A community center is the heart of a town—a place for gathering, celebration, and shared identity. For the fast-growing city of Oakley, the new Recreation Center was envisioned as a "unifying place," a flexible and welcoming hub designed to serve a diverse and expanding population.¹ The resulting 9,500-square-foot facility provides a durable, beautiful, and highly functional space for a wide variety of recreation activities and community events, with a capacity for up to 800 people.⁵ The design includes a large, dividable community room, a performance stage, a commercial kitchen, and office spaces, all flowing out to an outdoor patio and athletic fields.¹

The project is also a testament to responsible stewardship of public resources, integrating a comprehensive suite of sustainable design features. These are not mere additions, but fundamental components of the design, including daylighting, a high-performance building envelope with low-emissivity glazing, extensive sun shading, FSC-certified wood, high-efficiency building systems, low-flow plumbing, and the use of high-recycled content and low-VOC materials.¹ This commitment to sustainability and design excellence was recognized with two prestigious awards: the American Public Works Association's National Project of the Year and the Northern California Chapter's Public Works Project Award.⁴

Praxis's principal, Seth Dunn, served as Project Architect on this award-winning project while at Siegel & Strain Architects.¹ This role involved direct design leadership on a project that successfully blended community aspirations with high-performance building and civic value. The powerful third-party validation provided by these national awards establishes a track record of excellence that Praxis now carries forward, demonstrating a proven ability to deliver recognized, high-value projects for public clients.

‍