August 12, 2011

Robert B. Cervero, Professor of City and Regional Planning, has been appointed the inaugural Carmel P. Friesen Chair in Urban Studies.

This chair was endowed by a $1 million gift from Carmel P. and Howard R. Friesen, matched by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The Friesens, both Cal alumni, have donated generously to Cal and have actively supported the undergraduate urban studies program in the Department of City and Regional Planning.

July 25, 2011

Dr. Ananya Roy, Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning, has been appointed the inaugural chairholder of the Blum Center Distinguished Chair in Global Poverty and Practice.

This distinguished chair, endowed by a $1.5 million anonymous gift and matched by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, was created to recognize and support the work of a faculty member making a major and sustained contribution to the educational programs at the Blum Center for Developing Economies, especially the center's undergraduate minor degree program in global poverty and practice. As the Blum Center's education director, Professor Roy leads a faculty committee that envisioned and steers this innovative and inspirational minor in global poverty and practice. Launched in 2007, it is now the largest minor on campus, with nearly 400 students currently enrolled and 230 alumni. The minor explores the ethics of global citizenship and the role that UC Berkeley undergraduates play in understanding and addressing some of the most pressing issues of the 21st century. Students from a wide variety of disciplines undertake the minor to complement majors ranging from economics to engineering to public health, and to participate directly in poverty alleviation efforts in over 50 countries.

April 25, 2011

By Kathleen Maclay, UC Berkeley Media Relations

Experts are working on a masterplan to rebuild the coastal city of Mehuin, which was devastated by the post-quake tsunami that struck in 2010. Image courtesty of Biskupovic Arquitectos, Chile.

Berkeley — María-Paz Gutierrez, a University of California, Berkeley, assistant professor of architecture, has been named to the 2011-2012 Fulbright Regional Network for Applied Research (NEXUS) Scholar Program as part of a 20-member team working to promote best practices in fighting poverty and inequality in the Western Hemisphere.

Gutierrez will work in her native Chile on a sustainable and affordable housing prototype that also could be deployed in an emergency, particularly a flood.

One of five scholars from the United States chosen for this year’s NEXUS team, which is organized through the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Gutierrez is part of a group that will spend the coming year conducting sustainable energy research. The two other NEXUS teams will focus on entrepreneurship, and science, technology and innovation. All teams will convene at various points for lengthy workshops in Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Washington, D.C.

Gutierrez will begin constructing her prefabricated prototype home in December in the coastal fishing community of Mehuin in southern Chile, which was devastated once by a tsunami that followed a major earthquake in 1960, and again in 2010. The prototype design and development will be begin this summer and fall at UC Berkeley.

January 11, 2011

The backyard cottage at DCRP associate professor Karen Chapple's home in the Berkeley flats is a real-life contemporary demonstration of a historic approach to increasing residential density without significantly altering a neighborhood's character.

The concept grew out of a meeting in 2008 between Chapple (who is also faculty director of the Center for Community Innovation; acting director of the Institute for Research on Labor & Employment; and associate director of the Institute for Urban and Regional Development) and a team of students from UC Berkeley civil and environmental engineering professor Ashok Gadgil's "Design for Sustainable Communities" course who were researching how small homes could be used to supply housing that was more affordable and used fewer resources. The final team for Chapple's house included students from the Department of City and Regional Planning, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and the Haas School of Business. They also worked with the City of Berkeley on permitting issues.

January 3, 2011

The University of California, Berkeley, College of Environmental Design has received an endowment gift of $1 million from the Arcus Foundation that, combined with a match from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, will create a new $2 million endowed CED chair named the Arcus Chair in Gender, Sexuality and the Built Environment.

The Arcus Foundation, founded by Jon Stryker (M. Arch ’89), is a leading global philanthropic funder advancing pressing social justice and conservation issues. Specifically, Arcus works to advance lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights, as well as to conserve and protect the great apes. Naming a widely recognized scholar to this prestigious chair will enable the college to develop innovative pedagogy and programs focused on design and difference.

December 23, 2010

G. Mathias Kondolf, professor of landscape architecture and environmental planning, has been appointed chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning (LAEP) in the University of California, Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design. His term begins January 3, 2011, campus officials have announced.

Kondolf is a fluvial geomorphologist and environmental planner. His research focuses on environmental river management, assessing ecological restoration and how land use impacts rivers, notably the effects of mining and dams on river systems, strategies to manage sediment in reservoirs and reservoir-affected river reaches, flood control policy and land use.

“Matt has extraordinary energy, and is the most entrepreneurial academic I have ever known,” said Linda Jewell, the current LAEP chair. “He is committed to the integration of sound science into design and planning. . . . With today's focus on designing sustainable urban systems, particularly storm water systems, it is the ideal time to have a creative hydrologist leading our department.”

November 29, 2010

Over the last few months, CED has been in the process of consolidating student services in one place, and building a new advising team. This November marked the formal opening of CED’s new Office of Undergraduate Advising in 250 Wurster Hall, where undergraduate advising for all three departments is now located. Bringing our advising staff together in one place allows for greater communication and ease of collaboration between advising staff on the many exciting new college-wide programs we have been developing under the leadership of undergraduate services manager Susan Hagstrom.

We are all indebted to Pat Ramirez and Mary Anne Clark for their many years of outstanding advising service to CED in addition to their many other responsibilities in each of their home departments. Pat and Mary Anne will remain in their departments of City and Regional Planning (DCRP) and Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning (LAEP), respectively, and will continue to assist the college with a wide variety of projects.

Our new organizational structure allows us to have a group of full-time advisers dedicated exclusively to the needs of our undergraduates. Though the advisers are now located in the same space, each adviser is responsible for students in a specific department. Donna Vivar has assumed responsibility for students based in LAEP and DCRP, while Rachel Klein is the lead adviser for Architecture. Rounding out the advising team is program evaluator Lisa Thomas, who joined us in 2009. Lisa evaluates students' transfer work and certifies completion-of-degree requirements. Donna, Rachel, and Lisa all have exceptional qualifications and we look forward to their continued contributions to student life at CED.

September 10, 2010

Department of Landscape and Environmental Planning (LAEP) student Cecil Howell and the Landscape Progress Administration, a collaboration of six LAEP students, both won top awards in the American Society of Landscape Architects' 2010 ASLA Student Awards competition.

Howell won the Award of Excellence in the General Design Category for her project, “Vacant Lot Library.” Adjunct Professor of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning David Meyer advised Howell on the project.

The Landscape Progress Administration won the Award of Excellence in the Community Service Category. The Landscape Progress Administration was comprised of LAEP students Hugo Bruley, Eustacia Brossart, Kirsten Dahl, Jesse Jones, Clare O’Reilly, and Adrienne Smith. The team was advised by Associate Adjunct Professor Marcia McNally.

August 26, 2010

After the rigor and excitement of an intensive eight-week session, the first College of Environmental Design Summer [IN]STITUTES successfully helped prepare post-baccalaureate students with majors from outside the environmental design fields to pursue studies in those areas.

One hundred and eighty-eight students completed either an [IN]ARCH, [IN]LAND, or [IN]CITY session. Each program was designed specifically for introducing post-baccalaureate students with majors other than architecture, landscape architecture, or city planning for graduate studies in those respective areas. 84.6% of those who participated in an anonymous survey said that they now planned to apply to a graduate school in one of those fields.

“I thought the program was fantastic,” one student responded in the survey. “I'm walking away with some of my old questions answered and many new ones to consider. I gained a great deal of confidence in my ability to take on large projects with a group and present concisely to an audience.”

July 5, 2010

Barry Elbasani, FAIA, died last week at the age of 69. Although he was not a graduate of the college, he lectured there when he first moved to Berkeley in the 1960s. He was a close friend and protégé of former dean Richard Bender, who was his teacher at Cooper Union. Elbasani founded ELS Architecture and Urban Design in 1967 with Donn Logan, a former professor at the college. ELS has hired literally hundreds of CED graduates over its 43-year history. Indeed, all seven of its current principals are CED graduates (Bruce Bullman, David Fawcett, David Petta, Clarence Mamuyac, Jamie Rusin, Kurt Schindler, and Geno Yun).

Elbasani’s son, Marc Daja Elbasani, was a graduate of CED and tragically predeceased him.

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the Elbasani Memorial Scholarship Fund in the Department of Architecture at the College of Environmental Design, University of California, Berkeley. Donations can be made payable to the Barry and Marc Elbasani Memorial Scholarship Fund and mailed to the Department of External Relations, c/o Adrienne Livoni, College of Environmental Design, 235 Wurster Hall, Mail Code 1820, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-1820.

Click the link below to read the full press release.

June 30, 2010

Tom J. Buresh, Emil Lorch Collegiate Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan, has been appointed professor and chair of the Department of Architecture in the College of Environmental Design. His term begins July 1, campus officials have announced.

Buresh is an active architect with extensive teaching and academic administration experience. He is a principal in the firm Guthrie + Buresh Architects, and previously served as senior project designer for Frank O. Gehry and Associates. Buresh also served as a designer for Frank D. Israel Design Associates, Studio Works with Robert Mangurian, Eugene Kupper Architect, and Hawley and Peterson Architects. He received his Bachelor’s of Arts in Architecture in 1978 from Iowa State University and Master’s of Architecture in 1985 from UCLA.

May 27, 2010

Ramona’s Cafe functions as an important amenity for Wurster Hall’s occupants and the broader University community. As one of Cal Dining’s seven signature restaurants, Ramona’s is dedicated to providing an environmentally friendly dining program. Elegantly designed more than 20 years ago by Fernau & Hartman Architects for an earlier generation of clientele, the restaurant’s physical layout and conceptual programming does not accommodate environmentally friendly technology and is limited with respect to its kitchen’s ability to prepare healthy, fresh food.

As the first step in remodeling Ramona’s Cafe, the College of Environmental Design hosted a preliminary design charrette on April 29, 2010, with students, faculty, and staff to explore the challenges of the project and begin to generate solutions. A summary of the charrette results — particularly in terms of the food, culture, and space dimensions — and a next-steps diagram can be viewed at http://prezi.com/mbm27rt7ix_w/ramonas-charrette/.