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Woodbury to host 'Valley Summit II: Designing the SFV'

The San Fernando Valley epitomizes suburban sprawl, but surprisingly little scholarship exits about the Valley’s archi­tecture and urban design. Even though the Valley remains Los Angeles’s most notorious suburb, identifying its geo­graphic and scholarly purview proves challenging. Iconic yet hazy, the valley challenges perceptions to consider it only at a surface level. Following upon the 2008 Valley Summit I—”Shifting Focus: Architecture, Urbanism and Development in the San Fernando Valley”—the Department of Architecture at Woodbury University announces Valley Summit II —”Design­ing the SFV.”

The conference will bring together a group of scholars and community design experts who will present strategies on how we might begin to understand and, poten­tially, augment the 345 square miles that constitute the San Fernando Valley. What is the Valley’s urban design history? How do the global economy and its shadow economies affect urban form? How might strategies developed by other design communities begin to offer alternative design perspectives? These are some of the questions speakers will address in an effort to engage the Valley’s historical and contemporary role in urban design.

All events are free and open to the public. Parking is available on the Woodbury University campus, 7500 Glenoaks Blvd., Burbank, CA 91510.


Thursday, February 12

5:30 p.m.

• Keynote: “From the Inside Out" by Michael Rotondi, FAIA, Principal, RoTo Architects, Inc.

Friday, February 13

8:30 a.m. Strategies Session

• Dr. Deborah Fausch, Moderator, Assoc Undergraduate Director U of Illinois Chicago School of Architecture
• “Architectural History and the History of the Architecture of the SFV” by Alfred Willis, Assoc Director Collection Development Harvey Library, Hampton University
• “The Valley as Archetype” by Joel Kotkin, Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures, Chapman University
• “Sprawl: The Valley, LA and the World” by Dr. Robert Bruegmann, Distinguished Professor U of Illinois Chicago School of Architecture
• “The Bus in the Orchard: Moving Through the Valley” by Douglas Suisman, FAIA, Principal, Suisman Urban Design

• Dr. Pat Morton, Moderator, Associate Professor, History of Art Department, Chair, Urban Studies Program, University of California, Riverside
• “Building Recombinant Ecologies” by the Director, University of Arkansas Community Design Center, Steven L. Anderson Chair in Architecture and Urban Studies
• “Suburban Ruralism: The San Fernando Valley as Open Range”  by Greg Goldin , Architecture Critic, Los Angeles Magazine
• “House Arrest” by Marcos Sanchez / IHA, Associate Adjunct Professor SCI-Arc, and Mark Wasiuta / IHA, Associate Adjunct Professor GSAPP Columbia
• “From Parents to Pornography: Some Pictures From the Valley”  by Larry Sultan, Artist and Professor of Art at California College of the Arts

Woodbury University serves as a resource and research center for both real and visionary responses to such questions. For further in­formation, contact conference organizers Jeanine Centuori or Paulette Singley at 818.767.0888.