Description:Stanford students employ the practical and collaborative principles of sustainable urban systems to help revitalize Stockton, one of the hardest-hit cities in the financial crisis.
During the financial crisis, the city of Stockton, in California’s Central Valley, led the nation in home foreclosure rates and the city itself filed for bankruptcy.
Stockton recovered somewhat, but almost one-quarter of its population still lives below the poverty line. In South Stockton, where unemployment hovers around 18% and almost half the population lives in poverty, Stanford Engineering students have teamed up with city officials and community leaders to design a plan to revive the neighborhood through a mixed-use housing development.
The students faced real world constraints: They would have to keep costs low enough so that apartments would be affordable to people with extremely low incomes, a difficult hurdle even with subsidies.
At the same time, the plan had to be attractive and practical enough to attract solid commercial tenants – and investors – to one of the city’s most depressed neighborhoods.
Sustainable urban systems
ow, as city and community leaders try to bring this plan to reality, the project highlights Stanford’s increasing emphasis on teaching students to improve the quality of city life by designing sustainable urban systems. This cross-disciplinary approach integrates civil engineering and architecture, urban studies and environmental sustainability, to create financially sound and aesthetically pleasing developments tailored to community needs.
“This is the future of architectural design,” says Lynn Hildemann, who chairs Stanford’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “Instead of architects working in isolation and handing off their plans to the engineering people, who have to figure out how to build them, we think there should be more of a collaboration.”
Derek Ouyang, a lecturer in the department’s Sustainable Urban Systems initiative, guided the Stanford team. Their design envisions a three-story, C-shaped complex with 62 apartments for low-income tenants, complete with patios that overlook a courtyard of trees and grass.
The living spaces would occupy the upper levels of the development. The ground floor, with a glass façade, would be anchored by Mandela Marketplace, an Oakland-based community-owned food co-op that works with local farmers and entrepreneurs. Community Medical Centers, which has been serving low-income residents in Stockton for years, would occupy a separate new building next door.
