Instagram story viewer> @drkzhill> Tagged

Kristina Hill

@drkzhill

788

followers

813

following

Prof at UC Berkeley

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Join us for Building Tomorrow: Innovation at the Edge of Climate Justice — a special Homecoming panel and reception.

Learn how the College of Environmental Design is at the forefront of developing innovative, scalable solutions to the climate crisis — from wildfire prevention to sustainable timber construction to adaptive reuse.

Moderated by Interim William W. Wurster Dean Daniel G. Chatman, with presentations by Professor of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning and Urban Design Kristina Hill, Professor of City & Regional Planning Marta Gonzalez, and Assistant Professor of Architecture Ramon Weber.

A Q&A and reception will follow the presentations. We look forward to welcoming you back to Bauer Wurster Hall!

Friday, Oct. 9, 2026 | 3:30–4:30 PM (Reception to follow)
112 Bauer Wurster Hall

This event is part of UC Berkeley’s Alumni and Parents Weekend at Homecoming. Link in bio to learn more and RSVP! 💙💛

https://ced.berkeley.edu/events/building-tomorrow-innovation-at-the-edge-of-climate-justice-homecoming-event

Photo: Ramon Weber, closeup buildings from the exhibition "The Weather to Come: Forest, City, Fire, Cloud," CED, 2026.

#UCBerkeley #CalHC #BerkeleyTime #CalAlumni

3

1

Meet Emma Lasky, a PhD candidate in landscape architecture & environmental planning at UC Berkeley, whose research sheds light on a climate change–induced threat: rising groundwater pushing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into our homes.

We chatted with Lasky following the publication of a recent paper co-authored with Professor of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning and Urban Design Kristina Hill (@drkzhill).

Using Richmond Field Station (@richmondfieldstation) as their research site, they investigated the hypothesis that potentially hazardous contaminants could enter sewer systems because of rising groundwater. “We used seasonality as a proxy for sea level rise because the shallow, unconfined coastal groundwater table can be influenced by physical processes like heavy precipitation or tidal effects, storm surges, and sea level rise,” Lasky says.

This research is just one step in this multiyear endeavor that she’s been working on with Hill. “My hope is to bring this idea and information to a global community — connecting and building this research on an international level,” says Lasky.

Read more on our website:

https://ced.berkeley.edu/news/uc-berkeley-phd-candidate-emma-lasky-climate-change-public-health-environmental-policy

#ClimateChange #PublicHealth #BerkeleyResearch #EnvironmentalPlanning Emma Lasky at Richmond Field station

119

1

In a webinar earlier this semester sponsored by Berkeley City Council Member Brent Blackaby (@councilmemberblackaby) Master of Landscape Architecture students (@berkeleylaep_students) in Professor Kristina Hill’s (@drkzhill) studio presented fire-safe garden designs to residents of the Berkeley Hills, highlighting key strategies for adapting to new zone-zero regulations without sacrificing aesthetic appeal.

Several themes emerged, including rethinking outdoor spaces as rooms, replacing foundation plantings with planted islands, and using boulders, river rocks, colored gravel, tile, or other non-combustable materials for visual interest. More than 100 residents attended the one-and-a-half-hour webinar, and another 100 registered to receive the recording.

Blackaby thanked the students for inspiring his constituents to think creatively about how to harden their homes: “This has been a wonderful opportunity to explore zone zero designs that are fire-safe and beautiful,” he remarked. “There are many different paths for people to take.”

Read more on our website.

Images:
1, 4 – Kevin Camacho
2 – Yuchen Xiong
3 – Peak Bamroongsuk
5 – Sanjana Roy
6 – Jiatong Cui

#ZoneZero #FireSafety #DefensibleSpace #LandscapeArchitecture #UCBerkeley

192

3

Where am I??? #tourist #trip #vacation

6

5

The destructive fires in Los Angeles are making everyone in California more aware of the need to protect their homes. It’s a good time to look back at the fire-safe landscape designs developed by Berkeley landscape architecture students for the 2024 Landscape Design Challenge.

Grace Diebel (MLA 2025) and Shayda Rashidi’s (MLA 2025) first place designs provide for defensible space around the house without sacrificing beauty or comfort.

The competition was sponsored by CSAA Insurance Group and the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS), and hosted by Kristina Hill, associate professor of landscape architecture and environmental design at UC Berkeley. Particpants were challenged to re-imagine the landscape around a typical home in the Bay Area. "Designers are increasingly engaging with the more personal aesthetic experience of living in landscapes that burn," Hill says.

#DefensibleSpace #FireWiseLandscape #WildfirePreparedness #CaliforniaWildfires #AestheticDesign #LivingLandscape #LandscapeDesignBuild

195

0

Students from LA 201, taught by Kristina Hill, created a charcoal grove of trees

139

3

Florencia Sepúlveda’s mid review project for Kristina Hill and Ian McRae’s LA201A studio on Ecological Factors in Urban Landscape Design.

The project analyzed storm water infrastructure, ecotone diversity and nighttime bird migration in the Canal District of San Rafael, CA.

103

2

Kristina Hill took her LDARCH 201A studio camping at Point Reyes this weekend, and students got to experience the coastal flora and fauna 🌾

139

0

138

0

TOWARD AN INCLUSIVE CONCEPT OF INFRASTRUCTURE.

We should think in terms of multifunctional landscapes that meet specific environmental needs…functional elements that incorporate native and horticultural plant species to address both water quality and aesthetic issues…genuinely serve the functional purpose of cleaning the first flush of storm water runoff. -William Wenk @wenkassociates

The coast is brown, the sand scattered with plastic and styrofoam, a crew is repairing a wall along the sea edge that was compromised… and I laugh, because clearly this isn’t a lasting solution. I also laugh because we pickup this debris to then just throw it in a trash bin… it just doesn’t make the most sense.

Photos of book: Ecology and Design-Frameworks for Learning, Bart Johnson + Kristina Hill 2002

This book is the reason I studied landscape architecture (a career change from Waldorf teaching), the reason I’m doing what I do, and it was a random purchase from Powells books in 2008. On so so many levels, we should all read or revisit this book, realize how little we have come in our industries, and how we can change that. It all begins with the conversation.

1st image: Wallace Park storm water control structures also serve as a public park.

3

1

LA201 Ecological Urban Design studio students were tasked with designing and building wet models. Models were based on tidal cities, canals, filter parks, hydraulic walls, cut and fill and more to see how the hydrological design systems can work to improve the landscape. 🌊

121

3

Con la riflessione teorica, Kristina Hill ha presentato la sua attuale ricerca sulla baia di San Francisco per una consulenza.

Nell’area sono presenti ingenti depositi di rifiuti chimici, noti come inquinanti organici persistenti. In questo sito ora si prevede di costruire migliaia di case.

Con l'innalzamento del livello delle acque sotterranee marine e costiere, queste tossine si muoveranno in direzioni inaspettate, raggiungendo le tubature delle abitazioni e contaminando la flora marina. Recentemente i pesci che vivono nel fango adiacente ai depositi chimici della baia di San Francisco sono stati trovati con tumori multipli e cambiamenti riproduttivi.

Simili problematiche riguardano tutte le coste piatte e sabbiose, non solo quelle dell’area di San Francisco.

Come convivere con tutto questo? Possiamo adattarci invece di migrare, imparando a vivere con acqua più alta?

Gli olandesi hanno creato distretti urbani galleggianti in stagni che salgono e scendono con le maree. Strategie di “managed retreat” e sistemi “safe to fail” (Nina-Marie Lister) sono essenziali per convivere con il cambiamento.

I progetti e le soluzioni tecniche però non bastano. E’ necessario cambiare prospettiva! Nuovi riti, nuovi “mostri”, nuove responsabilità per definire forme di collettività plurali, sinergiche e coraggiose.

#landscapearchitect #landscape #landscapedesign #landscape_specialist #landscapingdesign #landscaping #landscaperesearch #sanfrancisco #baysanfrancisco #architecturedupaysage #landscapefirst #architetturapaesaggio #architetturadelpaesaggio #paesaggioprogetto #paesaggio #paesaggioprogetto #sapienzauniversitàdiroma #sapienzaarchitettura

18

1