Rai Yukio Okamoto (July 21, 1927 in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, Pennsylvania – July 7, 1993 in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, California)"Okamoto, Rai". Pacific Coast Architecture Database (PCAD)
Archived copy
at the Wayback Machine from March 22, 2012 was an American architect and planner. He served as San Francisco's Director of Planning from 1975 to 1980. Okamoto was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He got his B.Arch. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1950; an M.Arch. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA in 1951; and an M.City Planning from Yale University in New Haven, CT in 1954. He served as a

Fulbright Scholar The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

in France in 1954 and 1955. He established the firm of Rai Y. Okamoto, Architect, in San Francisco, from 1960 to 1963. In 1963 he worked with the

San Francisco Redevelopment Agency The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (SFRA) was an urban renewal agency active from 1948 until 2012, with purpose to improve the urban landscape through "redesign, redevelopment, and rehabilitation" of specific areas of the city. SFRA demolis ...

to develop a master plan for the second phase of the

Japantown is a common name for Japanese communities in cities and towns outside Japan. Alternatively, a Japantown may be called J-town, Little Tokyo or , the first two being common names for Japantown, San Francisco, Japantown, San Jose and Little To ...

redevelopment."Buchanan Mall / Osaka Way". Building, Structure, and Object Record. Department of Parks and Recreation, State of California. Prepared by Page & Turnbull, May 2009
Archived
at the Wayback Machine He served as Principal, President and Treasurer of the partnership Okamoto-Liskamm, Incorporated, Planners and Architects from 1964 to 1993. Okamoto-Liskamm was based in San Francisco, with branch offices in Seattle and New York. In 1966, Okamoto-Liskamm's master plan for the redevelopment of

Oakland City Center Oakland City Center is an office, shopping and hotel complex in Downtown Oakland, Oakland, California. The complex is the product of a redevelopment project begun in the late 1950s. It covers twelve city blocks between Broadway on the east, Marti ...

received an award from

Progressive Architecture The Progressive Architecture Awards (P/A Awards) annually recognise risk-taking practitioners and seek to promote progress in the field of architecture. History The editors of ''Progressive Architecture'' magazine hosted the first Progressive Arch ...

. In 1969 he co-authored ''Urban Design Manhattan'' with Frank E. Williams for the

Regional Plan Association The Regional Plan Association is an independent, not-for-profit regional planning organization, founded in 1922, that focuses on recommendations to improve the quality of life and economic competitiveness of a 31-county New York–New Jersey– ...

. In the 1970s, he was hired by the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency to design Buchanan Mall in

(as an extension of the Japan Center's Peace Plaza on the other side of Post Street), and was responsible for inviting sculptor

Ruth Asawa Ruth Aiko Asawa (January 24, 1926 – August 5, 2013) was an American modernist sculptor. Her work is featured in collections at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.< ...

to provide public art for the design. He served as Director of Planning for the City and County of San Francisco from 1975 to 1980, following

Allan Jacobs Allan B. Jacobs (born 29 December 1928) is an urban designer, renowned for his publications and research on urban design. His well-known paper ''"Toward an Urban Design Manifesto"'', written with Donald Appleyard, describes how cities should be l ...

and succeeded by

Dean Macris Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Okamoto, Rai 1927 births 1993 deaths Architects from Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania School of Design alumni Yale University alumni MIT School of Architecture and Planning alumni American people of Japanese descent Businesspeople from San Francisco Architects from San Francisco 20th-century American architects 20th-century American businesspeople