Roommates are a fact of life in San Francisco where the average apartment rent is $3,907. But there can be plus sides that go way beyond shared expenses and reduced rent. Take the case of Andrea Gaffney, an urban designer, Jared Press, public space program manager at Build Public, and Ingrid Stromberg, knowledge manager for the Cities + Sites practice at Perkins+Will — three roommates that share household chores and an obsession with policy. Every day, this trio is working to make the city better and they’re all SPUR members!
We have to ask: What’s it like living in a house full of urbanists?
Andrea: We speak in acronyms.
Ingrid: No one ever rolls their eyes when you want to talk policy, which is both a blessing and a curse.
Jared: Nerdy and full of great maps.
How did you first become interested in cities?
Andrea: I started out as an architect, but eventually realized I was much more interested in the space and life between buildings, so I went back to school for landscape architecture and urban planning. Now I’m looking for opportunities where I can engage the built environment on a higher level than project- based design.
Jared: Going to visit my grandmother in New York City as a young kid was always awe- inspiring and is responsible for planting the seed. But it wasn’t until I took “The History of American Suburbia” by Matt Lassiter at the University of Michigan that I could actually articulate my interest in cities and in urban planning in college.
Ingrid: I grew up in suburban San Diego and never really felt connected to a city or civic life until I started visiting more vibrant urban places like San Francisco and New York in high school. My degrees in landscape architecture from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and U.C. Berkeley exposed me to the field of urban design and I was hooked.
What do you think the greatest challenge facing San Francisco? Do you see a way forward?
Andrea: How to keep its true grit. There are lots of people working to change policies and practices so we can all afford the advantages of the good life that is the Bay Area, but my vision goes fuzzy when looking at the future of San Francisco.
Jared: NIMBYs.
Ingrid: Cynicism, both from people who want the city to stay exactly as it is, and from those who want to push it into the future. I hope we can figure out how to humanize each other and understand that we all want the same thing - a vibrant, interesting, welcoming, comfortable city that is first and foremost our home.
What do love most about your city?
Ingrid: The views! And encountering tourists who are seeing the city for the first time and
how much they are moved by it.
Jared: Proximity to so many great taquerias.
What’s your favorite city?
Andrea: Los Angeles
Jared: New Orleans
Ingrid: Toronto
Favorite view?
Andrea: Lately I’ve been going on long bike rides in Marin, so currently it’s the view from Tiburon of the S.F. street grid rolling into the bay.
Jared: Grand View Park
Ingrid: Back to the city from Point Bonita Lighthouse
Favorite book about cities?
Andrea: I proselytize with Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino.
Jared: Image of the City by Kevin Lynch.
Ingrid: Maybe not favorite, but most formative: Crabgrass Frontier by Kenneth T. Jackson. The exploration of how and why we moved to suburbs, the social and power dynamics, and the way our social structures are reflected in the physical form of our cities and reinforced by government institutions really resonated with me as someone whose early life was shaped by those forces.