New Chair of UC Berkeley CED Advisory Council - Sylvia Kwan

Co-founder Sylvia Kwan takes on the prestigious and esteemed role of being Chair of UC Berkeley CED Dean's Advisory Council for the 2015 year. Big things are already in motion for the department!

Dean's Advisory Council

The CED Dean's Advisory Council is a select group of alumni and friends who care deeply about the College of Environmental Design and serve as its ambassadors with fellow CED alumni, alumni of the University, and others whose professional and philanthropic interests align with CED's purpose.

Membership in the Dean's Advisory Council is by invitation of the dean of the college. Council members provide strategic planning advice to assist the dean in promoting CED to constituencies beyond the campus, as well as encouraging alumni and others to make gifts to the college. Members also bring their external expertise to the college, informing the dean about notable trends in the architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning fields to help shape CED's activities, programming, and facilities development.

The CED Dean's Advisory Council evolved out of the CED Alumni (CEDA) board of directors, founded in 1990, which for almost two decades served the college by organizing events and programs such as the annual Distinguished Alumni Award Program and the CED Mentorship Program. In 2010 the CEDA board redefined and reformed itself as the CED Dean's Advisory Council.

Through rigorous research and scholarship, design excellence, innovative pedagogy, open debate, craft and skill-building, critical and theoretical practice, and insights from both the academy and professional practice, the College of Environmental Design provides leadership to address the world’s most pressing urban challenges.

Open Space is a Key Feature of Future Central Subway Station

There is something that the Chinatown community desires more, and has less of, than housing. Open space.

While San Francisco stakeholders years ago debated the Central Subway extending the Muni T-Third Street line north on Fourth Street with a Chinatown station as the terminus, community activists coalesced on what would become of the area above it.

Fast-forward to today, construction crews at Washington and Stockton streets in the heart of the neighborhood are erecting walls 85 feet below surface level for the approved, multilevel Central Subway station scheduled to open by 2019. The design plans for a 5,400-square-foot rooftop plaza at the site have yet to be grounded, but are shaping up to be what the Chinatown community wants, said Norman Fong, executive director of the Chinatown Community Development Center.

"I dreamed about that a long time ago with a lot of people in the community, but we figured maybe The City would go for income-generating things like housing," he said. "So I had low expectations. I can't believe that The City listened to the community and the community needs for open space."

The design for the Chinatown station itself was approved with a transit-oriented development to complement it in mind. In determining what to build above the station, The City opened the process to community groups that conducted surveys and various meetings.

"We looked at housing and business, but at the end of the day, what the community wanted -- and they were probably right -- was to have a park and enjoy the sunshine," said John Funghi, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency's Central Subway program director.

San Francisco's Chinatown is the densest neighborhood in the country outside of New York's Chinatown, with only four open-space places -- heavily trafficked Portsmouth Square, the Willie "Woo Woo" Wong and Woh Hei Yuen playgrounds, and St. Mary's Square, which is slated to get a rooftop park extension in exchange for two new office towers on the rise.

The Chinatown station plaza is an opportunity to create a fifth spot, Recreation and Park Commissioner Allan Low said.

"Open space is being elevated, which is really the only way you can create new open space," he said, praising the "creativity and collaboration" on the project thus far.

The station plaza design went before the Civic Design Review Committee of the Arts Commission in May for the first time. Since the Phase 3 of the Chinatown station was approved in January 2012, a public rooftop plaza with stairs and seating and more artwork was added.

"We consider the design to be at a very preliminary stage and the commissioners were pleased with the direction that the project seems to be going in," said Jill Manton, director of the public-art trust and special initiatives. "It will serve the public in general and it will serve the local community specifically."

The design for the station itself met the national historic requirement to blend into the neighborhood, Funghi said.

"It's not being stereotypical with just copying the old," he said. "It also showcases the future of Chinatown."

The Central Subway station joins the Chinese Hospital and City College of San Francisco Chinatown campus as modern developments intended to fit into the historic fabric of the neighborhood.

A public presentation for the plaza design will be scheduled within the next month.

The latest plaza design incorporates "a lot" of feedback from seniors, including wind-mitigation elements and more seating, said Anni Chung, president and CEO of Self-Help for the Elderly. An additional request that may or may not be feasible, she said, is creating a physical connector from the plaza to a rooftop space at Gordon J. Lau Elementary School immediately west.

Regardless, the station is a "win-win" by increasing transportation and open space, Fong said.

"You know, people are going to come to the community and they're going to see housing all over the place," he said. "At least they're going to see a little glimpse, a little bit of peace and calm on top."

- Jessica Kwong, SF Examiner

http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/open-space-is-a-key-feature-of-future-central-subway-station/Content?oid=2893708

Keynote Presentation on "Weathering the Storms of a Growing Business"

Sylvia Kwan delivered an informative keynote presentation for Wells Fargo and ABL-SF's "Financing Your Growing Business" seminar. Together with the audience, she examined current market trends, intelligent decisions aligned with the economy, and resources for a starting business. She also shared lessons learned through each project and growing pains of a small business in San Francisco.

Vida Unveiled Its Zigzagging New Facade

If you've strolled down Mission Street near 22nd recently, you probably couldn't help but notice the colorful, geometric front of Vida. The front windows zigzag in and out above the street, begging the question of whether an outward-leaning or inward-leaning window would be preferable. The smaller Bartlett Street portion of the facade, which was revealed before the Mission section, is just as dramatic, bringing a burst of color and movement to the otherwise quiet street.

Vida, which at eight stories is the Mission's tallest condo project for now, will offer 114 one- and two-bedroom units. It is currently about half sold-out, and there are still condos available on every floor. One-bedrooms start in the mid-$600s, while two-bedrooms with parking begin at $919,000. Move-in, set for January 2015, is about 100 days away. Many units will have views across the city, while some, like the one rendered below, will front the newly restored New Mission Theater sign. The theater is on its way to becoming an Alamo Drafthouse, and the upgraded sign will be the next step in the big Mission Street reveal.

Curbed SF

http://sf.curbed.com/archives/2014/09/26/vida_unveiled_its_zigzagging_new_facade_and_its_totally_loca.php

Selected for AIACC "Universal Design is Good Design"

Our Chinatown Station project is now a case study for AIACC's "Universal Design is Good Design" themed courses.

http://www.aecknowledge.com/courses/89

This course complies with California licensure requirements for accessibility (SB 1608 and California Business and Professions Code Section 5600.05),the Texas BOE requirement related to barrier-free design, and provides essential information about accessibility requirements applicable in most states..

In June of 2014, the AIA California Council and aecKnowledge released a Call for Submissions for examples of solutions that illustrate the innovative potential of Universal Design and that address specific accessibility code issues. This 60-minute video course features the most innovative submissions of both built and unbuilt work.

Steve Castellanos, FAIA, the Executive Director for the California Commission on Disability Access (CCDA) and a former California State Architect, narrates and provides insightful commentary on how each solution addresses the needs of people with a wide range of ability levels, how the solution can improve people’s abilities to navigate and effectively function in the built environment, and how building owners, design professionals and people with disabilities can apply the solution to improve the built environment for everyone.

KH Plays Golf in San Mateo Community College Tournament

We love doing our part to support our community. Thank you College of San Mateo for setting up another successful event!

These funds will benefit:

• The San Mateo County Community Colleges Foundation General Scholarship Fund, which awards scholarships to talented students with demonstrated financial need at Cañada College, College of San Mateo (CSM), and Skyline College.

• The Presidents’ Innovation Fund, which the college presidents use to support new programs at their schools. Recently, this Fund supported honors-level classes at Cañada, a CSM astrophysics student internship to the Arctic, and a high-school-to-college mentoring initiative at Skyline.

• Alumni outreach. For the first time since the Foundation’s inception in the 60’s, we are embarking on a large-scale effort to reintroduce SMCCCD alumni to the colleges where they got their starts. We hope to inspire the alumni to support their alma maters and the students who walk the path they once walked.