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This proposal celebrates the beauty and strength of Oakland’s diversity, to break the paradigm of redlining and systemic racism and cultivate a new social and cultural awareness of unity and inclusivity.

Conceptually, we reflect many of the cultures and ethnicities that make up Oakland’s identity with graphic and textile patterns representing them. 

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Graphic and textile patterns represent cultures in such rich ways: as a means of commmunication, often signifying cultural values, proverbs or messages, as traditional representations of a culture that often become mainstream representations, to mark special occasions and customs and of course, as a form of identity.

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Step by step, individual complementary and contrasting patterns compose a mosaic.

The design contains a wide range of colors and styles. To harmonize them, each step picks up colors from its adjacent steps. Repetition sequences based on the numbers of the Fibonacci series add an additional layer of visual coherence.

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There is a bit of whimsy, with animal motif patterns to engage perhaps a young treasure hunter, as well as a sunflower motif on the base step of each of the three flights of stairs.

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