OAKLAND- The Laney College “Tower” is set to be vacated this coming spring break, discontinuing its 55 year lifespan as a hub for student services, administrative offices, and the June Steingart art gallery, according to the relocation plan draft presented at the Laney Facilities Planning Committee on Monday.
Each office in the Tower will be relocated to another building on campus, with proposed destinations included in the draft. The Laney Facilities Planning Committee will confer with shared governance committees, develop cost and work estimates, and prepare the rooms inside the Tower to be vacated. The first phase of the plan is expected to begin on March 28.
“The Tower” was constructed in 1971 and has not received any “major renovations” since. According to the Facilities Planning Committee, the Tower’s “structural, mechanical, and building systems are original and have reached the end of their functional life cycle.”
Laney’s interim president Rebecca “Becky” Opsata told The Citizen, “It’s not worth sinking another dollar into.”
Opsata said the bathrooms in the Tower are dysfunctional at least once a month, heating and air conditioning work “sometimes,” and the building is down to one working elevator.
Vacating the Tower marks the culmination of a well-documented history of its various facility issues. Opsata estimated the Tower will likely not see demolition for at least two years, but will remain vacant until then.
Elevator going down; unreliable facilities mark the beginning of the end
In Nov. 2023, three separate incidents were reported to The Citizen about a Tower elevator malfunctioning with passengers inside – one involving two Citizen reporters.
An investigation by The Citizen with the use of public records from the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA) in 2023 revealed inspections and subsequent violations of elevator safety standards in May of that year. OSHA would later red tag the Tower elevators, demarcating them out of commission in Oct. of the same year.
Kone, Inc. was contracted by Peralta to conduct routine maintenance on elevators districtwide in 2019. The company claimed that one of the two Tower elevators was operational as of Dec. 1, 2023.
Peralta trustees approved a $1.36 million agreement for Kone to “modernize” the Tower elevators in March 2024. Other active contracts Kone had with the district totalled to $4.69 million.
At the trustees’ regular board meeting on Aug. 26, 2025, Peralta Chancellor Tammeil Gilkerson announced that “all the elevators in the district are working at the beginning of the semester” during her Chancellor’s Report.
The district entered into a three-year contract with Schindler Elevator Corporation at that same meeting, effectively switching away from Kone.
Throughout the Fall 2025 semester, Laney students, staff, and Citizen reporters noticed that some elevators around campus were out of service, including at the library, the Student Center, and the Tower.
Retiring the Tower
The Tower has been an iconic part of Oakland’s skyline since the 1970s. The illuminated neon sign was allegedly crafted in a Richmond-based shop run by members of Hells Angels, according to reporting from the East Bay Times in 2008. The script was modeled after former Laney president Odell Johnson’s handwriting.
Opsata told The Citizen that a different structure with administrative and instructional facilities will be built in place of the Tower after its demolition, likely with bond money. The measure will appear on Alameda County ballots in 2028. Bond measures are one of the main ways public schools and colleges in California pay for upgrades and new facilities.
According to the draft from the Facilities Planning Committee, the first moving phase is scheduled to begin March 28, during spring break, and the second phase over the summer. The timing of the final phase will rely on the status of improvements to the Student Center, which Opsata told The Citizen is expected to receive new floors, bathrooms, HVAC systems, and a fresh coat of paint.
Opsata sent an email to the Laney community after the Feb. 2 Facilities Planning Committee with a link to a feedback form regarding the planned relocation. As of publication, the form is only open to faculty and staff. The feedback form is live until Feb. 12.
