The Redwood Empire faces specific regional challenges in the design, implementation, and funding of various types of housing including market-driven, affordable, multi-family, veteran, senior, and ADUs. The wildfires that the region has endured within the past five years have also posed certain challenges, but not necessarily how we imagined.
Design restrictions, combined with housing costs and procuring funds to design and build reasonably and sustainably impact how we design for future generations. The panelists will discuss how local architects are tackling these challenges and creating new concepts for healthy, affordable, livable environments and more fire-resistant communities. This program will concentrate on design ingenuity and the healthy future of the Redwood Empire Chapter region.
1 LU | HSW (pending course approval)
AIA Members: Free | Non-members: $15
Panel:
Warren Hedgpeth, AIA | Principal, Hedgpeth Architects
Warren Hedgpeth received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Oregon in 1977. He also studied fine art/sculpture and biology, where beauty and life were favorite subjects. He received his California Architect’s license in 1983, founding his firm that same year. His commitment to strengthen community through meaningful design, addressing human needs, and heightening client expectations. Hedgpeth has strived to be thoughtful about the limited resources we now have and seeks to preserve the environment by practicing effective land use. Housing has been a key focus, Hedgpeth believes that the quality of a city can be defined by how it addresses housing needs, both creating market and affordable projects. Engaging the community by serving long-term on housing task forces, economic subcommittees, the Design Review Committee of Santa Rosa has informed Hedgpeth. By being deeply involved in land use policy, land acquisition; the innovations that can spring from it are heightened.
Warren believes Urban Density and environmental health in the natural world are inseparable. He understands the principles of human dignity and land stewardship come from creating a collective teamwork environment. His staff have, in many cases, enjoyed decades of design exploration and permit documents being completed based on the site context and the project potential addressing larger issues than architecture. Hedgpeth has been a lifelong student of fine arts and is an abstract expressionist painter.
Mary Dooley, AIA | Principal, MAD Architecture
As a graduate of UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design, followed by 6 years with notable firms in San Francisco, Mary’s commercial, health, wellness and civic experience led to a balance of project types in MAD’s practice. Mary is a mother, skier, runner and writer who spent most of her life exploring the Santa Cruz Mountains, Sonoma County, the Sierra Nevadas and the San Joaquin Delta. Her love and respect for nature and process is paramount in her approach to design as mindful attention to the site and the purpose of the architecture unfolds. Mary’s role as lead designer and principal is to oversee projects, maintain continuity and fulfill their mission to create beautiful places while laughing along the way.
Moderator:
Daniel Strening, AIA, LEED | Principal, Strening Architects
Daniel grew up just north of Chicago, IL – a city that influenced his belief in the importance of Architecture. He has since had the good fortune of living, working and studying in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. He feels that Architecture is best understood and pursued as the union of art, culture and technology.
He brings this breadth of cultural experience to bear on all of his design projects. He seeks design solutions that make sense for his clients and as a result, he’s comfortable working in multiple idioms of design – Contemporary, Traditional, some combination of the two; ultimately, he judges his work on how well it reflects his clients.
In addition to Architecture, Daniel has a passion for opera, traveling, the arts and history. He also coaches a youth lacrosse team, and plays in a men’s hockey league.
Learning Objectives:
- Attendees will learn and examine the strategies in designing and implementing healthy, reasonable, and sustainable design in market-driven, attainable, affordable housing and we will discuss the various funding sources and scaling options available in our region.
- Attendees will learn the health benefits of living in deliberately designed and built communities that foster physical, emotional and social well-being. Building a community such as one focused around a pocket neighborhood (car free/asphalt free zones around common green) fosters a safe, pedestrian environment that brings people together, while the homes in the community are sustainability built and foster ecological, economic, social, wellness.
- Attendees will learn how empowering cities with various types of high-density housing close to downtown (urbanization) benefits the community on the whole.
- Attendees will learn about cost-effective, sustainable, innovative design solutions, and potential new technologies that can help in designing and building more fire-resistant neighborhoods and communities.