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Arup

Cities Planning & Design Studio



Launching creative services in a massive engineering firm.
SummaryA key moment in my multi-year efforts to increase the creative and strategic capacity of Arup’s North American operations. 
RolePlanner, Researcher

Activitiesplanning strategy
archival research
workshop facilitation
spatial analysis
concept design
proposal writing

Tools Illustrator
PowerPoint
Excel
Miro
ArcGIS
Procreate

ClientCalifornia High-Speed Rail Authority

Date2022

LocationCentral Valley, California

TeamDaniel Haufschild, Kate White, Remi Drouot, Thyda Uy

PartnersFoster + Partners
Sitelab
Zach Urban Solutions


Challenge

How do you show an agency you can unlock the deeper power of its work?


Cruising the I-5 through the Central Valley between San Francisco and L.A. can feel like a blur of billboards and fields as far as the eye can see. But beyond most people’s view are cities that’ve been left behind, cut off from the growth and buzz of California's coastal hotspots. 

This is where high speed rail’s about to change the game. When the agency in charge of the project went looking for partners to design its first four stations in the Central Valley, my team didn’t hesitate.









Approach

The Macro View


Our bid director knew we had to get the client’s goals and the local context right to win this job, so she had me dive in. A week later, I’d scoured archives, interviewed locals, and put together a ‘context memo’ laying out the big challenges and opportunities for the client and the station cities. These became the basis for our project approach.

I teamed up with our planners to shape the project approach and led creation of high-level maps showing how the stations would impact the local communities. I also helped tighten up our pitch, pushing for strong concepts and punchy lines like “Bridging downtown to Chinatown” for Fresno’s station and “High-speed rail has the power to transform California.”
Station Area opportunities  
Impact

Bringing it Home


We nailed it, and our new client at CHSR said we made her job “easy.” Months later, I presented several key lessons to my team from the bid process that contributed to a winning recipe.
Recipe for a successful bid


Current renderings
by F+P and Arup, 2024

John Moody is an urban designer & strategist specializing in experience design, creative placemaking & visual storytelling. Let’s connect!  ~ john.s.moody@gmail.com