Fellow Profile

Fernando Martí

“This is the challenge. How do we make abstracts— such as land-use, what gets developed where, who benefits, etc.—real for people. During my Rose Fellowship I had the opportunity to focus on these issues, practicing community-based planning and architecture that respects all involved.”

— Fernando Martí

Fellowship Hosts:
Neighborhood Design (2004-2006)
San Francisco, CA —
Mission Housing Development Corporation (2003-2004)
San Francisco, CA

A community planner, architect and artist, Fernando Martí brought multiple talents to his fellowship with Asian Neighborhood Design (AND).

Chief among his many accomplishments was the community planning process for the Mission Anti-Displacement Partnership, a coalition of housing, economic, and environmental justice groups. As part of the “People’s Plan for Jobs, Housing and Community,” he designed educational tools for community organizers, in addition to developing alternative zoning and housing policies for the area. As an architect, he has brought critical skills to community advocacy on various other campaigns, including updates to San Francisco’s General Plan Housing Element and Inclusionary Housing Ordinance, a neighborhood stabilization fund for South of Market, and a community benefits agreement for Oakland’s Oak to Ninth Coalition.

Fernando’s primary “bricks-and-mortar” architectural project has been the renovation of a 21-unit apartment building in San Francisco’s Chinatown, in partnership with the San Francisco Community Land Trust and Chinatown Community Development Center. After successfully fighting their eviction, the tenants of the building, mostly elderly Chinese-speaking immigrants, pooled their resources to buy their building as a limited-equity housing cooperative. Fernando’s other contributions during his fellowship include feasibility studies and architectural design for an affordable housing development for working artists in the Mission, and an award-winning competition proposal for housing. He led several urban design projects for AND, including streetscape plans for Leland Avenue and for Divisadero Street, and a redesign proposal for the Mission’s 24th Street BART Plaza. He has also worked on several design-build and community arts projects, including work on a community garden mural, and several design-build projects with the trainees in Asian Neighborhood Design’s job training program.

Born in Ecuador, Fernando has called San Francisco home since 1992. He received a joint master’s degree in Architecture and City Planning from UC Berkeley in 2000. Fernando serves on the board of PODER, a grassroots environmental justice organization in the Mission. He was a founding member of the San Francisco Community Land Trust, and has served on the board of Urban Ecology in San Francisco, and on the steering committee of Planners Network, a national association of progressive city planners. He has taught design studios in the Architecture Department at UC Berkeley, and currently teaches an annual affordable housing design and finance studio in the Department of City and Regional Planning. Fernando has also worked as a carpenter, and is an exhibiting printmaker and installation artist.

Enterprise Community Partners