Kaiser Center

Kaiser Center, Becket’s largest project to date when completed in 1960, holds its place as one of the nation's finest examples of mid-century commercial architecture. Built for Kaiser Industries, the project is designed to showcase aluminum, one of the primary materials produced by Kaiser enterprises.

The project is a 28-story, 1,700,000-square-foot complex that includes 1,000,000 square feet of office space, a shopping center, a five-level parking structure and a three-acre roof garden with a 10,000-square-foot reflecting pool.

Kaiser Center accomplished two prevailing goals: to gather all of the activities of 60 corporations within a single structure, and for an organization engaged primarily in basic building products, to exhibit the use of its own materials. The building establishes the firm’s mastery of creating a corporate image through architecture. Shaped in a graceful curve, the structure symbolizes the strength, growth and scope of the Kaiser corporate aesthetic.

Located on the shore of Oakland’s Lake Merritt, extensive care was taken in the project’s design to create a beautifully landscaped environment. The top of the five-story parking garage is a three-acre roof garden with trees, a decorative pool and seating to provide respite for employees and shoppers alike.