CASE STUDIES
Restorative Justice
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Author of case study: Marcela Torres Molano
Geopolitical location of space:
34th Ave. and International Blvd.
Fruitvale, East Oakland
Project Type:
Adaptive Reuse; 20,000 square feet
Architects:
Design Justice + Design spaces (DJDS)
Extant? Yes
Timeframe RJ/TJ process in this space:
Start date: 2018
End date: ongoing
Restore Oakland is a new type of community hub. Formed as a joint initiative between the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC-United), the new facility is home to six nonprofits, all of which focus on community advocacy, empowerment, and restorative justice and economics.
Yes, it has private rooms dedicated for private hearings, which are part of the centre’s restorative justice programs. These spaces are purposely designed for conflict resolution and victims hearing.
Community members of Oakland, specifically the neighbourhood where it is located, Fruitvale.
It is a space for community gathering and restorative justice practices. It is a space open for all.
Restore is the first purposely designed centre for restorative justice and restorative economics in the United States. The architecture studio Designing Justice + Designing Spaces (DJDS) worked with the organisation Restore Oakland LLC to choose and purchase the property, a building from the early 1930s, where the centre is now located.
On the ground floor, the renovated building (2017) includes a restaurant that also serves as a space for hospitality job training. The structure has spaces for small business incubation, a housing and tenants rights clinic, a hub for community organisation and diverse spaces for restorative justice practices. These spaces are purposefully designed for conflict resolution, victims hearing and communities strength (Restore Oakland).
The building was planned and developed through a series of design workshops with the partner organisations. The DJDS team was in charge of all architectural services from the design to the construction stage.The interior spaces of Restore Oakland were created to emphasise a welcoming, nurturing environment, marked by large windows, collaborative meeting areas and the use of calm colours (O’Neill, 2019).
The only upgrades to the exterior are the ground-floor windows, added for the Colors restaurant, and a fresh coat of paint on the façade that kept a space reserved for a mural by Favianna Rodriguez, a local artist from Fruitvale. The interior transformation has been an evolving process. The top floor space is shared between offices for the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and Causa Justa/Just Cause. The design studio chose to display the original skylights and framing in the new building. The basement is the space dedicated for public meeting rooms (King, 2020).
Restore Oakland is a joint initiative between the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and the Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC-United). Located in the California Bay Area, it has become a training center and a hub for local economic development.Both the restorative justice space and the “Colours” restaurant were designed after surveying hundreds of community members to understand their needs, their desires, and how the building could contribute to the community. Since its inauguration, the centre has become a space for community members to improve their lives, and transform their local economy and justice system.
The center was designed in partnership with the architecture studio Designing Justice + Designing Spaces, and local organisations: Community Works West, Causa Justa/Just Cause, Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth (RJOY), La Cocina, the Restaurant.The restorative justice spaces are the hub for the Ella Baker Center’s initiatives to end mass incarceration and provide dedicated space for Alameda County’s restorative justice programs. “Restore is located in a prominent corner in one of Oakland’s most diverse neighbourhoods. The center shares the block with everything from El Palacio, a shop whose window is filled with quinceañera dresses, to a food market with signs in English and Chinese” (King, 2020).
is an author, speaker, columnist, and podcaster in the fields of architecture and decorative arts. She is completing her MA in Art History at Concordia University, Montréal, and holds a Bachelor of Commerce with a major in Marketing from John Molson School of Business. She studied Industrial Psychology in Los Angeles, California. Sicotte is the author of two published books on design (2015, 2018) published by Les Éditions Cardinal.
is a Colombian PhD candidate in the Department of Art History at Concordia University. She has a background in architectural design and community activism and holds a master’s degree in Building and Urban Design from the Bartlett School of Architecture in London, England. Her interests focus on socially-engaged art, social movements, collaborative activism in post-conflict scenarios, collectively-produced art, and art produced in relation to the built environment.
is a PhD candidate in Humanities at Concordia University. His research focuses on spatial agency, social aesthetics, youth narratives, and graphic representations of urban memory. He has published on the relationship between children, play, and public space in Cartagena, Colombia. He has also worked as an editor on literary projects, including Territorio Fértil, which received the María Nelly Murillo Hinestroza award for Afro-Colombian literature.
is Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Architectures of Spatial Justice (Tier 2) at the Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture at McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada. Her research interests include low-income housing and participatory design, civil protest and urban design, and campus landscapes and race. Her publications include the co-edited book, Orienting Istanbul (2010) and solo-authored book, Istanbul Open City (2018).
is an artist and a professor of Art History at Concordia University. Her work focuses on women and the history of the built environment, urban landscapes, research-creation, and oral history. She has published on the spatial history of the suffrage movement, public art, gardens, and the politics of urban change. In addition to her research on the spaces of restorative and transitional justice, she is leading an oral history project on the urban memories of diverse Montrealers.
is Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre at Concordia University, Montreal (Quebec, Canada). He is also the second co-director of Concordia’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling. His latest publications explore listening in the context of post-conflict performances of memory. For instance, see ‘Facilitating voicing and listening in the context of post-conflict performances of memory. The Colombian scenario.’ In: De Nardi, S., Orange, H., et al. Routledge Handbook of Memoryscapes. Routledge: London. (2019), and his article ‘Not being able to speak is torture: performing listening to painful narratives’. International Journal of Transitional Justice, Special Issue Creative Approaches to Transitional Justice: Contributions of Arts and Culture. (March, 2020)
