Kearstin Dischinger: Policy Planning and Bay Area Housing
“I see this symposium as an opportunity to engage with architects who care deeply about the area… Policymakers and designers speak different languages, but we both need to engage with the public and with one another… [In San Francisco] our identity is in our diversity. That’s why people want to come here. [And yet] the way we think about housing hasn’t changed in 50 years…”
by Rebecca Firestone with Mark English AIA
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Riki Nishimura: Bay Area Urban Strategies
“We are at a moment of inflection where critical decisions are required for the Bay Area. ‘Home’ to me is more than just a dwelling; it’s where I feel as a citizen that I have responsibilities and opportunities to help shape it into a place that matters.”
by Rebecca Firestone with Mark English AIA
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Adrianne Steichen: Bay Area Housing Policy
“For the first time, residents of San Francisco actually care that other people can’t afford to live here… The recent Federal Administration change is strangely having the effect it wanted to have, namely, disrupting the status quo. [We] should use it as an opportunity to advance conversations on housing in a positive way.”
by Rebecca Firestone with Mark English AIA
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Johanna Hoffman: Bay Area Housing and Adaptive Urban Design
“My work – design and planning for climate adaptation – requires a more long-term perspective. Trying to understand our cities by looking farther back into the past and farther in the future, helps us to understand that some of the problems we’re facing now are connected to questions that people have been asking for a very long time. In this way, the challenge of housing in San Francisco presents a valuable opportunity to address the city’s present and future vulnerabilities head-on.”
by Rebecca Firestone with Mark English AIA
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Jonelle Simunich: Foresight Specialist Speaks About Bay Area Housing
“Cities globally are, and will continue to, have population growth. My question is how will we re-design our cities to accommodate the influx of new residents?… The spaces we design and inhabit today are the artifacts of future generations.”
by Rebecca Firestone with Mark English AIA
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Allison Arieff: Urbanism and Bay Area Housing
“Instead of stopping new housing, we should be focusing on better neighborhood planning, better integration of housing near jobs and transit and better programs for creating economic opportunity… A city shouldn’t bend over backwards to let a company come in and add thousands of new jobs without both parties working to figure out how to house those thousands.”
by Rebecca Firestone with Mark English AIA
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Beaux Arts Fantastic
This exquisite, wearable scale replica of the San Francisco Civic Center was conceived and completed as a collaborative effort in under 3 weeks. “The mere thought of showing up to the ball with just a nice dress and a mask wouldn’t do… We wanted to challenge other designers to do more of this at next year’s Beaux Arts Ball,” said the team. “We did this to showcase our abilities to think outside of the box, and show our peers and colleagues what teamwork can really do. We enjoy what we do, we like who we are. Our team has the right combination of creativity and heart.”
(Image courtesy of Unisource Solutions)
by Rebecca Firestone with Mark English AIA
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MASP: A Brazilian Masterpiece
Mark English on Lina Bo Bardi:
“Her building is one of a kind… heroically sized in every way: the biggest span, the most prominent location. It’s a brave building, amazing and gutsy.… I don’t like overly designed, overly gestured work. In MASP, the building has a sweeping sense of movement, but also a neutral feel. The art is the star, not the building.”
(Image: Mark English Architects)
by Rebecca Firestone with Mark English AIA
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Inclination and Evolution: A Stair Design
This central staircase rail went from glass, to steel, and back to glass again, in a design transformation aided by hand sketches, computer renders, and actual as-built appearance at the job site. Image: Mark English Architects
by Rebecca Firestone with Mark English AIA
