shivani
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degraaf
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This study aimed to identify a transportation vision, determine needs, and consider alternatives to address the present and future threats to the critical State Route 37 corridor in North Bay, Bay Area, CA. It is the first PEL study led by Caltrans and performed on a state highway in California.
As a member of the ICF team working on this project, I wrote Chapter 4 of the final report (linked above) and conducted research to support the section. Additionally, I conducted and summarized research on the existing and potential equity impacts of SR37 and its development alternatives.
As an urban designer on the landscape design team at ICF, I contributed to several Technical Assistance Brownfield Projects (EPA), an Off-Highway Vehicle Park feasibility study, and design proposals for site remediation and shoreline projects.
Of these, only the OHV Vehicle Park Feasibility Study graphics are publicly available.
Synthesized in collaboration with Mithūn and US Green Building Council within the Green Health Partnership, this research and visualization project focuses on the influence of building-level choices on population health and social equity, as well as the upstream impact of using an equity framework at the grassroots level.
San Francisco's unique history of urban planning has resulted in ubiquitous vacant lots that occupy street ends and do little besides collecting trash and creating opportunities for crime. The Street Mends Program reimagines these spaces as democratic sites for community co-creation. The program comprises a design tool that neighborhoods can use to plan and design street ends to meet their unique needs, as well as a scalable funding and self organization mechanism.
This landscape urbanism project examines the erasure wrought by the colonial ubiquity that shapes American landscapes. "Black and Blue" exhumes the struggle and triumph of Black bodies against the Blue (naval and police) forces that shaped and continue to shape Mare Island. The island is reimagined as a postcolonial landscape that questions the functions of a "park" amidst the racial and housing crises of the Bay Area.
Grounded in Asset Community Development principles, the DEPP (Disaster and Emergency Preparedness Program) Lab provides technical support to slum residents and refugees and co-develops humanitarian innovations that foster resilience. As a program coordinator and architect, I worked closely with slum residents and refugees in India and Bangladesh to design and develop individual and community-scale retrofits that improve health outcomes.
