I recently had occasion to check out some of the new projects under construction in downtown Oakland, so this post will provide a pictorial update of the construction reported in this post from last October. This post will be mostly photos; for more context and details on the projects, please check out that earlier post.
First, the inimitable Cathedral of Christ the Light at Grand and Harrison:
Below, the left picture shows that the large Uptown project is coming along nicely. The right picture shows the 78-unit Jade at 1511 Jefferson (completed last year), with Uptown construction in the distance:
901 Jefferson (left) has been unveiled since the last update and is well on its way to completion. Meanwhile, the Ellington near Jack London Square (right) chugs along:
And what else should make its way into the new Broadway Grand building, besides… Starbucks? At least another branch of Ozumo will make up for it:
The Essex high-rise residential project at 100 Grand is contributing to the development of a new streetwall along Grand Avenue. Here are three views of this major addition to the Valdez area, from Broadway (left), from across Grand (middle), and from the tip of Lake Merritt (right):
As usual, full sized versions are hosted on my Flickr account. As a side note, I will most likely post construction update photos to Flickr (in the construction progress photo set) on a semi-regular basis, even if the photos do not make their way into a formal post on the blog — so if you are interested in even more construction update photos, that photo set is a good place to look.
Transbay Blog 
Thanks for sharing your beautiful photos Eric!
I’m starting to get really excited about the Uptown complex. Though I’ve been watching the progress daily, I had somehow forgotten about all the retail space that’s being included, until the glass windows went up a couple weeks ago. We really could use some more stores and restaurants in the area. Flora’s getting too crowded!
Posted by Becks | 26 March 2008, 9:03 pmFlora’s getting too crowded!
You can blame Michael Bauer for that! With the coming of Flora, he seems to have just discovered recently that downtown Oakland has existed all along. Then again, his coverage outside of SF and Napa has always been pretty spotty. I’m really glad to hear Flora is doing well, it’s exciting to see the area blossom into a vibrant neighborhood.
Google Maps just recently updated its Bay Area satellite maps… which is actually the reason why that East Bay BRT map I promised awhile back isn’t ready to go yet. But I can’t tell you how glad I was to see that instead of parking lots, the satellite showed Uptown under construction instead.
Posted by Eric | 26 March 2008, 10:11 pm