Advanced Urban Design Studio

Bayshore Urbanism: Property and Collective Climate Action 

CYPLAN 248

UC Berkeley Master of City Planning

January 2023 - May 2023

Professor Zachary Lamb

In the Advanced Urban Design Studio, we are studying the intersection of climate adaptation and alternative property regimes. Our study sites are located in communities along the bayfront of the San Francisco Bay.

Site Analysis

My team’s site is East Palo Alto, CA. For the site analysis, I designed a map of the historic ecological condition of the site before European colonization. In addition, I created a map and diagram explaining the extent of the San Francisquito Creek watershed (the main creek flowing through the city) and the governance structure of the San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority.

Case Studies

In the first half of the semester, we developed case studies for alternative property regimes in the US and around the world. These case studies informed our work on our main site on the SF Bay.

Case Study on Alternative Property Regimes:
Christiania, Copenhagen, Denmark

I studied urban squatting as a property regime and chose the community of Christiania in Copenhagen, Denmark as a case study. For this case study, our studio was especially interested in community governance structures, so I created diagrams explaining Christiania’s system of self-governance, finances, and unique community ownership of land.