Named for its location on the corner of Oak Drive and Sycamore Drive, Sycamore & Oak is a community-led mixed-use development in the predominantly black, primarily residential, and historically underinvested Congress Heights neighborhood of Washington DC, incubating retail and food concepts that originated in the community and providing job opportunities to neighborhood residents. 

The mass-timber structure is open-air with a featured canopy that offers protection from the elements and cultivates a sense of intimacy or ‘community within community’ when underneath. Punctuated by eleven strategically positioned skylights to allow natural light into the interior, programmed spaces, this 22,000-square-foot Retail Village offers wellness and entrepreneurial support services, food vendors, convening and event space, and provides a year-round community resource, retail, and cultural destination.  

Conceived as entirely public space, the building is comprised of two main modules and rests on an elevated plinth that becomes a central gathering and performance hall, and event venue with a viewing deck into the multiple programs activating the site from the fresh food market, education and fitness centers, retail incubators to the outdoor dining. Designed and constructed as a kit of parts using a modular system and reclaimable joints, Sycamore & Oak serves as a model on how to nurture and promote local businesses in other underserved communities.