Rai Okamoto

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.

[2] He served as Principal, President and Treasurer of the partnership Okamoto-Liskamm, Incorporated, Planners and Architects from 1964 to 1993.

[1] In 1966, Okamoto-Liskamm's master plan for the redevelopment of Oakland City Center received an award from Progressive Architecture.

In the 1970s, he was hired by the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency to design Buchanan Mall in Japantown (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 to provide public art for the design.

[2] He served as Director of Planning for the City and County of San Francisco from 1975 to 1980, following Allan Jacobs and succeeded by Dean Macris.

Buchanan Mall (also known as Osaka Way) in San Francisco's Japantown, designed by Okamoto