Field Study of Buildings and Cities
In this course you will learn how to ‘read’ urban landscapes in Berkeley, San Francisco, Emeryville, Oakland, and Pleasanton. Walking tours, on-site lectures, and ongoing discussions will explore cultural landscapes, architecture, urban design, and Bay Area spatial histories. With close observations of local landscapes and historical geographies, you see in the particulars of the Bay Area general principles of American urbanization. And by combining these three elements—landscape, region, and urbanization—you will learn to appreciate the magnificent cacophony of places, the peculiar pleasures and struggles of the Bay Region, and the banal beauty of ordinary landscapes. We will travel on foot and by BART. Undergrad and grad are welcome.
Topics
- The goal of this course is to introduce ways of seeing various building types, street and block forms, land use patterns, and other cultural features of the Bay Area as records of social relations and of repeating processes of American geographical history: cyclical periods of investment and disinvestment, migration and immigration, economic production and consumption, connection and disconnection, reinforcement of individual and social identities, as well as day-to-day maintenance and care
Official catalogue course objectives and student learning outcomes
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026-2027