San Ramon Daughter Reimagines Paradise After Deadly Camp Fire

SAN RAMON, CA — A Cal Poly student who hails from San Ramon is working on a class project that might really help the the fire-ravaged town of Paradise. Pacific Austin is one of 36 third-year architecture students whose work began less than two months after the Camp Fire devastated the Northern California town in November. The students have been coordinating with peers from other universities to reimagine how Paradise can rebuild after the deadly blaze that killed 86 people and burned more than 13,900 homes.

Austin and the other Cal Poly students will take one last trip to Paradise this Sunday and Monday to present their final projects to the community. During three previous trips to the area, the students met with numerous residents, asked questions and listened to what community members said they wanted for their town. The students' projects—including a town hall, a recreation center, an entrepreneurship center, mixed-use housing and healthcare facilities—are designed to reflect the desire of Paradise residents to create a more walkable community that can meet the needs of longtime residents and create jobs and opportunities for new arrivals.

“When I look at rebuilding our community, I’d like to see it built back better than the way it was, to build it for future generations,” Paradise Town Council Member Melissa Schuster said. “To have the students give us ideas was absolutely phenomenal.”

“The extensive contact [the students have] had with survivors has given them a sense of how architecture can help people,” said Cal Poly faculty member Kent Macdonald. A fire station is paired with a rock climbing gym, for example, to create a casual atmosphere for people to connect, start conversations about fire safety and support social resiliency, Austin explained.

“There are a lot of social spaces for people to create bonds and connections,” said architecture student Alyson Liang. “That’s what helps a community recover after a disaster.”

Liang, of Santa Rosa, recalled evacuating her home in October 2017, when the fast-moving Tubbs Fire hit densely populated areas of that city. Liang’s family’s home survived, but she couldn’t return to it for two weeks. Just over a year later, she surveyed fire-charred landscape in Paradise.

“It was a heavy trip for me,” Liang said. “Standing on the street, seeing the burn marks, I could imagine people running down the street, having to abandon their cars. It was really emotional. I really hope our projects truly inspire Paradise residents to rebuild."

Cal Poly fourth-year students have also had an opportunity to help Paradise by designing blueprints for single-family residential homes that will be net-zero.

“The fourth-year students’ work aims to offer housing designs for community members to use as they rebuild. They will be presented with options that could work on multiple sites and orientations,” said Cal Poly faculty member Maggie Kirk. “The students designed the houses to incorporate and connect to the community while being modeled to net-zero and high-performance standards. They also incorporated strategies of resilient design into the building materials and the layout of the building and site.”

Schuster acknowledged that she had some doubts when she first heard about the Cal Poly project. “But when I saw their projects and talked to the students, my attitude completely reversed,” she said. “I was so grateful and I saw how they had listened to what the community wanted, and it felt good.”