A few principles of my urbanism
- The built environment matters. It acts upon its inhabitants either positively or negatively.
- In a successful built environment, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
- Density generally increases vitality.
- Design to the human scale. Streets should engage their inhabitants. Accommodate vehicles but focus on pedestrians.
- Lively and enriching communities require the participation and interaction of their inhabitants.
History
Hi, I’m Laura. I grew up in Fremont, California, a very large Bay Area suburb consisting of vast swaths of subdivisions and no conventional main street. We left Fremont for many activities such as eating out, shopping, and movies. Turning 16 and having access to a car was freedom in those days, so I longed for it pretty much from birth. I remember riding my bike to the grocery store once which required crossing multiple freeway entrance and exit ramps, an endeavor which was never repeated.
One of the upsides of this situation was not having a lot of temptation to lure me away from my studies, so that car–specifically a red Dodge Intrepid (go America!) with a rear spoiler to make it sportier as if it were possible–eventually transported me over the Dumbarton bridge to Stanford University.
I started studying architecture due to a longtime interest in old buildings but quickly discovered that historicism wasn’t very cool. I learned a lot of other things about the built environment, too. Stanford didn’t have an accredited architecture program so in order to learn about it I had to major in something broader called Urban Studies. Thanks to the sustainability movement, this label is starting to become more meaningful to the general public.
During the summer after my junior year of high school, I had lived in Paris for a month, ostensibly to improve my French. I was mesmerized, but it turned out that it wasn’t specifically Paris that had captured my heart but but urbanism itself. Immediately upon college graduation, I moved to the Hayes Valley neighborhood of San Francisco.
I suppose you could say that was my urban revolution, but I think of it as an ongoing process of discovery. Among other things, that’s the topic of this blog.
Today
[under construction]
see also laurasurma.com
One of the great but often unmentioned causes of both happiness and misery is the quality of our environment: the kinds of walls, chairs, buildings and streets that surround us.
– Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness
Affiliatons
Phi Beta Kappa, Stanford University
Chi Omega, Stanford University
San Francisco Planning & Urban Research Association
Cardinal Young Alumni
Stanford Professionals in Real Estate (SPIRE)
Quake ’06 Centennial Alliance of Stanford University
More of my work on the web
Stanford University and the 1906 Earthquake
The effects of the 1906 earthquake on the Stanford University campus
Stanford University Campus Center Exterior Space Plan, 2004
