Colloquia

LAEP Colloquium Fall 2006

Instructor: Georgia Silvera
Wednesdays 1-2 pm
Wurster Hall Room 315A, unless otherwise noted

Course Information
Each semester the Landscape Architecture Colloquium brings together distinguished speakers (professionals, academics, practitioners, and graduate students) to present their projects that are relevant to the landscape architecture and environmental planning professions. The colloquium attracts a diverse group of students from the College of
Environmental Design and it is announced to the entire Berkeley community. The theme of the Fall 2006 Colloquium is Neighborhood & Community Green Space.

This course combines Wednesday afternoon lectures with Monday evening lectures. For course credit (1 unit), students must attend 11 of the combined Monday evening lectures and Wednesday afternoon colloquia and fill out a short speaker evaluation at the end of each class. A complete schedule of the Colloquium speaker is attached to this syllabus. The department’s Monday night lectures will be announced during the first weeks of the semester.

A sign-up sheet will be passed around at each lecture and posted near the entrance for the Monday evening lectures. In addition, speaker evaluation forms will be distributed in class to allow students to evaluate each speaker. Both sign up sheet and evaluations will be considered proof of attendance.

Office hours will be Wednesdays 12:30-1:00pm in Wurster 315A or by appointment by emailing me at gsilvera@berkeley.edu

Schedule

August 30 Course Introduction

9.6 Christopher (Kip) Harkness
Strong Neighborhoods Manager, San Jose Strong Neighborhoods Initiative
The title will be announced. The speaker will present on the intersection of strong neighborhoods and new park spaces in San Jose, CA.

9.13 Kemba Shakur
Executive Director, Urban ReLeaf
The title will be announced. The speaker will present on urban forestry projects in Oakland and Richmond as well as a collaboration with UC Davis.

9.20 Lyle Oehler
Capital Improvement Project Coordinator, City of Oakland Public Works Agency
Lake Merritt Park Improvement Projects

A discussion of the $88 million improvement program for enhancing Lake Merritt Park in downtown Oakland. The projects will expand the park, renovate buildings, calm traffic, improve water quality and wildlife habitat, and improve pedestrian and bicycle access around the Lake and along the Lake Merritt Channel.

Lyle Oehler graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Landscape Architecture in 1972. He is a licensed Landscape Architect and a certified Project Management Professional. Lyle worked for the State Department of Transportation (Caltrans) for 32 years as a designer, project landscape architect, consultant contract manager and visual impact assessment expert. For the last 12 years at Caltrans, Lyle served as the Chief Landscape Architect for the nine Bay Area counties. Lyle has worked for the City of Oakland as a project manager for Lake Merritt Park projects for about 2 years.

Lake Merritt (courtesy of speaker)

10.4 David Dobereiner
Architect and Author
The Legacy of Karl Linn

Karl’s origins and early experiences and their influence
The unique perspective of a psycho-analyst and space planner
Private practice as a landscape architect based in New York City in the ‘50’s
The move to academia and a re-direction towards socially relevant and participatory design with an equal emphasis on community building
Karl’s place in the cultural revolution of the ‘60’s
Bio-Energetics and the influence of Wilhelm Reich
The Peace Movement
The theory of the Commons
Karl’s Legacy

David Dobereiner, who trained at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in
England, taught architectural design and related subjects at universities in the USA and Canada. He was an Associate Professor of Architecture at Syracuse University Department of Architecture and has also served on design juries and given seminars and lectures at Harvard, MIT and UC Berkeley. There are significant buildings of his design in Australia and Nepal, in addition to several in California, New York State and Manitoba. In Nepal his work included pioneering solar heating experiments funded by UNICEF, campus plans and educational facilities. In 1990 he won, in collaboration with Dan Chin, an international design competition to build one of 25 bioclimatic houses in the Canary Islands. His team's submission was the only winning entry from USA.

Pueblo City Commons (courtesy of speaker)

10.18 Susan Schwartz
President, Friends of Five Creeks; Board Member, Berkeley Path Wanderers Assn., Berkeley Partners for Parks
The Santa Fe Right of Way: Rails to Trails at last?*

A walk on the former Santa Fe Railroad route from Sacramento Street to University Avenue will explore the history of the route, its effects on how the city developed around it, plans and projects since the city took over the right of way more than 30 years ago, and possibilities for the future.

Susan Schwartz is a former journalist and teacher of scientific writing who is active in volunteer "greening" efforts including creek restoration, control of invasive non-natives, and path preservation and creation.

*We will meet at the Spiral Gardens nursery and community-food project, 2850 Sacramento Street at Oregon. (By AC Transit, take #15 South from Shattuck & Center. If you can, come early to explore the nursery and learn more about its program.) We will walk north to University Ave. at Bonar. You can stay to enjoy a coffee at the outdoor cafe edging Strawberry Creek Park, built on the former rail yard; walk back to the origin on Sacramento; take AC Transit 51 back to campus; or leave a car here to carpool back.

Strawberry Creek Park (courtesy of speaker)

11.1 Jay Banfield
Executive Director, San Francisco Parks Trust
The title will be announced. The speaker will discuss the various SFPT initiatives including the Healthy Parks Initiative and Street Parks, a partnership with SF Department of Public Works.

11.8 Robert Doyle
Assistant General Manager, Interagency Planning and Land Acquisition Division, East Bay Regional Parks District
75 Years of Parks and Protected Lands -
Nature Nearby: Challenges and Opportunities Saving Land in Urban Areas
Robert Doyle joined the East Bay Regional Park District as a Ranger and gained over twenty-five year experience in Park Operation, Planning, Real Estate, and Administration. He is now the Assistant General Manager of the Interagency Planning and Land Acquisition Division at the Park District. In his current position, he is an integral part of the District’s long range planning, administration, and implementation of over $280,000,000 in land and trail acquisition projects. He was responsible for development and implementation of the Regional Trails Master Plan and manages local land issues through interagency planning. Bob is a life-long conservationist and a founding Board member of the East Bay Conservation Corps as well as Save Mount Diablo, a non-profit land trust.

Bob is responsible for the management of the District’s environmental review process and mitigation and restoration projects through the Resource Enhancement Program (REP) and environmental partnerships with other agencies and non-profit agencies. He is also responsible for the partnership with California State Parks and Recreation Department for the 8.5 mile long urban shoreline park, Eastshore State Park.
In addition to the above, he is a Board Member of the Contra Costa County Agricultural Trust. He was also a Founding Board Member of the Bay Area Ridge Trail.

11.22 Nino Walker
M.L.A ., Project Urban Planner, DC&E
Planning for "Country" in a gentrifying landscape: challenges and lessons from Waimea, Hawaii

Waimea is an unplanned rural community at the center of a pastoral landscape on the island of Hawaii. Over many decades, its popularity with retirees and paradise-seekers has been redefining the rural outpost as an increasingly exclusive – and suburban – community that is quickly losing what most residents hold dear: its diversity, its history through agriculture, and its landscape. This presentation will consider a set of tools and strategies to balance the competing goals for Waimea to, "Keep the Country, country," and, "Shape a community that lives aloha."

Nino Walker is a recent LAEP graduate and Project Urban Planner at DC&E in Berkeley. The presentation will explore aspects of his master's work to mobilize the community in Waimea, his hometown, and begin developing a vision for equitable and sustainable growth.

Mokuloa Pan (courtesy of speaker)

12.6 John Steere
Senior Environmental Manager, EIP Associates/Division of PBS&J, San Francisco, CA
The “Re-Storying” of the Commons and the Future of Urban Open Space

Just as our communities are becoming more multi-cultural, our experience of public open space and urban “greening” is become more multi-dimensional and participatory, reflecting an appeal to many purposes and sensibilities. Could we be entering a new era of the commons?….a deepening of our collective perception of public space to encompass the environment and its renewal? In the past half-century, we’ve expanded its definition from city parks, plazas, and playgrounds to a more vitalizing field of wildlife and creek corridors, wetlands and habitat restoration, greenways and paths, and community gardens. Why has this shift occurred….and how is our understanding of the commons evolving? What does it mean to the experience of community? What are the implications for the future of public open space? The presenter will reflect on these questions in the context of the restoration and “re-storying” of the commons and will draw on examples from his own city, Berkeley, and others in the East Bay.

John Steere is an environmental planner whose 20-year career spans public, private, and non-profit sectors of land use and resource management planning. An environmental planning consultant, he is the author of the award-winning Restoring the Estuary and numerous articles on habitat partnerships. He received his B.A. degree from Harvard College and a joint Masters degree in city and regional planning and landscape architecture from University of California at Berkeley. Active in urban habitat, greening, and park issues, he has helped develop a couple parks in the community, is the founder of East Bay Citizens for Creek Restoration, and serves on the boards of Livable Berkeley and Berkeley Partners for Parks.

Halycon Commons (courtesy of the speaker)