William Riggs

And the More Modern Take… (Taken with instagram)

Wed, 30 May 2012 14:41:06 -0400

And the More Modern Take… (Taken with instagram)

Quintessential Bay Area Style Charateristic (Taken with...

Wed, 30 May 2012 14:38:24 -0400

Quintessential Bay Area Style Charateristic (Taken with instagram)

Photo from Tuesday ribbon cutting at AC Transit’s new...

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:00:00 -0400

Photo from Tuesday ribbon cutting at AC Transit’s new hydrogen fueling station, which will not only accommodate the zero-emission buses the system is currently using, but, in the future, private cars. Now I’m wondering where I get my steam-emitting Mercedes.

Creating Garden City or something like it with my son

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 20:18:51 -0400

Creating Garden City or something like it with my son

Seismic retrofit at CA Memorial Stadium

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 19:21:54 -0400

Seismic retrofit at CA Memorial Stadium

ucberkeleyplanning: Berkeley DAP passes after seven years...

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:06:05 -0400

ucberkeleyplanning:

Berkeley DAP passes after seven years setting building guidelines and sustainability thresholds.

Buildings as Bargaining Chips for a Bridge

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:05:00 -0400

Buildings as Bargaining Chips for a Bridge:

My friend, Dr. Karen Frick, interviewed by the New York Times on historic buildings on Treasure Island / YBI, the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge and economic development in Oakland / San Francisco; many of which I worked on while at the US Coast Guard.

The planner as the technician: desktop looking a little too...

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 11:17:56 -0500

The planner as the technician: desktop looking a little too crowded these days…

Campus Housing and Transportation Survey Being Conducted

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 17:34:16 -0500

Campus Housing and Transportation Survey Being Conducted

Type Face Shaping Urban Regeneration?

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 13:44:00 -0500

Type Face Shaping Urban Regeneration?

Helped this ewe give birth this morning at Rinconada Dairy near...

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 17:01:05 -0500

Helped this ewe give birth this morning at Rinconada Dairy near #SLO — awesome!

Today’s view from Wurster Hall, Room 1000, where my...

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:54:16 -0500

Today’s view from Wurster Hall, Room 1000, where my Transportation Advisory Group regularly meets.

Skin installation on new UC housing going up. My office did...

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:24:57 -0500

Skin installation on new UC housing going up. My office did planning entitlements and I wrote design guidelines.

Working on some publications using graphics and data from my...

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:46:43 -0500

Working on some publications using graphics and data from my dissertation (2011) focused walkability and housing in the San Francisco Bay Area.

"If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can..."

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:32:00 -0500

“

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too…

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And - which is more - you’ll be a Man my son!

”

- I came across this Rudyard Kipling quote from the poem ‘If’ (1909) in an old journal entry last night. Thought it worth sharing. Onward.

"…the most important qualities in a city planner are “principled”, “integrity”,..."

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:07:31 -0500

““…the most important qualities in a city planner are “principled”, “integrity”, “professionalism”, and “passion”.””

- Brent Toderian, Former Vancouver Planning Director

Higher Ed Moving Online and the Campus Environs?

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:09:38 -0500

Higher Ed Moving Online and the Campus Environs?:

Reports about this Stanford artificial intelligence course getting 160K enrollees may offer an insight into the future of higher education — especially if universities can begin charging for this enrollment to bring in extra revenue, without paying for the physical space these additional students might occupy on a campus. This, however, brings up interesting questions about the role of the campus and the importance of the classroom in the pedagogical experience. What is the role of the classroom in the teaching profession and what are the intangible benefits? What shape should built space on the college campuses take? In 20 years will campus simply be focused residential / social communities that can, in the words of former UC Berkeley, Chancellor Clark Kerr, “provide sex for the students, sports for the alumni, and parking for the faculty.”? If the Stanford course is any indication, it is unfortunate that faculty will likely not need that parking because they can teach from home in their pajamas.

My task today: outline the best potential design options to...

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:36:15 -0500

My task today: outline the best potential design options to reuse this mid-century building (or not).

Moon Colonization an Important Issue? Really?

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:02:06 -0500

Moon Colonization an Important Issue? Really? :

Great discourse on an important subjuct by robertreich that ends up loosely tied to city planning on the moon of all places:

Newt’s latest idea, for example – to colonize the moon – is typically whacky.

As Reich reminds us, American citizens should not be so flippant as to simply assume a Newt nomination equates to an Obama victory. Our social and economic future is not something to gamble with — especially with weird speculation about moon colonization.

An example of the donor-driven design of the built environment...

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:25:23 -0500

An example of the donor-driven design of the built environment in a public gathering space on the UC Berkeley campus. Does it degrade the purity or integrity of the design? You be the judge.