FOCUS 10 Table of Contents A Note from the Department Head 3 FACULTY AND STUDENT WORK Editor’s Overview 4 Cal Poly Wins Again: Bank of America/Merrill Lynch Low Income Housing Challenge 85 A Planner’s Perspective 5 Andrew Levin Ask No Small Question Chris Clark Planning and Design for Templeton 88 Cartoon Corner 8 Emily Gerger Mumbai Port and City 91 SPECIAL SECTION Hemalata Dandekar and Sulakshana Mahajan Designing Resiliency in an Unsustainable World 11 Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail Transit Project: Managing Winter 2013 Hearst Lecture Lewis Knight Growth Sustainably through Transit Alternatives 99 Stephan Schmidt and Kayla Gordon The Ethics of Navigating Complex Communities 20 Claudia Isaac Preparing a Local Harzard Mitigation Plan: A Case Study in Watsonville, California 104 California Climate Action Planning Conference 27 Emily Lipoma Michael Boswell Improving Small Cities in California: ESSAYS Clearlake and Bell 110 William Siembieda Planning for a Strategic Gualadalajara: Towards a Sustainable and Competitive Metropolis 31 Ian Nairn, Townscape and the Campaign Francisco Perez Against Subtopia 113 Lorenza Pavesi On the Art and Practice of Urban Design 43 John Decker Designing a Sustainable Future for Vietnam 121 Abraham Sheppard Cal Poly’s Sustainability Program: What is Its Effect on Students? 53 SPOTLIGHT Daniel Levi and Rebecca Sokoloski Learning from California: Competitions in Arquitecture and Urban Design 57 Highlights of CRP Studios, 2012/2013 131 Miguel Baudizzone Hemalata Dandekar Regional Governance in the San Francisco Bay Area: The Reflections on Campus Planning: Lessons from Professional History of the Association of Bay Area Governments 61 Practice 136 Hing Wong William Riggs Building for Life: A Recent British Attempt to Raise the Sustainability Planning in Las Vegas 141 Quality of Housing 68 Richard Rojas Ivor Samuels An Interview with Alumnus Trevor Keith 143 Slum Upgrading: A Challenge as Big as the City of São Paulo, Brazil 74 Theses and Professional Projects Abstracts 145 Elisabete França FOCUS is an annual publication of the City and Regional Planning Department College of Architecture and Environmental Design California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo Cal Poly President: Jeffrey D. Armstrong Dean, CAED: Christine Theodoropoulos CRP Department Head: Hemalata C. Dandekar Managing Editor: Vicente del Rio Assistant: Lorenza Pavesi Editorial Board: CRP Faculty; Associated Students in Planning Cover Design: Schani Siong and Vicente del Rio Design: Vicente del Rio Manuscript preparation and lay-out: Vicente del Rio Copy-editor: Kathy Johnston Front-cover image: Pittsburgh CAD Visual Analysis by John Decker FOCUS has received the following honors: Outstanding Planning Award in Journalism, 2006 California Chapter of the American Planning Association Award of Excellence in Education, 2006 Central Coast Section, California Chapter of the American Planning Association City and Regional Planning Department: www.planning.calpoly.edu Past issues of FOCUS are available on-line at: http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/focus/ Copyright 2013 City and Regional Planning Department Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Reproduction permitted for educational purposes only. Authors are sole responsible for the contents of their articles including permission to reproduce any materials they use in their articles. ISSN: 1549-3776 FOCUS 10 A Note from the CRP Department Head elcome to FOCUS X! This tenth volume of forged. This issue of FOCUS with its decidedly in­ WFOCUS represents a milestone achieve­ ternational flavor of contributions represents a con­ ment. With it we celebrate a decade of annual tinuation of this professional dialogue. It celebrates examination of the CRP family’s civic and intel­ the ways in which CRP faculty, students, alumni and lectual engagement with communities and extended family of practicing professionals recog­ places in California and around the world. The nize that the field of planning functions in a truly commitment to this cause of managing editor, global, thickly interrelated, world. It is one where Dr. Vicente del Rio, senior faculty in CRP, has what happens on our doorstep in California’s cen­ made this possible. Under his guidance FOCUS tral coast is informed, influenced and shaped by the has become an award-winning journal that forces at work all over the world. FOCUS presents us makes a key contribution to the department an opportunity to reflect on planners’ observations by documenting products of the intellectual and discoveries of these forces. curiosity of the CRP community. CRP faculty have been engaged globally and local­ The journal has evolved through this decade. Sustaining FO­ ly. Over the last two years, faculty (Simbieda, Greve) have spent CUS and its success has been important to the department for time in residence as distinguished fellows at Kyoto University. many reasons, not the least of which is that it distinguishes CRP CRP faculty have been actively engaged in consultative work in that few planning departments in the US academy have a in Brazil (del Rio), Chile (Simbieda) and Bolivia (Dandekar), and journal quite like it—one that is exclusively dedicated to the at the same time as they have made very significant contri­ concerns and questions of the planning profession. This con­ butions to the conversation about, and planning for, climate tribution is particularly important at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo change, hazards mitigation and resilience (Boswell, Conn, given the university-wide emphasis on learning through ac­ Greve, Siembieda, and Topping). Our students have engaged tion (learn-by-doing) that requires substantial commitment of in studio projects that have contributed to planning in small time and effort from both faculty and students. The emphasis and large communities throughout the State and all had city on teaching excellence can be all consuming. The ability to partners who made substantial financial and time commit­ contribute to FOCUS offers a collective opportunity to step ments to their efforts. back from the day to day teaching pressures to reflect on the larger intellectual concerns and commitments that drive the The College of Architecture and Environmental Design, under planning profession to strive to make a difference to society. the leadership of Dean Christine Theodoropoulos, has em­ The pages in this volume illustrate that these concerns are barked on a strategic planning, action oriented process sched­ many and varied ranging from affordable housing and neigh­ uled for completion in this academic year. The goal is to envi­ borhood planning in California to visioning futures for Vietnam sion and refine future growth scenarios and emphasis of the and Mumbai. college. CRP faculty, students and staff are constructively in­ volved in this effort. The moral of the CRP family remains high This past year CRP activity represents inspiration on many and faculty have been entrepreneurial and creative in seeking fronts. In February-March CRP faculty (Boswell and Greve) orga­ out alternative sources of support and resources to keep the nized and hosted the very successful California Climate Action intellectual life at CRP robust. Given the goodwill and persis­ Planning Conference (CCAPC 2013) the first of its kind in the tence of all we have had a very successful year, one to celebrate state. It attracted policy makers and practitioners from agen­ and be proud of. cies throughout California and beyond. Registration quickly reached capacity and was closed. A Cal Poly team won the Bank In my four years as Department Head of CRP I have learned to of America Affordable Housing Challenge in 2013, making for a appreciate the values of the CRP community and the dedica­ three-year winning streak over excellent projects from universi­ tion of its faculty to student learning and excellence. Our net­ ties such as UC Berkeley and Irvine. Three interdisciplinary teams work of alumni and friends have supported us providing stu­ with students from CRP, Business Administration, Architecture dents with internships, serving as mentors, offering projects and Construction Management entered the competition re­ for our studios, organizing alumni reunions, and, endowing flecting a growing interest in the issue of enhancing housing scholarships for students. We thank them deeply. Through this access. In July 2013, US planning academics joined European volume of FOCUS we welcome you to the rich and interesting counterparts in a joint ACSP/AESOP congress in Dublin Ireland world of CRP. around the theme of Planning for Resilient Cities and Regions. Four CRP faculty (Main, Riggs, Siembieda, Dandekar) presented Hemalata C. Dandekar their research on topics ranging from city resilience, sustain- PhD; professor, CRP Department Head. ability to health. Important cross-national connections were FOCUS 10 Editor’s Overview It is exciting to celebrate FOCUS’s tenth anniversary with its to encourage the delivery of better quality housing in Britain largest issue so far, featuring almost twice the number of pag­ through an assessment program with national standards. Last es as the first issue back in 2003. And having it published in in this section, Elisabete França, former deputy-secretary for full colors again bring the contents so much more alive. In this public housing in São Paulo, Brazil, describes the challenge of tenth iteration, once again, FOCUS demonstrates the quality of reorganizing policies and programs for slum upgrading in such what is discussed and produced in Cal