The State of [Architecture and] the City

What is the state of San Francisco? How are we Spatially and Socially? How are we Physically and Metaphysically? What do we, as a City, have to celebrate? What are we looking forward to? What work are we most urgently advancing? And what efforts do we need to redouble? This interdisciplinary panel session extends the conversation on Architecture and the City to incorporate Landscape and Urban Design perspectives, as well as Physical Planning, Policy and Community Advocacy. The program progresses a broad vision for the Center — one that advances Design Thinking toward its most expansive and inclusive horizon.

Join Center for Architecture + Design Board Chair and city planner, Allison Albericci, in conversation with landscape architect Patricia Algara, urban designer Geeti Silwal, policy expert Sujata Srivastava, architect Julia Weatherspoon, and artist/activist Ramona Laughing Brook Webb.

(L-R)

1st Row: Allison Albericci, Patricia Algara, Geeti Silwal

2nd Row: Sujata Srivastava, Julia Weatherspoon, Ramona Laughing Brook Webb

Allison Albericci, AIA, AICP, LEED AP BD+C
Senior Architect and Urban Designer, San Francisco Planning Department
Board Chair, Center for Architecture + Design | Architecture + the City Festival Co-Chair

Allison is an interdisciplinary expert at the intersection of Architecture, Urban Design and City Planning. In her current role with the San Francisco Planning Department, Allison advises, educates, and collaborates with communities, advocates, agencies, elected officials, and other stakeholders to shape policy, legislation, and development projects in service of the public interest. Allison’s recent efforts include the redevelopment of the Caltrain Railyards, Freedom West, and Treasure Island along with the push to help revitalize Downtown. She serves as the current Chair of the Board for the San Francisco Center for Architecture + Design, and regularly shares insight on urban issues at national and regional conferences, universities, think tanks, professional organizations and prominent firms. Allison was recognized by the American Institute of Architects in 2018 with a Young Architect Award, received for significant contributions to the profession early in her career. Prior to joining the Planning Department, she was an Associate in the San Francisco office of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Allison earned Masters Degrees in Architecture Studies and in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as a Master of Architecture from Tulane University. She is a registered Architect, a certified Planner, and a LEED Accredited Professional.

Patricia Algara, FASLA
Principal, BASE Landscape Architecture | www.baselandscape.com

Patricia was born and raised in Mexico, she is the founder and president of BASE. A fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects and recognized leader in sustainable design and community involvement, Patricia creates landscapes that immerse people of all backgrounds and abilities in learning, exploration and play. Patricia’s community involvement and advocacy expand the boundaries of traditional landscape architecture. She founded an NGO "With Honey in the Heart" that creates healthy habitats for pollinators. She has lectured at many universities nationally and internationally and has won two national faculty ASLA awards. She received her MLA from UC Berkeley in 2007.

Geeti Silwal, AICP, LEED AP BD+C
Principal, Perkins + Will | www.perkinswill.com

As the head of Perkins + Will’s West Coast Urban Design Practice, Geeti brings vision and design leadership to lay the foundation of transformative changes in cities. She strongly believes that urban designers hold the responsibility to inspire integrated, multi-purpose design solutions of innovation and beauty that create healthy and inclusive cities. Working with cities, institutions, regional transit agencies, and private developers her work includes delivering well-connected, mixed-use, vibrant communities around transit corridors and stations; and also focuses on visioning and planning successful innovation ecosystems. The primary focus being the interrelatedness of economic, cultural, and physical dimensions that combine to deliver a complete community and instills an authentic and lasting sense of place. Geeti holds a Master of Urban Design degree from the University of California, Berkeley. She is a Board member of Perkins & Will’s AREA Research 501c3, member of ULI San Francisco's DEI Committee, member of ULI Public Development and Infrastructure Product Council, and was a jury member of the ULI Hines International Design Competition in 2021 and 2022 and the Jury Chair in 2023. She was the co-chair of ULI's Advisory Services Panel on the Future of Downtown San Francisco in 2023.

Sujata Srivastava
Chief Policy Officer, SPUR | www.spur.org

Sujata Srivastava is the Chief Policy Officer for SPUR. Before taking on this role, she was SPUR's Planning and Housing Policy Director. While at SPUR, Sujata has led our policy research and advocacy for downtown San Francisco's revitalization and strategies to improve housing affordability throughout the region.

Raised in Brazil and the United States by Indian immigrants, Sujata strives to bring a global perspective to her work as an urban planner. Before joining SPUR, she was a consultant at Strategic Economics and at AECOM | Economics Research Associates, where she advised public and private-sector clients on affordable housing, transit-oriented development, small business development, and real estate development in the U.S. and Latin America. Sujata holds a Master’s degree in City Planning from the University of California at Berkeley and a B.A. from Mount Holyoke College.

Julia Weatherspoon, AIA, NOMA, LEED AP, NCARB
Architect, Gensler | www.gensler.com
2021-2024 SFNOMA Chapter President

Julia Weatherspoon is a licensed architect at Gensler dedicated to crafting spaces that not only creatively address design challenges, but also inspire, resonate, and build connections among people. She has worked on a diverse array of architecture projects at multiple scales and building typologies from workplace & commercial interiors, aviation, community and civic design, and currently higher education projects. Throughout her career she has championed the ethos of sustainable design, weaving environmental consciousness and equitable design solutions into the fabric of projects in the built environment. When she is not at work, Julia is championing impactful change in her role as the President of the San Francisco Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects and NOMA Board of Directors as the Recording Secretary. She is engaged in a variety of efforts working with AIA and other communities in the Bay Area to elevate our collective experience through design. Julia Weatherspoon is a licensed architect dedicated to crafting spaces that not only cre­atively address design challenges, but also inspire, resonate, and build connections among people. She has worked on a diverse array of architecture projects at multiple scales and building typologies from workplace & commercial interiors, aviation, community and civic design, and currently higher education projects. Throughout her career she has championed the ethos of sustainable design, weaving environmental consciousness and equitable design solutions into the fabric of projects in the built environment. When she is not at work, Julia is championing impactful change in her role as the President of the San Francisco Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects and NOMA Board of Directors as the Recording Secretary. She is engaged in a variety of efforts working with AIA and other communities in the Bay Area to elevate our collective experience through design.

Ramona Laughing Brook Webb
Janice Mirikitani Poet Theologian in Residence at Glide Memorial and Poet-in-Residence at the National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health and UCSF Black Women’s Health and Livelihood Initiative

Ramona serves as Artistic Director of Project ABLE and Lyrical Minded415, which is an Art Based Learning for Equity seasonal course implemented in various San Francisco Bay Area school districts. Webb served as Adjunct Faculty at Alliant International University and as Coordinator for the HSOE Middle College Program that provides college courses and credit to high school students prior to graduation, as well as Executive Director of the Eden Foundation. For seventeen years, Mona was Slammaster and Host of San Francisco's City Poetry Slam. In addition to organizing the slam, Mona coaches the San Francisco National Poetry Slam team, which won 3rd in the Nation in 2009. Webb is a workshop facilitator for the University of California San Francisco's Young Women's Health Leadership Summit, an annual event that focuses on the positive youth development of young woman in leadership.
Mona moved to the Bay Area from Baton Rouge Louisiana where she was co-founder and president of The Baton Rouge Poetry Alliance for seven years. Webb has a bachelor’s degree in Theater and is a conservatory trained Performance Artist. She earned a M.Ed. degree at Lesley University in 2013. Mona writes and performs in “docu-ritual- drama theater. Her most recent production, “5 Civilized Tribes from The Book of Corrine” debuted in The National Queer Arts Festival 2011. Ramona seeks to create new platforms for lyrical creativity, poetry, music, visual art, dance and all avenues of artistic expression in all that she produces.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Center for Architecture + Design, 140 Sutter Street, San Francisco, United States