They refer to themselves as “urban Indians,” 12,000 Native
Americans from approximately 70 tribes who now call the East
Bay—Oakland, California, and the surrounding area—home.
Geographically dispersed, many now converge at the Seven
Directions Native American Health Center for medical and dental
care. The center is a joint venture between the Native American
Health Center and the East Bay Asian Local Development
Corporation. It sits on just two-thirds of an acre, which
offered no small challenge to Pyatok Architects, an Oakland firm
with an extensive body of work in multiunit housing. The
70,000-square-foot, five-story facility includes the clinic, a
45-car garage, 36 affordable apartment units, a community room,
and laundry facilities. Remarkably, the limited footprint of the
building still includes two courtyards, one of which holds a
dirt-floor circle known as a kiva. A ceremonial place within
Puebloan culture, a kiva is traditionally used for ritual dance
and encircled by seating that (at the health cente