Andrés Duany
Principal Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company Andrés Duany is a founding principal at Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company (DPZ), and a co-founder and emeritus board member of the Congress for the New Urbanism. In the years since the firm first received recognition for the design of Seaside, Florida in 1980, DPZ has completed designs for over 300 new towns, downtowns, regional plans, and community revitalization projects. These projects have ranged from the scale of the building to over 500,000 acres, and are found in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Andrés has delivered over one thousand lectures and seminars, addressing architects, planning groups, university students, and the general public. He has co-authored many books including “Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream,” “The New Civic Art: Elements of Town Planning,” “The Smart Growth Manual,” “Garden Cities: Theory & Practice of Agrarian Urbanism,” and “Landscape Urbanism and Its Discontents.” He is the principal author of The SmartCode which is the first open source form-based zoning code template, and he is a founding board member of the Transect Codes Council and the Form-Based Codes Institute. Andrés received his undergraduate degree in architecture and urban planning from Princeton University, and after a year of study at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, he earned a master’s degree in architecture from the Yale School of Architecture. He has been awarded several honorary doctorates, the Brandeis Award for Architecture, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Medal of Architecture from the University of Virginia, the Vincent J. Scully Prize for exemplary practice and scholarship in architecture and urban design from the National Building Museum, the Society of American Registered Architects International Award, the Albert Simons Medal of Excellence, the Seaside Prize for contributions to community planning and design from the Seaside Institute, and the Richard H. Driehaus Prize for Classical Architecture. |
Ellen Dunham-Jones
Professor & Coordinator of Master of Urban Design Program Georgia Tech Ellen is an award-winning architect, professor and Coordinator of the MS in Urban Design at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she is a Fellow of the Brooks Byers Institute of Sustainable Systems. She serves on the Policy Subcommittee of the AIA Design and Health Leadership Group, is on the Board of Commons Planning, and is a Fellow and past Board Chair of the Congress for the New Urbanism. A leading authority on suburban redevelopment, she lectures widely, conducts workshops with municipalities and consults on individual projects. She and co-author June Williamson wrote Retrofitting Suburbia; Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs (Wiley, 2009, 2011, 2013). The book’s documentation of successful retrofits of vacant big box stores, dead and thriving malls, and aging office parks into more sustainable places has received significant media attention in The New York Times, PBS, NPR, Harvard Business Review, Urban Land, TED and other venues. She continues to research short and long-term tactics for scaling up suburban retrofitting in the U.S. and abroad. She received undergraduate and graduate degrees in architecture from Princeton University and taught at UVA and MIT before joining Georgia Tech’s faculty to serve as Director of the Architecture Program from 2001-2009. |
Mayor Jim Brainard
City of Carmel, Indiana Mayor Jim Brainard serves Carmel, Indiana. During his six terms as mayor, Carmel has grown in population from 25,000 to almost 100,000. During this period of rapid growth Mayor Brainard has guided Carmel from a quiet suburban town to a thriving city with an aggressive and unprecedented series of city building initiatives that have included: (1) the creation of a new mixed-use downtown with world class performance venues; (2) the redevelopment of the old town center into a thriving Arts & Design District with galleries, restaurants, shops and community events; (3) the development of a new mixed-use midtown district designed by Jeff Speck and Jan Gehl; (4) the construction of more than 120 intersection roundabouts throughout the city; and (5) the development of an extensive trail network that makes it easy for everyone to access the city’s amenities by walking or biking. These and other enhancements to Carmel over the past two decades have resulted in Carmel consistently being ranked among the top places to live in the United States. Mayor Brainard’s authored “Carmel, ‘round about right” which shares the story of Carmel’s transformation during his administration. He currently serves as a Trustee and Co-chair of the Energy Independence and Climate Protection Task Force for the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The Mayor has served as President of the Butler University Alumni Association as well as a Trustee of the university. He taught as an adjunct instructor at the University of Indianapolis and was named one of the “Most Powerful Hoosiers in the World” by Indianapolis Monthly. Mayor Brainard received his undergraduate degree in history from Butler University, his law degree from Ohio Northern University. |
Kennedy Smith
Partner Clue Group Kennedy is one of the nation’s foremost experts on commercial district revitalization, downtown economics, and independent business development. She co-founded the CLUE Group in 2004. Kennedy’s work focuses particular attention on creating dynamic retail development plans, cultivating locally owned businesses, creating effective business and property development incentives, finding new uses for key historic buildings, and strengthening the organizational infrastructure needed to create vibrant town centers. Before launching the CLUE Group, Kennedy served on the staff of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s National Main Street Center for 19 years, the last 14 of them as the director of the national Main Street program. During her tenure the Main Street program became one of the most successful economic development programs in the US, generating $18 billion in new investment and stimulating development of 226,000 new jobs and 56,000 new businesses and expanding to a nationwide network of almost 2,000 towns and cities. In addition to her work with the CLUE Group, Kennedy serves as adjunct faculty for the graduate program in historic preservation at Goucher College, where she teaches a class in historic preservation economics. She is a popular international speaker on community economic development and writes occasional columns for several professional journals. In 2002, Fast Company magazine named her to its inaugural list of "Fast 50 Champions of Innovation," recognizing “creative thinkers whose sense of style and power of persuasion change what our world looks like and how our products perform.” She was awarded a Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design in 2005. In 2009, Planetizen.com included her in its list of " 100 Top Urban Thinkers". |
Peter Kageyama
For the Love of Cities Peter Kageyama is the author of For the Love of Cities: The Love Affair Between People and Their Places, the follow up, Love Where You Live: Creating Emotionally Engaging Places and the latest, The Emotional Infrastructure of Places. Peter is a Senior Fellow with the Alliance for Innovation, a national network of city leaders and a special advisor to America In Bloom. He is the former President of Creative Tampa Bay, a grassroots community change organization and the co-founder of the Creative Cities Summit, an interdisciplinary conference that brings citizens and practitioners together around the big idea of ‘the city.’ He is an internationally sought-after community development consultant and grassroots engagement strategist who speaks all over the world about bottom-up community development and the amazing people who are making change happen. |
Mike Lydon
Principal Street Plans Mike Lydon is a Principal of Street Plans, an international award-winning planning, design, and research-advocacy firm based in Miami, New York City, and San Francisco. Mike is an internationally recognized planner, writer, and advocate for livable cities and in 2017 was named by Planetizen as one of the 100 most influential urbanists. NPR, The New York Times, CNN Headline News, ABC News, City Lab, Smithsonian Magazine, Salon, Next City, and Architect Magazine have featured his work, among many other national and international publications. Mike collaborated with Andres Duany and Jeff Speck in writing The Smart Growth Manual, published by McGraw-Hill in 2010 and named one of the top ten planning books of 2010 by Planetizen. He is also the creator and primary author of the The Open Streets Project (2012), the co-creator and editor of The Mercado Project: Lessons from 20 Markets Across South America, and the globally acclaimed, five-volume Tactical Urbanism digital publication series (2011 – 2017). With Tony Garcia, Mike is the recipient of the 2017 Seaside Prize and co-author of Tactical Urbanism: Short-term Action for Long-term Change, published by Island Press in 2015 and named by Planetizen as one of the top planning books of the last decade. Most recently, Mike co-authored The Tactical Urbanist’s Guide to Materials and Design, published by Street Plans with the support of the Knight Foundation and contributed to the firm's Tactical Transit and Asphalt Art Guides, researched and published for TRB and Bloomberg Philanthropies respectively. Before launching Street Plans in 2009, Mike worked for Smart Growth Vermont, the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition, and Ann Arbor’s Get Downtown Program. From 2006 – 2009 Lydon worked for Duany Plater-Zyberk and Company (DPZ), an international leader in the practice of smart growth planning, design, and research techniques. Mike received a B.A. in American Cultural Studies from Bates College and a Masters in Urban Planning from the University of Michigan. Mike lives in Brooklyn, New York and he encourages you to trade four wheels for two. |
Charles Marohn
Founder and President Strong Towns Charles Marohn - known as "Chuck" to friends and colleagues - is the Founder and President of Strong Towns and the author of Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity. He is a Professional Engineer (PE) licensed in the State of Minnesota and a land use planner with two decades of experience. He holds a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning, both from the University of Minnesota. Marohn is also the lead author of Thoughts on Building Strong Towns — Volume 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3 — as well as the author of A World Class Transportation System. He hosts the Strong Towns Podcast and is a primary writer for Strong Towns’ web content. He has presented Strong Towns concepts in hundreds of cities and towns across North America. He is featured in the documentary film Owned: A Tale of Two Americans, and was named one of the 10 Most Influential Urbanists of all time by Planetizen. Marohn is a long time commentator on KAXE Northern Community Radio. He currently co-hosts KAXE's Dig Deep program, a monthly examination of public policy issues affecting Minnesotans. Chuck grew up on a small farm in Central Minnesota. The oldest of three sons of two elementary school teachers, he joined the Minnesota National Guard on his 17th birthday during his junior year of high school and served for nine years. In addition to being passionate about building a stronger America, he loves playing music, is an obsessive reader and religiously follows his favorite team, the Minnesota Twins. Chuck and his wife live with their two daughters in their hometown of Brainerd, Minnesota. |
Steve Mouzon
Principal Mouzon Design Steve is a principal in Mouzon Design that is based in South Beach, Florida, and he is co-founder of the Urban Guild. He is also the director of the SmartDwelling Initiative that has set out to redefine the American home as smaller, smarter and more sustainable. Steve is the author of many books including The Original Green, Traditional Construction Patterns, and A Living Tradition: Architcture of the Bahamas. He has also authored many architectural pattern books for numerous real estate developments, and his house plans have been featured repeatedly as Home of the Month in Southern Living, Coastal Living and Cottage Living. He currently serves as a Town Architect for numberous development projects throughout the U.S. and the Caribbean. He has won the Barranco Award for Architecture along with numberous Charter Awards from teh Congress for the New Urbanism. |
Alli Thurmond Quinlan
Founder Flintlock Ltd Co Alli Thurmond Quinlan is an architect, landscape architect, and small infill developer. Her passion is the design and development of beautiful, walkable places. She founded and runs Flintlock Ltd Co (a multi-disciplinary design practice), Flintlock Development (an urban infill real estate development company), and jointly runs Valkyrie Design Cooperative (a shared services co-op that supports and promotes women in the design profession) in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She served on the Fayetteville Planning Commission and the Construction Board of Appeals. She currently serves as a faculty member for the Incremental Development Alliance and a visiting professor at the Fay Jones School of Design at the University of Arkansas. Her work with the University of Arkansas Community Design Center as well as work she performed on her own have received national and international awards from the Congress for New Urbanism, the American Society of Landscape Architects, the American Institute of Architects, Architizer, and the American Planning Association. Alli received her bachelor of architecture from the University of Oklahoma and her masters in landscape architecture from Virginia Tech. |
Nathan R. Norris
Founding Principal CityBuilding Partnership LLC As a founding principal of the CityBuilding Partnership LLC, Nathan provides communities, developers and places of worship planning services, customized workshops, site tours and advocacy support. Previously, Nathan served as the CEO of the Lafayette Downtown Development Authority where he and his team spearheaded the development of the award-winning Downtown Action Plan and the Creativity Everywhere initiative; created the Development and Design Center; secured the adoption of a groundbreaking and graphically-intensive form-based code that won the 2019 Driehaus Award; established the CityBuilding Exchange educational conference for community leaders; and initiated a major road diet on one of the two main thoroughfares, as well as the development of the Return on Infrastructure Investment Analysis Tool. Previously, Nathan was the co-founder and Director of Implementation Advisory for PlaceMakers, LLC. At PlaceMakers, Nathan worked with developers and municipalities to plan, entitle, develop and market neighborhoods, towns and cities. During this time Nathan started the Magical Mystery Tour series of intensive site tours of leading projects and places that continues on today as the CityBuilding Express. Prior to the creation of PlaceMakers, Nathan served as the Director of Marketing & Sales for multiple large scale traditional neighborhood developments. He is a contributor to the Charter of the New Urbanism and the SmartCode Manual; a co-founder and current president of The Urban Guild; a board member of the Congress for the New Urbanism Members’ Christian Caucus; the primary author of the Smart Growth Schools Report Card; and the author of “Re-designing Church for the 21st Century.” In 2019 he received the Barranco Award which is the highest honor given by The Urban Guild. He regularly speaks across the country on how communities can leverage placemaking as an economic development tool. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia and his law degree from the University of Alabama before serving in the U.S. Army. |