stitched city

turning a refinery’s buffer lands into public seams

richmond, ca
summer 2026

stitched city: stitching the seams. What the seams could hold: connecting labor, weaving communities, cultivating futures, healing landscapes.

course: MUD Summer Studio, UC Berkeley
team: Avani Mandpe, Lizzy Kemp, Kaihong Cui
my role: Buffer mapping, the Point Richmond seam with Kaihong Cui, collages
tools: ArcGIS Pro, Rhino, Photoshop, Illustrator

planning brief / 01

Richmond’s refinery is ringed by fenced buffer land. How much is there, who controls it, and which pieces could become public?

methods + data

Contra Costa County parcel data in ArcGIS Pro, filtered by size and land use
A buffer matrix comparing every site by type, contents, edges and connections
California Protected Areas data to separate public land from private
Field visits, sections and Setha Low’s public space toolkit at the Point Richmond knoll

what we found

01485 acres of buffer land across 27 parcels; the largest single parcel is 179 acres.
02Most of the fenced buffer is a handful of very large Chevron parcels.
03The small parcels a neighborhood could realistically use are mostly public land at Point Molate and Point San Pablo.
04At Point Richmond, the buffer between the tank farm, Interstate 580 and homes keeps people out but not the air.

what we recommend

01Open City owned parcels of 15 acres or less first, where public access is realistic.
02Treat buffers as shared infrastructure: filter planting, carbon capture and public paths on the same land.
03Put a community air monitor on the fenceline so residents can see what the buffer does and doesn’t stop.
04Turn the Point Richmond knoll into a terraced public garden linking the village to a hilltop plaza.

01.1

stitched city

Richmond’s refinery, freeways and rail lines leave long strips of fenced land between heavy industry and the homes beside it.

Our studio read the city through those edges and proposed stitching them back in as public seams that workers and neighbors share.

fig 01.1astitching the seams. What the seams could hold: connecting labor, weaving communities, cultivating futures, healing landscapes.

01.2

buffer lands

I mapped the land that keeps the refinery and its neighbors apart from Contra Costa County parcel data in ArcGIS Pro, kept parcels small enough for a neighborhood to use, and sorted each one by why it exists.

485 acres across 27 parcels.

my role: GIS mapping; matrix with the team
data: County parcels, CPAD

fig 01.2acitywide map. Buffer land in grey, our design sites in green.

fig 01.2bbuffer matrix. Each buffer site compared by type, contents and edge.

01.3

the lungs

The knoll between the Chevron tank farm, Interstate 580 and Point Richmond is a buffer that stops people but not air.

Four moves turn it into lungs for the neighborhood: a redwood filter belt, old oil silos reused as algae ‘liquid trees’, a carbon capture lighthouse and a community air monitor.

course: Exercise 2d, Nodes and Catalysts

fig 01.3aphotomontage from the knoll. Atlas lifts an algae sphere above the tank farm.

fig 01.3bplan. Belt, silos, lighthouse, monitor.

fig 01.3ccross section. From the houses to the Chevron buffer, from USGS elevations; vertical ×2.

01.4

the chevron seam

On the hill above Point Richmond, a terraced garden climbs from the houses to a hilltop plaza where an Atlas figure honors the refinery’s workers.

Carbon capture plants sit on the brow; three glass domes at the foot of the hill give the first clean breath.

team: With Kaihong Cui

fig 01.4asite plan. Tina, a seamster who works at Chevron, guides the tour.

fig 01.4bpaths. The route up the terraced garden.

fig 01.4clandmarks. Tank, Atlas and the three domes.

fig 01.4dprevailing wind. Air crosses the fence; people can’t.

fig 01.4einside the dome. The walk up toward the Atlas, an ‘Honor Labor’ banner overhead, goats on the slope.

next / 02

cultivated urbanism

merced, ca · fall 2026

planning brief / 01

Richmond’s refinery is ringed by fenced buffer land. How much is there, who controls it, and which pieces could become public?

methods + data

Contra Costa County parcel data in ArcGIS Pro, filtered by size and land use

A buffer matrix comparing every site by type, contents, edges and connections

California Protected Areas data to separate public land from private

Field visits, sections and Setha Low’s public space toolkit at the Point Richmond knoll

buffer lands

485 acres across 27 parcels.

my role

GIS mapping; matrix with the team

data

County parcels, CPAD

the lungs

The knoll between the Chevron tank farm, Interstate 580 and Point Richmond is a buffer that stops people but not air.

Four moves turn it into lungs for the neighborhood: a redwood filter belt, old oil silos reused as algae ‘liquid trees’, a carbon capture lighthouse and a community air monitor.

course

Exercise 2d, Nodes and Catalysts