I served as Project Manager and Lead Designer for a community-driven urban proposal, leading research, resident interviews, and team design sessions to address concerns around safety, noise, and amenities. I guided the integration of these principles into residential, retail, and public zones, ensuring alignment with safety, accessibility, and community enrichment goals. Additionally, I managed check-ins, researched climate-adaptive landscaping, and organized our findings into presentation boards and a co-authored proposal to guide future urban development.

Client

Oak Park Neighborhood Association, Sacramento, CA

Challenge

The 11-acre undeveloped lot is underutilized and holding significant untapped potential, and needs to be transformed into a vibrant urban community. The client aims to leverage this space to better serve the neighborhood in the future, using this design as a framework and source of inspiration for upcoming development proposals.

Project Lead, Design Research, Information Architecture, Design Development

My Role

Timeline

3 months

design process

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design process 〰️

RESEARCH

Preliminary Analysis

I performed initial site analysis research via media outlets, websites, and government agency databases, where I gained a deeper understanding into the environmental and sociocultural context of the raw site. My goal was to ensure our research data captured both qualitative and quantitative insights into the user needs of the Oak Park neighborhood. This matrix illustrates the current data and findings of severe environmental risks posed to the residents, shown in “Data-Qualitative” and “Data-Quantitative” — and potential mitigation strategies I proposed for the next few phases of planning and design.

Using the quantitative data from preliminary research, I proposed 2 layers of landsacpe buffer zones to mitigate air and noise pollution from the adjacent freeway.

Stakeholder Interview

My research data informed our approach to the next phase: directly asking community members of St Hope Oak Park what they need, via virtual interview meetings. The primary goal here was to ensure we meet the most voiced client expectations. Some questions we asked during the interview are:

  • What types of businesses or services do you feel are missing in this neighborhood?

  • What challenges or obstacles do you currently face when it comes to accessing services or amenities in this neighborhood?

  • What type of spaces or facilities would improve your daily life in this neighborhood?

  • Are there any specific design elements or aesthetics that you think would reflect the community’s values and identity?

  • Do you feel the neighborhood is currently safe, and what safety measures would you suggest to improve it?

  • What concerns do you have about new development?

  • What do you think could help increase community involvement or make residents feel more included in neighborhood events or decisions?

After the interviews, I analyzed the insights gathered from both the client organization and community members, identifying the most commonly addressed needs, illustrated below. This process allowed us to redefine design objectives and ensured alignment between the distinct priorities of both parties, creating a cohesive foundation for the next steps in the project.

Identifying Pain Points

After a careful and iterative process of analyzing research data and interview, we prioritized these key issues to address in our design solutions :

Design Principles Concept Mapping

From there, we developed 5 core design principles to serve as guiding frameworks throughout the project. These principles provided a consistent and clear foundation for addressing ambiguities in the future phases of design.

Hi-fi Prototype: Complete Design Proposal

We focused on 4 features to highlight in our design solution:

  • Shop / Retail zone

  • Live / Residential zone

  • Gather / Recreational Playscape zone

  • All-Season Blooming Plant Palette

Live / Residential zone

Next, I led my team in identifying and agreeing upon the location for the primary revitalization zone. I created a series of thumbnail sketches to visualize potential user pathways through the development zone. Using arrows to represent key travel routes and major destination points, these sketches explored intuitive navigation and movement patterns.

Mid-fi Iteration: User Flow

Shop / Retail zone

All-Season Blooming Plant Palette

Lessons Learned

DESIGN

DESIGN

Lo-fi: Pollution Mitigation Barrier ‘Buffer Zone’

Lo-fi: User Flow

Gather / Public Playscape zone

Impact & Key Outcomes

  1. Delivered a formal proposal pitch to 20+ stakeholders and received positive feedback, especially on the retail zone design.

  2. Developed a conceptual framework that informed the Oak Park Neighborhood Association’s long-term urban planning strategies.

  3. Spearheaded urban design innovations that increased physical activity through accessible public spaces and outdoor community engagement.

  4. Mitigated noise and air pollution with vegetative buffer zones, improving environmental quality near the freeway.

  5. Enhanced mental well-being through year-round blooming landscapes, reducing stress for community members.

  1. Leading and facilitating a team of 6 designers: working through conflicts and ambiguities with open communications and goal-setting.

  2. From 0 to 100: driving progress from a raw empty site to a cohesive proposal through weekly check-ins and iterative design refinements with the client and mentor.