Volume 3, Issue 4 | Sept. 25 - Oct. 6, 2020
November 3: Your vote counts

There are less than 40 days until the U.S. Presidential Election are you registered to vote? (And yes, it is illegal to vote twice.)

Associated Students, Inc. and TurboVote created cpp.turbovote.org to guide students through the voter registration process, update their registration status and learn about voter eligibility status by state.

The country is also facing record shortage in poll workers due to COVID-19. To volunteer, sign up at www.powerthepolls.org.
cal poly pomona updates
Most classes and services are remote/virtual in the fall term.

  • Update your contact information on BroncoDirect to receive important campus updates.

  • Joseph I. Castro will be the eighth CSU Chancellor the first California native and Mexican-American appointed to the post.

  • Planning a visit to campus? Faculty, students and staff must first complete this checklist.

  • Follow CPP on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (@calpolypomona).
update icon by maribel ruiz
env updates
Find more updates in the College of Environmental Design's news section.

  • Buildings 1, 2, 3, 7, 13, 89 and 209 are closed and locked until further notice. Studios and classrooms should not be accessed at this time.


  • Follow ENV on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn (@cppenv). ENV Student Success Advising Center is on Instagram (@cpp_envadvising).
interdepartmental | stay in the know
lesly calderon 1st year studio cereal box
Valeria Berrospid 1st year studio
 Jaydn Pascual planes to volumes 1st year studio
Featured projects (L-R): Lesly Calderon, Valeria Berrospid, Jadyn Pascual
ARCHITECTURE
Working between analog and digital model-making tools, students in first-year studio used cereal boxes for their first three assignments. The idea was to use a Target store or a supermarket as the source for materials and as the site for their final projects that explore scale, shapes of products, graphics and colors, and the organization of supermarket aisles.

"Supermarkets because they are all very similar to each other," said Associate Professor Robert Alexander, first-year studio coordinator. "Target — not to plug them — because they are all very similar to each other no matter the geography. Also, we adjusted the exercises to try to avoid using specialized materials or tools that we would normally have in studio as we could not predict where students are taking the class from."
christopher ornelas portrait by tom zasadzinski
Christopher Ornelas ('21) is the recipient of the 2020 CSU Trustees Award for Outstanding Achievement — the CSU's highest student achievement honor. The annual award is given to students who demonstrate superior academic performance, personal accomplishments, community service and financial need.

Ornelas, an urban and regional planning minor, aspires to pursue a master's degree in urban design and open his own architectural firm.

“I want to use my education to enable a push towards the limits of architecture and how it may help the environment,” he said.
kassandra ferrer portrait
URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING
Kassandra Ferrer ('21) had a positively eventful September: a new job as a zoning manager for Brea-based Core Development Services, and a $1,500 scholarship from Agile Mile, a Connecticut software company specializing in transportation demand software for local and state governments.

"My main responsibilities with Core is to fill out zoning applications, attend hearings, complete audits, and represent our clients (T-Mobile, Verizon, and MetroPCS) to city officials," she said. "Overall, I make sure the zoning process goes smoothly and adhere to city zoning regulations. Agile Mile also gave me a membership to Association for Commuter Transportation (that will be activated next year), and they may potentially fly me to Orlando to attend the ACT international conference this upcoming July, so that's awesome!"
michael woo portrait 2019 by tom zasadzinski
The California chapter of the American Planning Association presented Dean Emeritus Michael Woo with the 2020 Pioneer Award at the APA California Virtual Conference (Sept. 14-16). Woo is the first urban planner, the first Asian-American and the second-longest serving dean (2009-2019) of the College of Environmental Design.

Before his career in academia, Woo made history as the first Asian-American elected to the Los Angeles City Council, where he served two terms (1985-93) and represented 235,000 in Hollywood and surrounding areas. In the aftermath of the notorious 1991 beating of Rodney King, he was the first City Hall official to demand a change in leadership in the Los Angeles Police Department, and was one of the city's first leaders seeking to calm race relations after urban violence broke out in 1992.
Lecturer Annette Koh will moderate Confronting the Carceral State in Planning, a virtual discussion about the planning profession and carceral control prisons and migrant detention centers.

The panelists are Deshonay Dozier, Assistant Professor of Human Geography at Cal State Long Beach; Courtney Knapp, Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning at Pratt Institute; Silky Shah, Executive Director of Detention Watch Network; and Sheryl-Ann Simpson, Assistant Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies at Carleton University. Register here.
design futures council leadership summit  on the future of environmental responsibility
REGENERATIVE STUDIES
Interim Director Pablo La Roche was keynote speaker in the Design Futures Council DFC Leadership Summit.(Sept. 22-24). This year's theme: The Future of Environmental Responsibility.

On Tuesday, Sept. 22, La Roche and Pamela Conrad ('06, master's in landscape architecture) gave their presentations on the final day of the Carbon Positive Global Teach-in. The virtual event drew together experts and practitioners in the fields of architecture, engineering, construction, planning and building to discuss their industries' roles in meeting the Paris Agreement goal to limit the increase in global average temperature to 1.5°C (34.7° F). The teach-in was organized in three regions: North and South America; Europe, Middle East and Africa; and Asia, Asia Pacific and Oceania.
bookmark | hear from an expert
Remember spontaneous visits to restaurants? Art historian/author/gastronome extraordinaire Professor Alison Pearlman dishes on the future of restaurants, their business models and their design in The 2023 Podcast. Hear what she has to say here.
virtual cpp
virtual env
id | student life
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img | stories in pictures
Beatriz Cortez. Glacial Erratic (east view daytime), 2020. Commissioned by Frieze LIFEWTR Sculpture Prize. Courtesy of the artist and Commonwealth and Council. Steel. 9.5 x 9 x 7 feet. Photo: Casey Kelbaugh / Frieze.
PLATFORM is a California State University-wide art speaker series presented by ConSortiUm, a newly formed collaborative group of CSU art galleries and museums. Cal Poly Pomona, CSU Northridge and CSU Long Beach hosted the first installment of the six-part series on Thursday, Sept. 24. In the spotlight: Artist Beatriz Cortez in conversation with Erin Christovale, Associate Curator at the Hammer Museum. (A video recording of the program will be available on ENV's Vimeo channel).

Browse the full lineup, read artist bios and register here.
scholarships | your academic development
ROBERT L. WESLEY AWARD | Apply by Nov. 9

Created in 2020, the Robert L. Wesley Award honors the first African-American partner of the influential architecture/engineering/design/planning firm Skidmore, Owings & Merill.

This year, three $10,000 unrestricted awards will be given to BIPOC undergraduate students enrolled in architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, or structural engineering programs across the United States. See application requirements here.
opportunities | your professional development
URP CAREER
DEVELOPMENT SERIES
Oct. 20 and Nov. 17

CPP URP Alumni Chapter and the Career Center are collaborating this semester to present a monthly series of themed workshops for urban and regional planning majors.

Register here for:

  • Oct. 20, 12 p.m.: Planning Resume and Portfolio Workshop
  • Nov. 17, 12 p.m.: Exploring Your Planning Possibilities
URBAN LAND INSTITUTE
URBAN DESIGN COMPETITION
Register by Dec. 4

The Urban Land Institute invites graduate students to compete for a $50,000 prize in a challenging exercise in responsible land use. Undergraduate students in the fifth year of a five-year pre-professional program are eligible to participate.

Five-member teams of students pursuing degrees in at least three different disciplines have two weeks to devise a development program for a real, large-scale site in a North American city.

See previous briefs and winners here. Register for the 2021 competition here.
COVID-19 POP-UP COURSE Spring 2021

COVID-19: Biological, Psychological and Philosophical Perspectives” (CPU 2990; 3 units) will study the pandemic from the biological, psychological and philosophical perspectives. Open to all majors, the course will be taught by three professors from the College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences and the College of Science. Learn more here.

Each section of CPU 2990 will be taught on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10-11:15 am. Professors will rotate between sections every five weeks, so students can learn about COVID-19 from three perspectives.
ON THE GRID is produced by the College of Environmental Design (ENV) at Cal Poly Pomona.
Art for the masthead was designed by Maribel Ruiz ('22, architecture).
Send your news, announcements and upcoming (virtual) events to env@cpp.edu.