Fieldwork + Site Visits*

The San Francisco Bay Area will serve as a living laboratory for the studio research. Through first-person experience students will examine architectural precedents, engage with our tour hosts and guest speakers, and create site analysis through directed observation and documentation. We will begin our fieldwork at the Transbay Terminal Park (Salesforce Park), which is 70 feet above street level, runs the entire length of the four-block long Transit Center and is home to 600 trees and 16,000 plants. After lunch at the Ferry Building, students will venture into the San Francisco Bay on a ferry ride to Sausalito. Joining the tour will be Lidia D’Amico a Wildlife Biologist and National Park Ranger at Alcatraz Island. We will then visit the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bay Model, which is a working hydraulic scale model of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta System. Upon returning to San Francisco, students will conduct site analysis of San Francisco’s urban waterfront along the Embarcadero. Working in team, each student will document specific characteristics of the area through photography, sketching, and written notes.  

The second fieldwork will begin at Pier 1, the main government office of the Port of San Francisco, for a talk by Adam Varat, Deputy Program Manager for the Planning and Waterfront Resilience Program. He will then lead students along a tour of the Embarcadero Waterfront explaining the sea-level rise risk and adaptation measures being considered by the Port. After lunch, the fieldwork will continue at the Exploratorium’s Fisher Bay Observatory with host Emma Greenbaum, Project Director of Climate and Landscapes and Susan Schwartzenberg, Senior Artist and Curator. The fieldwork will conclude with a walk along the historic shoreline of San Francisco. Students will reference maps and photos that illustrate the changing shoreline, buried ships, and potential sea-level rise.