Op-Ed. “The 34th Avenue Open Street shows how urban roads can be repurposed to make a more livable city. Even more, it is an example of how communities must lead these efforts so that streets reflect a common vision for what communities care about.”

Contributors to the Island Press Short-form Program captured this hopeful, life-affirming work through a series of articles, op-eds, interviews, and other short-form writing that have now been collected in the latest edition of our e-book series Resilience Matters, available below at no cost thanks to our grant support from The Kresge Foundation and The JPB Foundation.

Op-ed: The future of San Francisco's car-free streets

A panel discussion with Tamika Butler, a national expert on the built environment and equity; Dani Simons, the Director of Public Affairs for the USDOT; and urbanist John Bela, one of the creators of Park(ing) Day, in conversation with Alison Sant, author of From the Ground Up.

Car-centric streets are dangerous and perpetuate inequity, but the pandemic has pointed us to ways we can better use our public spaces.

Named one of the best books of 2022 by the American Society of Landscape Architects and Planetizen

The Studio for Urban Projects ran a storefront in San Francisco’s Mission District, in collaboration with Susanne Cockrell & Ted Purves (Amityworks), Phil Ross, and Amy Franceschini (Futurefarmers) who collectively programmed the space. The Studio hosted a series of public events featuring more than one hundred invited speakers. The storefront was transformed from our working studio by day into a public venue evenings and weekends for panel discussions, film screenings, workshops, meals, and classes. Public programs focused on the sustainability of cities, from urban agriculture and equitable food systems to increasing biodiversity, active transportation, and climate resiliency. Among the many speakers featured in these events were: Scientists Robin Grossinger and Eric Sanderson; Government Officials John Norquist, Robin Abad-Ocubillo, Andres Power, Gillian Gillette, and Peter Brastow; Writers Allison Arieff, Tim Beatley, Novella Carpenter, John Gillis, David Gissen, Sandor Katz, Mike Lydon, Darrin Nordhal, and Professors Margaret Crawford and Jennifer Wolch; Designers John Bela and Douglas Burnham; Advocates Jad Daley and Leah Shahum; Activists Chris Carlsson and Amber Hasselbring; Filmmakers Sam Green and Judy Irving; Curator Matthew Coolidge; Historian Gray Brechin; Housing Expert Tomiquia Moss; and Archivist Rick Prelinger.

Reclaim Market Street! was an exhibition and series of street interventions created by the Studio for Urban Projects to augment the community engagement process in remaking San Francisco's central boulevard. By staging a series of events, from biking and walking tours to temporary playgrounds and film screenings, the Studio engaged the public in reimagining the street from interventions that engaged the public in changing the street.

An architectural pavilion and public park programmed with a series of talks, workshops, film screenings exploring food security, urban foodsheds, and public space created for the 01SJ Biennial.