Francis Chen urban planning & design portfolio
TABLE OF CONTENTS MADISON PARK OAKLAND, CA Urban Design & Cultural Activity Mapping 01: MADISON PARK 02: WEST WALNUT CREEK DOWNTOWN SPECIFIC PLAN 03: BIKE-SHARE STATIONS IN SAN FRANCISCO 04: CALIFORNIA GREEN TECHNOLOGY PARK source of photos: Francis Chen, Iris Corey In the process of developing the Lake Merritt BART Station Specific Plan, the City of Oakland and BART decided to choose Madison Park as a potential space for mixed-used redevelopment, given its close proximity to the BART station. However, the elderly who use the park every morning for physical exercise and socializing: their voices were not being represented in Oakland Chinatown. Our role: map physical and cultural activities in the park throughout a weekday morning, and create a 3D Google SketchUp model of future urban design guidelines of the park, based on interviews with key stakeholders of the park. These visualizations served as tools for the elderly to show to city planning officials that the park is an important cultural asset to the community that should be protected and preserved for future use. As a result of a public exhibit, BART Director Robert Raburn convinced planning staff to keep the park from redevelopment.
cultural activity map using GIS mapping physical and cultural activity, based on several observations during weekday mornings birds eye view of park, with proposed improvements to meet needs of future residents near transit development proposed seating space with trees, seating, and a improved playstructure to attract neighborhood children I created the map using ArcGIS pan view of park in the morning, with qi gong exercise in the background. The amount of empty space in the park makes the park underutlized in the afternoon, which lead us to make the 3D Google SketchUp model (see next pg) proposed gazebo. purpose: provide a performance space, seating and shade I worked with an architecture student. I built the gazebo, place the playground as well as built the restroom.
WEST DOWNTOWN WALNUT CREEK SPECIFIC PLAN Undergraduate Urban Planning Studio, UC Berkeley The West Walnut Creek Downtown Specific Area suffers from a lack of community gathering spaces, public spaces, and parks, restaurants, as well as social/cultural activities that can cater to the local community. Given the large percentage of space dedicated to the automobile, such as parking lots or asphalt for roads/streets, our class was assigned to develop proposals that could help improve the area in the next twenty to thirty years. Our role: perform background research of the West Walnut Creek Downtown Area, do site analysis of exisiting conditions, and prepare proposals for improvements in the general area to City of Walnut Creek staff and urban planning staff.
site analysis of social and cultural activites in West Walnut Creek Specific Plan Area note: the proposal stage is still in progress
WHERE SHOULD I PUT BIKE SHARE STOPS? SAN FRANCISCO, CA Geographic Informations Systems Course Final Project photo credits to wikipedia For our final project, our role was to create a bikeshare suitability map using ArcGIS identifying the best locations to place bike sharing stops in the City of San Francisco. By identifying elements such as land use, access to transit, density, traffic safety, proximity to bicycle lanes, elevation, and traffic speed limit, I mapped these elements, numerically weighed the positives and negatives of each element, and identified the best location to put bike sharing maps: this is my suitablity map (see left map on next page) Next (see right map on next page), I created a map of key activity sites of locations in San Francisco such as neighborhood commercial centers, banks, transit stops, or farmers markets to compare with my suitability map. This helps me predict the success of potential bike sharing stations. I discovered that the best locations would be in the Downtown San Francisco area, as well as the Mission District.
CALIFORNIA GREEN TECHNOLOGY PARK FREMONT, CA Graphic Illustration, Mapping, Planning Intern California Green Technology Park (in Silicon Valley) General Adminsitration Incubator Solar Panels Finance Center Logistics Center Convention Center Job Training Center Electric Vehicle LED Lighting Energy Storage Draft Version The City of Fremont, located within the heart of Silicon Valley, is striving to attract Chinese clean tech industries into what will become California s first green tech industrial park. Industries that the park is trying to cater to include the solar panel, electric vehicle, LED lighting, as ell as energy storage industries. The goal of this park is to promote Joint Chinese & American collaboration and combining the resources and innovation of each side to create a successful clean tech park. Working with the State of California Comissioner of Economic Development Henry Yin, my role is to create graphic illustrations to help visually communicate and articulate the Green Technology Park between different stakeholders. For example, the maps above have already been shown to Mainland Chinese clean tech companies to attract investment into the green park, as well as the Chinese Instiute of Engineers in Silicon Valley. Francis Chen email: fncis.chen@gmail.com phone: 01 510 504 3731 skype: fncischen University of California, Berkeley Bachelor of Arts, Urban Studies (2013)