An Unabashed Plannerd

I care deeply about how cities are shaped, because the way we design our built environment influences how people live, connect, and grow. Planning should consider how infrastructure and policies affect people from all walks of life, and ensure everyone has the opportunity to lead a healthy, connected, and fulfilling life.

Affordable Housing Fosters Hope

With some of my grad school classmates, I submitted an affordable housing project proposal for the Bank of America Low Income Housing Challenge. We proposed the development of a 99-unit affordable apartment project that would serve residents in Montclair, California. In the project development process, I had the privilege of interviewing current affordable housing residents, most of whom were kids. Their collective story conveyed that that well designed affordable housing is more than a financially feasible roof over one's head; rather, it has the potential to become a supportive community that fosters hope, peace and the path towards upward mobility.

Designing a User-Centered Bus Ride

In my quest to find out if design thinking can be used to create better designed user-centered cities, I conducted a study, via IDEO University, where I applied design thinking strategies to public transportation. My IDEO course, Insights to Innovation, guided my study through five steps: observation, identification of extremes, interviewing, empathizing, and insights. The mind maps linked below memorialize each of those steps and my findings.