Urban Design Lab showcases two Master of Urban Design thesis projects 

Title: Landscape of Remediation, Remembrance and Retreat: Deriving Urban Design Frameworks of Retreat on the Ecologically and Socially Vulnerable Landscape of Meadowlands through Lived-Experience Design | Meadowlands, New Jersey, USA

Advisors: Pol Fité Matamoros, Stefan Pellegrini

This study investigates the Meadowlands region of New Jersey, where decades of industrialization have led to environmental degradation and social inequities that continue to impact both the community and the ecosystem. These impacts are further exacerbated by the site’s vulnerability to flooding, water-level rise and contaminated soil and groundwater, and the presence of Superfund sites throughout the Meadowlands.

Examining a legacy of environmental harm and neglect,  the study focuses on the town of Kearny, where residents have long fought to close the Keegan Landfill due to its detrimental effects on public health and quality of life. Through extensive fieldwork, interviews, and design research, it seeks to understand Kearny’s complex landscape of socio-economic, ecological, and political entanglements.

The thesis addresses these overlapping vulnerabilities and existing actors and systems through a landscape-based urban design framework grounded in retreat, remediation, and remembrance. It challenges the universalized strategies often used in climate resilience. It argues for a bottom-up lived-experience design approach, where design frameworks emerge from within the place and people, and people have ownership over the place.

Title: Embarcadero Center Effect: Stitching downtown San Francisco through the transformation of Embarcadero Center’s lower levels | San Francisco, USA

Advisors: Stefan Pellegrini, Edward McFarlan, Louise Mozingo, Mona Lovgreen

This thesis explores how downtown revitalization can be catalyzed through the reimagination of San Francisco’s Embarcadero Center. The central research question asks, “How can a single urban complex serve as both proof of concept and catalyst for a more connected city?” 

Focusing on the Embarcadero Center’s lower levels, underutilized and disconnected from street life, the project proposes their transformation into a porous, mixed-use neighborhood integrated into the broader urban fabric. It challenges the legacy of inward-facing circulation systems and reorients the built form toward the street to animate public life across multiple levels. 

The methodology combines systems-scale analysis with site-specific design. Urban “flows,” social, ecological, and infrastructural, were studied across district, neighborhood, and block scales to identify disconnections and opportunities for repair. This layered approach led to a spatial and programmatic strategy anchored by a central alley activated with diverse programming: live/work spaces, a university cluster, markets, art and performance venues, play areas, and gardens. Key findings highlight the importance of integrated design, treating site interventions as parts of a larger system. Rather than isolated upgrades, the project demonstrates how targeted interventions on built form, public realm, and landscape can catalyze broader downtown revitalization.