood trellis shades the courtyard and reduces glare in classrooms.
The building’s energy efficiency gets a boost from a hot water system that uses captured waste heat from a highly efficient C02 closed-loop refrigeration system. A solar-ready roof has space to support solar panels that will supply half of the production kitchen’s electric power.
The next phase of the project will use an undeveloped portion of the site to create an urban farm, community garden, and nature play space. The farm will offer career training for high school students and adult education programs.
Owner and/or developer: Oakland (Calif.) Unified School District
Design architect: CAW Architects
Architect of record: CAW Architects
MEP engineer: Integral Group
Structural engineer: SOHA Engineers
Construction manager: Cumming Group






























Related Stories
University Buildings | Dec 8, 2023
Yale University breaks ground on nation's largest Living Building student housing complex
A groundbreaking on Oct. 11 kicked off a project aiming to construct the largest Living Building Challenge-certified residence on a university campus. The Living Village, a 45,000 sf home for Yale University Divinity School graduate students, “will make an ecological statement about the need to build in harmony with the natural world while training students to become ‘apostles of the environment’,” according to Bruner/Cott, which is leading the design team that includes Höweler + Yoon Architecture and Andropogon Associates.
Higher Education | Nov 21, 2023
UPitt at Bradford opens new Engineering & Information Technologies Building
The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford recently opened a new engineering and information technology building that adds urgently needed lab and instructional space to the campus.
Giants 400 | Oct 30, 2023
Top 170 K-12 School Architecture Firms for 2023
PBK Architects, Huckabee, DLR Group, VLK Architects, and Stantec top BD+C's ranking of the nation's largest K-12 school building architecture and architecture/engineering (AE) firms for 2023, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2023 Giants 400 Report.
Giants 400 | Oct 30, 2023
Top 100 K-12 School Construction Firms for 2023
CORE Construction, Gilbane, Balfour Beatty, Skanska USA, and Adolfson & Peterson top BD+C's ranking of the nation's largest K-12 school building contractors and construction management (CM) firms for 2023, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2023 Giants 400 Report.
Giants 400 | Oct 30, 2023
Top 80 K-12 School Engineering Firms for 2023
AECOM, CMTA, Jacobs, WSP, and IMEG head BD+C's ranking of the nation's largest K-12 school building engineering and engineering/architecture (EA) firms for 2023, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2023 Giants 400 Report.
Higher Education | Oct 10, 2023
Tracking the carbon footprint of higher education campuses in the era of online learning
With more effective use of their facilities, streamlining of administration, and thoughtful adoption of high-quality online learning, colleges and universities can raise enrollment by at least 30%, reducing their carbon footprint per student by 11% and lowering their cost per student by 15% with the same level of instruction and better student support.
Giants 400 | Sep 28, 2023
Top 80 University Building Engineering Firms for 2023
AECOM, Jacobs, BR+A, and Salas O'Brien head BD+C's ranking of the nation's largest university sector engineering and engineering/architecture (EA) firms for 2023, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2023 Giants 400 Report. Note: This ranking includes revenue for all university/college-related buildings except student residence halls, sports/recreation facilities, laboratories, S+T-related buildings, parking facilities, and performing arts centers (revenue for those buildings are reported in their respective Giants 400 ranking).
Giants 400 | Sep 28, 2023
Top 100 University Building Construction Firms for 2023
Turner Construction, Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., STO Building Group, Suffolk Construction, and Skanska USA top BD+C's ranking of the nation's largest university sector contractors and construction management firms for 2023, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2023 Giants 400 Report. Note: This ranking includes revenue for all university/college-related buildings except student residence halls, sports/recreation facilities, laboratories, S+T-related buildings, parking facilities, and performing arts centers (revenue for those buildings are reported in their respective Giants 400 ranking).
University Buildings | Sep 27, 2023
Top 170 University Building Architecture Firms for 2023
Gensler, CannonDesign, Page Southerland Page, SmithGroup, and Ayers Saint Gross top the ranking of the nation's largest university sector architecture and architecture/engineering (AE) firms, as reported in Building Design+Construction's 2023 Giants 400 Report.
K-12 Schools | Sep 5, 2023
CHPS launches program to develop best practices for K-12 school modernizations
The non-profit Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) recently launched an effort to develop industry-backed best practices for school modernization projects. The Minor Renovations Program aims to fill a void of guiding criteria for school districts to use to ensure improvements meet a high-performance threshold.