• 10,000 Steps
  • Project Overview
  • A Profile of Four Squares
  • Walking the Invisible City
  • Walking the Invisible City Launch
  • Partners
  • Resources
• Park Research Archive
  • Jefferson Square
  • Lafayette Square
  • Lincoln Square
  • Madison Square

Through a unique style of stewardship, 10,000 Steps (2006-10) explored downtown Oakland’s historic parks. These parks—Jefferson Square, Lafayette Square, Madison Square, and Lincoln Square, each occupying only one city block—are tiny spots of open space in the urban fabric, places where tai chi practitioners, men gathering for a pick-up game of basketball, kids in after-school programs, mothers with strollers, and the homeless all come together.

10,000 Steps culminated in a permanent meandering neighborhood narrative, 'Walking the Invisible City'. This looped walk, marked with permanent conversational sidewalk stepping stones, reveals the city within the city: hidden local lore, architectural and cultural history, and points of urban transformation all centered around these four historic parks. This anthropological stewardship effort has revived and preserved multi-layered stories to engage pedestrians with Oakland’s changing cityscape.

Read more about the project in Oakland Magazine's recent feature story.