Beer, Bikes and Breakfast: San Diego’s Cultural Shift
April 16, 2016
Howard M. Blackson III. As a local urban designer, Howard is excited to discuss San Diego’s cultural shift towards its Beer, Bikes, and Breakfast attitude of today.
Born and raised in San Diego during its surf, sun and sailing culture, Howard is eagerly watching and documenting this cultural shift as expressed in our buildings, art, dialog, and what makes life worth living in San Diego. As a designer, author, and lecturer, he believes he can help make San Diego one of the best cities in the world by transforming our neighborhoods through meaningful visioning, coding and implementation tools and then going further by actively advocating for the city to improve its inherently high quality-of-life.
Howard is a national leader in crafting innovative techniques and solutions for both public and private urban design and planning projects. Currently leading Michael Baker International’s San Diego Urban Design Studio, Howard was the Program Manager for the City of San Diego’s Civic Innovation Lab in 2013. He holds a Master’s degree in Urban Design from the University of Westminster, London, UK, and a Bachelor’s degree in Geography from the University of Texas at Austin. He is currently chairman of the Congress for the New Urbanism California Chapter and recently appointed to the City of San Diego Climate Action Plan Implementation Working Group. His work has been published by the American Planning Association/Wiley Graphics (Planning and Urban Design Standards, 2006), Royal Institute of British Architecture (Urban Design Practice: An International Review, 2012), McGraw Hill, (Charter for the New Urbanism, 2013), and Island Press (Tactical Urbanism, 2015). His urban design ideas and thoughts are found at www.howardblackson.com.
This is not the first time Blackson has talked to FSDA. In 2008 he discussed Civic Art: San Diego Public Architecture & Place Making and in 2009 he moderated a panel on A Call to Action. He has also been a panelist several times and enjoys a special camaraderie when teamed with Architect Mike Stepner and Frank Wolden, Urban Planner—two other professionals who could live anywhere but choose to make San Diego their homes.
