Freedom center re-design project overview and updates.

BACKGROUND

The Freedom Center is an 8,973 sq. foot building located within Freedom Park. Freedom Park is home to the former Oxnard Air Force Base. The Base was first opened in 1940 and closed in 1945 and then reopened in 1951-1970. The Freedom Center served as the former Officers Club or “Officers’ Open Mess” for the base. The building features one large meeting hall with a raised stage, a side meeting room, full bar set-up in the back, a kitchen once used for a full commercial operation, eight storage rooms, an exterior built-in stage off the bar room, and two bathrooms (men’s and women’s). The Center was evaluated for ADA compliance as a part of the District’s 2022 ADA Transition Plan.

The Center currently serves the District as the office space for the Park Rangers, programming space for senior table tennis, and private rentals for both organizations and individuals.  

ANALYSIS

The 2024-2029 Capital Improvement Plan set aside $100,000 towards the cost of exploring design options for remodeling the facility due to the age and condition of the building. At a bare minimum, the facility needs to be brought into compliance with building, safety, and ADA codes. In analyzing usage of the facility from 2021-2025, the average annual usage of the facility is 31% of the available hours.

Request for Proposal

A formal RFP for architectural services was approved by the Board of Directors on October 1, 2025, and put out for requests from October 2, 2025, to November 5, 2025. The RFP solicited bids from certified architects and associated firms to provide professional assessment and design services to complete the following tasks broken up into two (2) phases:

• Phase No. 1: Evaluate Current Use of the Existing Freedom Center Facility
  • Complete inventory of all interior spaces and assets
  • Identification of potential alternative uses for the facility within the existing footprint
  • Provide a brief comparative overview of how other cities and agencies use similar-sized and styled facilities.
• Phase No. 2: Conceptual Redesign Alternatives
  • Take the findings in Phase 1 and translate them into redesign solutions by conducting high-level building conditions assessments (e.g. structural, destructive, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, accessibility, and building code, etc.)
    • Prepare three (3) conceptual redesign alternatives (e.g. “Deluxe,” “Standard,” and “Economy”) that illustrate different levels of investment and scope of improvements
    • Provide schematic plans, diagrams, and illustrative renderings or sketches for each concept.
  • Provide preliminary cost estimates for each alternative, including construction, soft costs, and contingencies (Rough Order of Magnitude).
    • Phasing strategies included, if needed.  

Five (5) firms attended the mandatory site walk-through on October 21, 2025, at the Center.

Three (3) proposals were received by the District by the November 5, 2025, deadline. The listing of the proposals and associated costs:

 The lowest responsible bid received, and highest scoring proposal was from BOA Architecture from Long Beach at $83,600. Contract was awarded on 1/7/2026 to BOA Architecture.