In addition to their individual building proposals, the students developed initiatives intended to address issues affecting the town as a whole. These were grouped under the following rubrics: Reunite Community, Redefine Economy, Rethink Housing, Rethink Infrastructure, Rethink Mobility, and Reconnect Nature.

Student work in architecture schools is often quite speculative: rules are often meant to be broken. In the case of Paradise, however, the students had to be quite deliberative: to understand and respect the scale and modesty of the town, as it was before the fire, and as it will most likely continue to be in the future.

The initiatives collectively were not intended, therefore, as a step-by-step master plan. Instead, these were put forward as a series of smaller-scale ideas that could be implemented piecemeal, over time, or whenever the opportunity for a slightly different outcome arose. In a sense, the idea was to change Paradise – provide more economic opportunities, have a greater range of housing options, be less reliant on cars – but without really changing its essential character: its connection with nature, its sense of being a very unique place in the larger landscape, and one with a now very distinct and dramatic history.

As the work in the two studios moved forward over the course of six months, the development of the goals became more and more a collaborative effort: the students often brainstormed and presented their work together. Thus, authorship for these goals belongs to the entire group of 36 students, and so some of the posters contain projects from both studios.