Volume 2, Issue 1 | June 2020
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Outrage and
action
: A message from ENV leadership
To Our College of Environmental Design Communities:
As the leadership team of your college, we are coming together to express our shared outrage at the senseless death of George Floyd. Mr. Floyd’s death reflects the endless racism that has plagued our country since its birth. We stand with the millions of protestors throughout our country and the many people in other countries who stand with us in the defense of black lives.
Read more
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cal poly pomona covid-19 updates
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Orientation, classes, and most services are remote/virtual for the summer term.
- Update your contact information on BroncoDirect to receive important campus updates.
- Fall 2020 will be virtual, confirmed Provost Sylvia A. Alva in a June 8 email to CPP students.
- The Class of 2020 is eligible for three additional free visits to the Student Health Center before the start of the fall semester.
- CSU students and their households may be eligible for Coronavirus Disaster Relief for Immigrants (DRAI). Get the details.
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Visit the College of Environmental Design's
news section
for announcements.
- Buildings 1, 2, 3, 7, 13, 89 and 209 are closed and locked until further notice. Studios and classrooms should not be accessed at this time.
- The ENV Model Shop and Architecture Fabrication Lab are closed, but instructional technicians Delmer Guillen and Paul Saskas are available for consultations.
- ENV Student Success Center is on Instagram (@cpp_envadvising). Book appointments with advisors Teresa Castaneda and Elizabeth Guevara-Laxamana via CPP Connect.
- Get career advising. Schedule an appointment with ENV Career Specialist Alie Ivie via Handshake.
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interdepartmental |
stay in the know
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ARCHITECTURE
Interior Design
interviewed
Professor
Sarah Lorenzen
about the completion of the decade-long renovation of the Neutra VDL Studio and Residences. Lorenzen, the resident director from 2007-2020, is
one of three faculty recipients
of this year's Provost's Award for Excellence.
ART
"What is empathy in the age of Covid 19, police brutality, lockdowns & protests?"
Last week, the department launched the first in a series of
topic-driven design micro-charrettes
. Design prompts are launched on Mondays, with final submissions due on Fridays by 5 p.m. Works will be posted on
@artdepartment13
on Instagram, with the goal of compiling all works into a zine or booklet by the end of the summer.
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Every Saturday afternoon from June 13 to Aug. 15, lecturer
Carlos Flores
will lead a Spanish conversation group for landscape architects and ENV's landscape architecture community. Participants have an opportunity to improve speaking and listening skills, and expand their vocabulary as the group chats in Spanish about social and environmental justice. The activity is offered free of charge. Flores suggests viewing
this video
"to get an idea of the fluency with which we will speak, and decide for yourself if this is an appropriate level for you." For questions and/or the video conversation link, email
caflores@cpp.edu
. (Note: this is not a Spanish language course, but a conversation group.)
In 2017, graduate student
Adrian Tenney
wrote and recorded "
Work To Do
," a song about racial injustices in U.S. and Canadian governments. Tenney has pledged that money from downloads and purchases from her Bandcamp page will be donated to the nonprofit
Movement for Black Lives
.
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URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING
Lecturer
Annette Koh
was one of the featured speakers in the May 28 webinar "Transformative Planning: Radical Alternatives to Neoliberal Urbanism," co-sponsored by Planners Network and Progressive City. The
virtual event
took its name from the
book of the same title
. Miss the livestream? Replay the discussion
here
.
Professor
Richard Willson
's article, "Cultivating Planning Career Resilience" was
published
by the American Planning Association. In it, Willson counsels recent graduates and young professionals to consider strategy.
Assistant professor
Alvaro Huerta
was quoted in an article in last week's Los Angeles Times article
They protected the barrios against looting
:
"
When it’s suburban or right-wing people, it’s more of an exclusionary act of trying to keep the ‘other’ out,’ said Huerta, who grew up in the Ramona Gardens housing projects in L.A.'s Eastside. “For us, it’s like: ‘This is all we have, but we’re proud of it. Don’t mess with it.’”
REGENERATIVE STUDIES
Three teams of architecture, landscape architecture, urban and regional planning, and regenerative studies students are working with the international non-profit
Factor-H
to design a Huntington's disease day center in Barranquitas, Venezuela. The collaboration was central to Professor
Pablo La Roche
's Spring 2020 interdisciplinary elective "Carbon Neutral Systems" (RS 4999).
Factor-H will select one team's design to be adopted as the
CASA DIGNIDAD
day center, and will int
egrate ideas from the other two designs. A local architect will develop construction documents with input from the students. (Pictured below: Patio Dignidad. Team members:
Jake Chevrie
r,
Allie Park
,
Clement Tsang
and
Nyree Vertanessian
.)
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perspectives |
black lives matter protests
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(Image: Los Angeles Times/June 5, 2020)
Soraya M. Coley (president, Cal Poly Pomona):
"We cannot simply pause from our regular lives and daily routines to reflect on the lives lost, as we so commonly do when there has been a national tragedy. To be sure, in these fraught times there is much that occupies our minds – and it can be convenient to conclude that such killings are 'awful' or 'shameful' or to feel sympathy for families and loved ones affected – and then to resume our daily lives. But that is not sufficient!"
May 30, 2020
Timothy P. White (chancellor, California State University system):
"The people pushing an agenda of violence must be stopped. They are taking away the livelihoods of many, including oppressed minorities and the proprietors of 'mom and pop' shops who have already been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. These are the very people we need to help – and the senseless violence and destruction dilute the public outrage and shift the focus away from demanding action against pernicious racism."
May 31, 2020
CSU Police Chiefs
: "All 23 police chiefs for the CSU campuses across California are united in denouncing excessive use of force and lack of due care for human life. We send our sincerest condolences to Mr. Floyd’s family and loved ones."
June 4, 2020
Jane Frederick (president, American Institute of Architects):
"As architects, we remain committed to advancing civil rights protections, fair housing policies, and accessibility in the built world to help achieve the more perfect union we all seek. The fact is that architects and AIA, in our more than 160-year history, have not always felt compelled to share our perspectives. But the times we live in, the horrific nature of the events we witness, and the role we see for every member of our society demands that we speak out."
May 30, 2020
Kimberly Dowdell (president, National Organization of Minority Architects):
"The air in our nation is thick with a profound sense of grief and despair. Our collective air is so very thick that it’s literally hard to breathe. We struggle to grasp for air as we all navigate a global pandemic coupled with the deadly and pervasive virus called racism that has plagued America for over four centuries."
May 31, 2020
AIGA, the professional association of design:
“Specifically, AIGA commits to supporting the needs of Black people and communities across the Nation, listening, collaborating, and amplifying their perspectives. And our members are positioned to be a part of the solution. Designers are especially equipped to hone in on issues, and work to address them through research and adaptive changes or complete redesigns. It’s through the careful identification of stakeholders, those with and without power. It’s through the identification of those negatively affected by the systems created and in place, and the careful listening to their experiences. It’s through breaking down the seemingly intractable problems into manageable pieces to be solved. And it’s also through both intensive collaboration and iterating that designers are able to help create solutions to large, complex, and intersectional problems.”
June 1, 2020
Wendy Miller (president, American Society of Landscape Architects):
"I am personally roiling with emotions, watching in real-time the injustices and inequitable treatment of people and communities who are in anguish because of centuries of racial discrimination. As landscape architects, we work to ensure that all persons have the right to equitable access to environmental and community benefits in the places they live, work, and learn. Now is the time for us to work to help ensure that these communities have fair and equitable treatment in all aspects of life."
June 1, 2020
American Planning Association:
"The impact of Mr. Floyd's death and other recent grave injustices like it must be viewed in light of the historical trauma inflicted on African American communities, including discrimination wrought by the planning profession itself, which led to structural disadvantages in housing, transportation, education and employment that last to this day."
May 31, 2020
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stories in pictures
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ANOTHER LOOK |
Back in November, Cal Poly Pomona students organized protests demanding an end to racial profiling on campus. (Re)read The Poly Post's coverage of the
Awareness March and the Red Shoe Protest
here
.
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alumni |
designing the future
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With more than 3
5 years of experience in architecture and planning, Woo was recognized for his role in numerous public buildings and projects within the 39th Congressional District, including his tenure as Fullerton Joint Union High School Districts’ oversight master architect for the Measure A-A bond.
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ON THE GRID
is produced by the College of Environmental Design (ENV) at Cal Poly Pomona.
Send your news, announcements and upcoming (virtual) events to
env@cpp.edu
.
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