Award Webinars
2021
APA-SCD WEBINAR #35
“Award-Winning Sustainability 2021: Part 4”
APA-SCD WEBINAR #34
“Award-Winning Sustainability 2021: Part 3”
APA-SCD WEBINAR #33
“Award-Winning Sustainability 2021: Part 2”
APA-SCD WEBINAR #32
“Award-Winning Sustainability 2021: Part 1”
0.5 AICP CM (live viewing only)
Wednesday, February 16, 2022
12 p.m. - 12:45 p.m. EDT
Free Webinar Series: Lessons Learned from the Winners of APA-SCD’s 2021 Awards Program
The SCD’s annual Awards for Excellence in Sustainability honors projects, plans, policies, individuals, and organizations whose work is dedicated to supporting and growing sustainable communities.
Award winners speaking on this webinar include a team representing the Dallas Comprehensive Environmental and Climate Plan, winner of the 2021 Energy Plan or Project Award.
This webinar will kick off with an overview of the 2022 awards program, which is currently open for submissions. See https://www.apascd.com/awards for more information.
2020
APA-SCD WEBINAR #31
“Award-Winning Sustainability 2020 #3: Our Parks, Our Future Long Range Plan & Hazelwood Green Preliminary Land Development Plan”
1.0 AICP CM (live viewing only)
Thursday, November 12, 2020
1 p.m. - 2 p.m. EDT
Speakers:
Nancy O'Neill, AICP
Rebecca Flora, AICP
Kim McKnight, AICP
The SCD’s annual Awards for Excellence in Sustainability honors projects, plans, policies, individuals, and organizations whose work is dedicated to supporting and growing sustainable communities. This webinar will kick off with an overview of the 2021 awards process. (Stay tuned to the SCD website for an awards kick-off announcement!)
For this webinar, speakers representing two of the 2020 award winners will demonstrate how their projects used innovative methods to tackle a variety of challenges and needs related to sustainability.
Our Parks, Our Future Long Range Plan, Austin Parks and Recreation Department (Winning Category: Parks, Recreation, or Open Space Plan or Project) – Austin, Texas
Learning objectives:
Understand the increased need for parks and open space, and their role in improving resilience and providing community infrastructure as population growth occurs and density increases.
Recognize the value of community input and needs in developing a long range plan for parks and recreation, including resident priorities for park and open space programs and amenities.
Explore non-traditional uses and approaches to parkland development, including parks as community food sources (e.g., gardens or markets), resilience hubs, and safe places for social and educational gatherings.
Hazelwood Green Preliminary Land Development Plan (Winning Category: Urban Design Plan or Development Project) – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Learning objectives:
Identify the challenges associated with the use of sustainability metrics in policy and zoning for master planned developments.
Learn ways to successfully integrate sustainability metrics into a Land Development Plan policy document.
Discover ways that LEED for Neighborhood Development Plan certification can advance sustainability metrics on the associated building projects.
Speakers Bios
Nancy O'Neill, AICP is an Associate Urban Planner at WRT with over 15 years of experience in developing comprehensive plans, small area plans, and parks and open space system plans. Since joining WRT in 2007, she has managed large complex projects including Biloxi's first comprehensive plan following Hurricane Katrina and the award-winning Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan adopted in 2012. She was the lead planner for PlanLafayette and recently assisted the City of Austin's Parks and Recreation Department in preparing Our Parks, Our Future Long Range Plan – a ten year plan reflecting community and department needs. Nancy enjoys working in diverse communities and is particularly interested in the intersection of community health, resiliency, and planning and design. She received her Bachelor of Political Science from Arcadia University and Master of City and Regional Planning from University of Pennsylvania.
Rebecca L. Flora, AICP, LEED ND/BD+C, is a trailblazer that has tackled real world challenges and shaped sustainable solutions nationally and internationally for over 30 years.
Rebecca believes in the power of knowledge and considers all work as an opportunity to gain insights. As such, she advances learning for all through her approach to the organizations and projects she leads. She has a degree in Environmental Science from Plattsburgh SUNY, and a MURP from Virgina Tech. She created and taught the first ever course in Sustainable Community Development at the Heinz College of Carnegie Mellon University for ten years and served as a USGBC LEED Faculty member for over 10 years. As SVP of Education and Research at USGBC, she led organizational restructuring and licensing to expand green building knowledge globally.
As a non-profit leader, she led the start-up of the Green Building Alliance (GBA) where she established Pittsburgh as an early leader in the green building movement and served as LEED AP on development of the world's first green convention center. During her time at GBA she also led the creation and adoption of Pittsburgh's first Climate Action Plan. Her work in community revitalization was established early in her career as executive director of a community development corporation located within a low income neighborhood where she also a national Main Street program and implemented affordable housing development projects.
Within the private and public sectors, she directed project teams in the development of four regional sustainability plans in New York State and the State of Colorado’s first Resiliency Plan. She also designed and led a process for the development of Pittsburgh’s P4 Performance Measures, a tool created for the Mayor to evaluate the impact of real estate development. As a project manager at the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh she managed the redevelopment of riverfront brownfield sites.
As the founder of her current company, ReMake Group, she recently served three Pittsburgh foundations (Almono LP) as owner’s representative and project director to implement a sustainable vision for Hazelwood Green, a 178-acre former brownfield riverfront site located in an racially mixed, urban neighborhood experiencing years of extreme disinvestment. Through the application of urban design and sustainability best practices, the site will absorb 8-14 million square feet of mixed-use development that is projected to create over 13,000 new jobs and an excess of $1 billion in new investment, and provide 30-acres of public space over its 20-year development timeframe.
For more information go to: ReMake Group LLC
Kim McKnight, MSHP, AICP, CNU-A Kim McKnight is the Program Manager for the Historic Preservation and Heritage Tourism Program of the Austin Parks and Recreation Department (PARD). The goal of the program is to protect, preserve, restore, and promote the many historic resources of Austin’s park system. The team maintains PARD’s inventory of historic sites, pursues historic designations and interpretive markers, implements marketing strategies, and supports the restoration of historic sites. For two decades, Ms. McKnight’s work has focused on the intersection of historic preservation, community and economic development, heritage tourism and urban planning. Recent projects include the Seaholm Waterfront Redevelopment, Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center expansion plan, and the historic Brush Square Plan. She facilitated Austin’s acclaimed Historic Cemeteries Plan, which is a powerful example of how a community-driven plan can lead to placemaking, revitalization and heritage tourism. The plan was awarded a 2017 Gold National Planning Achievement Award in Urban Design from the American Planning Association as well as statewide and local planning and preservation awards. She recently led PARD’s system-wide Long Range Plan for Land, Facilities and Programs, which provides a blueprint to guide land acquisition, capital improvements and the development of programs and new amenities. Ms. McKnight previously served as the Statewide Director of the Texas Main Street Program of the Texas Historical Commission, which supports the revitalization of the historic downtown commercial districts of more than 80 cities throughout Texas. Through a multipronged approach of economic development, historic preservation, design, tourism promotion and organizational development, her team provided a wide range of technical assistance and training to cities throughout the state, while tracking the statewide reinvestment that resulted. She furthered her work in downtown revitalization as the Executive Director of the Texas Downtown Association, a statewide nonprofit association with more than 400 members. Ms. McKnight, a native Austinite, holds a Master of Science in Historic Preservation and a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Texas at Austin. She is certified through the American Institute of Certified Planners and the Congress for New Urbanism. Ms. McKnight enjoys bird watching, Texas dancehalls and peace on earth.
APA-SCD WEBINAR #30
“Award-Winning Sustainability 2020 #2: EcoInnovation District Plan & Heartwood Greenway System”
1.0 AICP CM (live viewing only)
Thursday, November 05, 2020
1 p.m. - 2 p.m. EDT
Speakers:
David Meyer
Nicole Kelly
Erik Jensen
Grace Amundson
Derek Dauphin
Andrew Dash, AICP
The SCD’s annual Awards for Excellence in Sustainability honors projects, plans, policies, individuals, and organizations whose work is dedicated to supporting and growing sustainable communities. This webinar will kick off with an overview of the 2021 awards process. (Stay tuned to the SCD website for an awards kick-off announcement!)
For this webinar, speakers representing two of the 2020 award winners will demonstrate how their projects used innovative methods to tackle a variety of challenges and needs related to sustainability.
EcoInnovation District Plan (Winning Category: Community Plan) - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Learning objectives:
The benefits of combining EcoDistrict goals with Innovation District goals to work toward the complementary and linked outcomes of healing the environment, supporting the needs of existing residents, and expanding job growth.
Ways to harness the energy of public/non-profit/institutional partnerships, and an inclusive, playful, and comprehensive engagement strategy, to lead to actions on the ground and in policy.
How flexible zoning districts can lead to implementation of an urban design and building performance vision.
Heartwood Greenway System (Winning Category: Green Infrastructure Plan or Project) - Omaha, Nebraska
Learning objectives:
An increased need for climate change infrastructure brings the opportunity to go beyond simply holding back nature.
Strong collaborations between planners, engineers, and landscape architects can lead to outcomes that are effective, heroic, and beautiful.
Ways to measure the success of a space via the environment and economy, but also the social quotient — where it lives in the hearts and minds of the people who use it. Answering the need for flood control can also create the basis for a beautiful, memorable, sustaining community.
Speakers Bios
David Meyer is principal and founder of Meyer Studio – Land Architects. In his 40-year career as a licensed landscape architect, he has been recognized for both his artistry and his ability to build the hell out of stuff. He has directed the design and execution of many prestigious, award-winning projects throughout the world. David is an adjunct professor at the University of California in Berkeley and is a frequent traveling lecturer and critic. A Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and on the peer review board for the GSA, David has distinguished himself through his passion, character and ability to reveal “right” physicality. His designs are simple, deliberate marks on the land that speak to their surrounding and employ nature’s palette judiciously.
Nicole Kelly is a Principal with MSLA and a licensed landscape architect with over 15 years of experience in the Bay Area. Nicole has worked on a range of award-winning projects including Foothill College, 888 Brannan and Alta Laguna, and has successfully managed many fast-paced, complex projects including Facebook Buildings MPK 60, 61 + 62 in Menlo Park, and Applied Underwriters 50-acre campus in Omaha, Nebraska. A fifth-generation Northern California native, she brings decades of local horticultural knowledge to all her projects.
Eric Jensen is a Senior Associate with Meyer Studio Land Architects and was Project Manager for the Heartwood Greenway System. In his career, Eric he has built projects ranging from public parks to national museums to wetlands. Erik seeks art in the interplay of architecture, philosophy, and science, and his designs have won awards in a variety of design competitions both nationally and locally, among them the ASLA, AIA, and National Capital Planning Commission.
Grace Amundson is a Designer with MSLA. She is particularly inspired by the role landscape architecture plays in the creation of vernacular spaces where culture and form collide with long-standing ecological systems. Grace holds a Bachelor’s degree in Landscape Architecture with a minor in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley.
Derek Dauphin is the planner for Pittsburgh’s Downtown, Hill District, Uptown and Oakland neighborhoods and is the project manager for the Uptown / West Oakland EcoInnovation District Plan and associated implementation projects. The EcoInnovation District was adopted in 2017 as the first of a new generation of City-led initiatives that look holistically at areas likely to see rapid change as part of the city’s current development boom. Derek moved to Pittsburgh from Portland, Oregon where he worked as a central city planner at the Bureau of Planning & Sustainability. Previous projects include a long-range plan to maintain Portland’s historic urban industrial district, an update of the city’s landmark Central City Plan, and establishing research partnerships with local universities. Prior to that, Derek worked with planning consultancy Fregonese Associates on city and regional planning projects throughout the country.
Andrew Dash serves as the Assistant Director of Strategic Planning for the City of Pittsburgh. He manages a team of 11 planners who handle long-range planning activities for the City. Under his leadership over the past three years, the City has: had its first neighborhood plans adopted in over 20 years, developed & adopted a Complete Streets Policy, convened the City’s Affordable Housing Task Force and adopted the recommendations developed, created community-stewarded programs for residents and organizations through the creation of the Adopt-A-Lot Program and a revamp of the City’s Greenways Program, and created zoning amendments for urban agriculture, a Performance Points system to allow for bonuses to be tied to community goals, and the rezoning of the City’s 35 miles of riverfront. Andrew has over 15 years of experience as a planner, previously working for Marshall Township (PA), the Mercer County (PA) Regional Planning Commission, and the City of Akron (OH) before joining the City. When he’s not at the office, you’ll find Andrew on his bike exploring the city, hiking in the wilderness, slowly renovating his 1880’s Italianate rowhouse or playing at home, in the neighborhood, or in the park with his three sons.
APA-SCD WEBINAR #29
“Award-Winning Sustainability 2020 #1: Boston Coastal Flood Resilience Design Guidelines and GeoMicroDistrict Feasibility Study”
1.0 AICP CM (live viewing only)
Thursday, October 22, 2020
1 p.m. - 2 p.m. EDT
Speakers:
Matthew Littell
Jessy Yang
Audrey Schulman
Richa Yadav
The SCD’s annual Awards for Excellence in Sustainability honors projects, plans, policies, individuals, and organizations whose work is dedicated to supporting and growing sustainable communities. This webinar will kick off with an overview of the 2021 awards process. (Stay tuned to the awards page for an awards kick-off announcement!)
For this webinar, speakers representing two of the 2020 award winners will demonstrate how their projects used innovative methods to tackle a variety of challenges and needs related to sustainability.
Boston Coastal Flood Resilience Design Guidelines (Winning Category: Policy, Law, or Tool)
Learning objectives:
Understand the projected flood risks for coastal populations like Boston and how the Design Guidelines fit within a broader City initiative to advance coastal flood resilience.
Learn how the Design Guidelines is formatted to be both user-friendly and technical in nature.
See an overview of best practices in flood protection for existing buildings and new construction as they apply to the most common building types in the floodplain.
The GeoMicroDistrict Feasibility Study (Winning Category: Energy Plan or Project)
Learning objectives:
Learn the basics, benefits, and challenges of district scale geothermal systems (aka GeoMicroDistrict).
Understand engineering, planning, and policy considerations for district scale energy.
Consider tools for creating an ecosystem of partners for designing energy pilot projects.
Speakers Bios
Matthew Littell is one of the founding principals of Utile. Through his work in the firm’s architecture, planning, and early phase development projects, he has gained an expertise in building and zoning codes and the regulatory process specifically as they relate to urban design and housing. Matthew has directed many of the firm’s early phase planning and urban design projects, including the Downtown Boston Waterfront Municipal Harbor Plan, as well as the design guidelines and zoning for the Rose Kennedy Greenway District. He served as Utile’s principal-in-charge for Imagine Boston 2030, the city’s first comprehensive plan in 50 years. In addition, he leads the firm’s international urban design practice, with projects in the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, and Jordan. Matthew teaches in the architecture program at Northeastern University, where he leads a graduate-level research studio on urban architectural typologies. He also teaches a course on contemporary urban design issues at Boston College. He earned his M.Arch. from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design in 1997, where he received the Boston Society of Architects’ James Templeton Kelly award for the best final design project, as well as the Clifford Wong prize for outstanding design in housing.
Jessy joined Utile in 2018 as an urban designer after receiving his Master of Architecture in Urban Design with distinction from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, where he was the recipient of the Award for Outstanding Leadership in Urban Design. At Utile, Jessy leads a variety of projects engaged in new building typologies, neighborhood-scale masterplans, flood resilience design strategies, streetscape design, form-based codes, and other urban projects that foreground the public realm. Prior to joining Utile, Jessy worked at Stan Allen Architects, Machado Silvetti, and CAZA Architects. In addition to professional practice, Jessy has taught architecture and urban design studios at the Boston Architectural College and Boston College. Jessy received his Bachelor of Architecture from Rice University in his hometown of Houston, Texas.
An experienced grassroots activist, Audrey has performed energy assessments on everything from homeless shelters to historic churches. She has also led HEET’s work on gas leaks by mapping the utility-reported gas leaks across Massachusetts. With Metropolitan Area Planning Council, she led the Fix Our Pipes study (FixOurPipes.org) to find how to fix gas leaks faster and at less expense through increased municipal/utility coordination. She was also the instigator of the Large Volume Leak Study. Schulman is the author of five novels, which have been translated into 11 languages, and reviewed by the New Yorker and CNN.
Richa Yadav is a mechanical engineer and sustainability consultant with the Cities group at Buro Happold. She is a cross-disciplinary specialist experienced in infrastructure and climate action planning. Richa is dedicated to supporting cities and regional governments with their climate and energy policy initiatives, focusing on distributed renewables, energy resilience, and building decarbonization. Richa recently co-authored the GeoMicroDistrict Feasibility Study with HEET, exploring options for transitioning from natural gas infrastructure to geothermal systems.
APA-SCD WEBINAR #28
“Climate of Crisis: How Cities Can Use Climate Action to Close the Equity Gap, Drive Economic Recovery, and Improve Public Health”
1.0 AICP CM (live viewing only)
October 15, 2020, 12-1pm ET
Speaker:
Cutler Cleveland
Like climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic illustrates the importance of decisions that are grounded in sound science and systems thinking, prioritizing actions that generate simultaneous benefits across health, equity, the economy, and climate.
Effective response may require adjustments that break down barriers across traditional silos in planning and decision-making. The full complement of benefits from action on climate, health, and economic recovery come to fruition if decision making is transparent and inclusive.
Government officials and city planners can lead by strengthening approaches that more deeply involve communities, and by making equity a key organizing principle.
The purpose of this webinar is to support planners, as well as city and other local officials, in their response to the events of 2020: the COVID-19 pandemic, a severe recession, a wave of social protest, and the ongoing imperative to respond to climate change.
The webinar will: provide new insights into the cause and confluence of these stressors; suggest ways to blunt the short-term setbacks while simultaneously strengthening the foundation for sustained and equitable climate action that improves well-being for all; and describe how city planners can seize the moment by treating climate change with the same urgency and resolve as the pandemic, recognizing that delay today will substantially raise future costs.
Speaker Bio
Cutler J. Cleveland is Professor of Earth and Environment and Associate Director of the Boston University Institute for Sustainable Energy. Dr. Cleveland’s research and teaching focus on the connection among energy, climate change, and sustainability. He recently served as the principal investigator for Carbon Free Boston, a technical assessment of strategies to assist the City of Boston in reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. He currently serves on the Advisory Board for Project Drawdown. Dr. Cleveland is author and editor of reference works on energy that include the Encyclopedia of Energy, winner of an American Library Association award; the Dictionary of Energy; and the Handbook of Energy. Dr. Cleveland is the recipient of the Adelman-Frankel Award from the United States Association of Energy Economics for “unique and innovative contributions to the field of energy economics.” He is co-author of Environmental Science, the Web’s first electronic textbook on the subject. Dr. Cleveland’s research on the valuation of ecosystem services, funded by the National Science Foundation, is highlighted in NSF’s Top Discoveries series. He has been a consultant to numerous private and public organizations, including the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, the Energy Information Administration, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
APA-SCD WEBINAR #27
“Preparing to Plan for Climate Change—What Tools Do We Need?”
1.0 AICP CM (live viewing only)
Tuesday, July 28, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM ET & Thursday, August 6, 2:00-3:00 PM ET
Speakers:
Brian Ross, AICP
Jessi Wyatt
Jim Riordan, AICP, LEED AP
Matt Bucchin, AICP, LEED Green Associate
Local governments are increasingly on the front line in taking climate action. Cities and counties are adopting climate plans and climate goals at an accelerating rate. As a result, planners are asked to incorporate new issues in long-term planning, to develop and implement new standards for private development and new designs for infrastructure, and to create new processes that incorporate carbon reduction actions and resilience needs.
How does planning and development review change when carbon emission become part of meeting local policy?
Do planners have the tools for addressing climate goals?
What new tools, templates, or data are needed to enable realization of local climate goals?
APA’s Sustainable Communities (SCD) and Environment, Natural Resources and Energy (ENRE) Divisions decided to ask planners how prepared they were to face the climate crisis. Over 300 Division members responded to a survey on how planners address climate action in their jobs, how their jobs are changing due to climate policy, and what assistance, training, or tools planners they need.This webinar will present the survey results, place the Sustainable Communities “climate champions” programs in the context of pending new climate policy initiatives and research by APA, and engage webinar participants to contribute to the ongoing effort to build the planning toolkit to meet these new challenges.
2019
APA-SCD WEBINAR #26
“AWARD-WINNING SUSTAINABILITY 2019 (PART 2)”
1.5 AICP CM
Friday, December 6, 2019, 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM ET
Speakers:
Joel Mills (Senior Director, American Institute of Architects Center for Communities by Design)
Erin Simmons (Senior Director of Design Assistance, American Institute of Architects Center for Communities by Design)
Clement Lau, AICP (Departmental Facilities Planner, County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation)
George M Homewood, FAICP, CFM (Planning Director, City of Norfolk, VA)
Jeremy Sharp (Principal Planner, City of Norfolk, VA)
Part 2 of our award-winning projects webinars will take place on December 6, as part of the Planning Webcast Series.
For this webinar, speakers representing three of the 2019 SCD award winners will demonstrate how their projects used innovative methods to tackle a variety of challenges and needs related to sustainability, across the country.
Speakers will represent Building a Better Norfolk: A Zoning Ordinance for the 21st Century (Winning Category: Sustainable Policy, Law, or Tool), the Los Angeles County Master Plan for Sustainable Parks and Recreation, Phase I (Winning Category: Sustainable Park, Recreation, or Open Space Plan or Project), and the Sustainable Design Assessment Team (SDAT) Program (Winning Category: Leadership in Sustainability).
APA-SCD WEBINAR #25
“AWARD-WINNING SUSTAINABILITY 2019 (PART 1)”
0.5 AICP CM
Wednesday, November 13, 2019, 1:00 – 1:45 PM ET
Speakers:
Matt Gray (Chief of Sustainability, City of Cleveland)
Nicholas B. Rajkovich, PhD, AIA (Assistant Professor of Architecture, University at Buffalo)
The SCD’s annual Awards for Excellence in Sustainability honors projects, plans, policies, individuals, and organizations whose work is dedicated to supporting and growing sustainable communities. This webinar will kick off with an overview of the 2020 awards process. (Stay tuned to the awards page for an awards kick-off announcement in early November!)
Following the introduction, representatives from the 2018 Cleveland Climate Action Plan team (winner in the Community Sustainability or Resilience Plan category) will provide an overview of their project.
APA-SCD WEBINAR #24
“REGENERATIVE URBAN DEVELOPMENTS ARE CHANGING PLANNING”
Wednesday, November 13, 2019, 1:00 – 1:45 PM ET
Speakers:
Scott Edmondson, AICP
Kirstin Weeks
Geeti Silwal, AICP
Greg Taylor
With cities and the built environment being the spatial dimension of our economy, the way the built environment is planned and designed fundamentally determines urban sustainability performance levels for the next 50 to 100 years, before replacement at the end of the useful life.
Regenerative urbanism plays a formative role in creating a circular economy of inclusive abundance that is the necessary material basis for sustainable and equitable cities and society. Our routine approach to sustainability only slows the rate of impact with net-negative mitigation.
Regenerative urbanism eliminates impacts at their source and produces inclusive abundance. This is accomplished with ongoing innovation focused on achieving the imperatives of sustainable regenerative systems performance.
The session panelists share and discuss their research and studies on projects in San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Ottawa, Canada, and other cities. These multiple projects are pursuing certifications such as Living Community Challenge (Sacramento Valley Station Master Plan), One Planet (Zibi Community, Ottawa, Canada), San Francisco Ecodistrict, etc., to inform and establish the absolutely necessary game-changing rules of 21st century urbanism.
This session was originally organized for, and completed at, NPC 2019 in San Francisco.
Learning Outcomes
Learn about the collaboration, buy-in, and political leadership required to make the transformational change beyond sustainability to regenerative urbanism.
Discover programs, initiatives, and pilot projects that are underway, and define the policy changes needed for 21st century regenerative cities.
Examine the challenges and aspirations of different rating systems, such as Living Community Challenge, One Planet, Biophilic Cities, San Francisco’s Ecodistrict, and Well.
Speakers Bios
Scott Edmondson, AICP, is a Senior Planner-Economist at SF Planning (long-range division) with over 33-years of leadership providing complex strategic decision support to senior management. His current work advances the emerging practice of integrative urban systems planning and its two components: (1) the long-range planning information system needed for 21st century challenges; (2) a regenerative strategic approach to sustainability planning. In 1997, he was an advisor and economy co-lead on the San Francisco Sustainability Plan. In 2011, he was the founding Director of the local APA Sustainability Committee. In 2015, he was a first-cohort sustainability champion of the APA Sustainable Communities Division. At SF Planning he leads initiatives in strategic sustainability, regenerative urbanism, and biophilic city planning. In 2015, he completed a report entitled “Living Community Patterns–exploratory strategies for a sustainable San Francisco, which won a local APA Merit Award in the category of innovation in green community planning. In April 2018, he initiated and completed a consultant report–Regenerative City San Francisco–that tested the difference a regenerative approach can make. He now leads the development of a modern long-range planning information system. He has an MA from UCLA (Urban Planning) and a BA from UCB (Development Studies).
Kirstin Weeks is a Building Ecology Specialist at Arup with more than 15 years of experience in sustainability consulting. She champions the San Francisco office’s Net Positive Design initiative, and specializes in integration of ecological function in the built environment. Kirstin works with interdisciplinary teams to create built environments that work like ecosystems, eliminating waste as a concept and supporting biophilic wellness, biodiversity, regeneration and reliance on renewable resources. Her project experience extends from sustainability leadership on mixed use and corporate master plans, arts, civic, academic, and industrial projects to policy and plan development, research and cost-benefit studies.
Geeti Silwal, AICP, leads the western region Cities+Sites discipline of Perkins+Will with a strong belief in the role of urban designers/planners as advocates of healthy cities to inspire integrated, multi-purpose solutions of innovation and beauty in regenerative urban environments that promote healthy living. In her position as the chair of the Water Lab of Perkins+Will, she is passionately engaged in developing zero-waste solutions at building, district and city scale. Her original research called the ‘Resource Infinity Loop’, address multiple global issues of water scarcity, food security, climate change and social equity through the reuse of urban wastewater for urban agriculture.
Greg Taylor has been instrumental in many projects shaping the development of the Sacramento Central City. Over a 5-year period he was responsible for three urban design documents totaling more than 1,200 acres of central city redevelopment. The River District Specific Plan & Design Guidelines were recognized with the 2011 APA California Comprehensive Planning Award and the 2011 Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) Blueprint Excellence Award. His leadership on the award winning Sacramento Valley Station building renovation and the subsequent Master Plan which has the project registered for what could be one of the first Living Community Challenge master plan projects in the nation.
APA-SCD WEBINAR #23
“SCD STUDENT WEBINAR SERIES, PARK 1: INTRODUCTION”
Tuesday, April 9, 2019, 1:00 – 2:00 pm ET
As one of the fastest growing APA divisions with over 3,500 student members, the Sustainable Communities Division will be launching a webinar series focused on providing opportunities for new and current student members across the nation to both meet with their APA-SCD Student Representatives, and to discuss career next steps and objectives with established planning professionals.
APA-SCD Student Representatives Fiona Coughlan and Kate Poppel will provide an overview of student opportunities. Matt Bucchin, AICP, LEED Green Associate, and Scott Turner, PE, AICP, LEED AP ND, who are the current and former Division chairs, respectively, will provide some insight related to their professional paths. All speakers will be available to answer questions about the Division, academia, career paths, and much more!
APA-SCD WEBINAR #22
“RE-SHAPING URBAN ENVIRONMENTS FOR DISRUPTIVE TRANSPORT”
Tuesday, March 26, 2019, 1:00 – 2:00 pm ET
Speakers:
William (Billy) Riggs, Ph.D., AICP, LEED AP
Michael V. Johnson, PLA, ASLA
What will be the future of our city streets and landscapes in an era of disruptive transport? We have seen the rise of new transportation technologies–from shared and networked vehicles to dockless bikes and scooters and the emergence of autonomous vehicles–but how should cities be re-designed to accommodate this change? There are clear opportunities to harness transportation innovations and implement specific strategies and techniques for improved outcomes. Now is the time to creatively re-think, adapt, and improve our city spaces to prioritize human contact and health and advance sustainability and resiliency, while minimizing potential negative impacts. Join this important discussion on the future of the city public realm in an era of disruptive transportation. 1.0 AICP CM, for live viewing only.
Learning Objectives
Review the concept design of streets in an autonomous future
Examine implications for intersections and districts
Consider opportunities for policy, public and private action
Speakers Bios
William (Billy) Riggs, Ph.D., AICP, LEED AP is a global expert and thought leader in the areas of future mobility and smart transportation, economics, design and urban development. He is a professor at the University of San Francisco School of Management, and a consultant and advisor to multiple companies and start-ups on technology, smart mobility and urban development. This follows two decades of experience working as a planner, economist, and engineer. He has over 100 publications, featured in multiple global media outlets such as the Economist, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Atlantic, and is the author of the book Disruptive Transport: Driverless Cars, Transport Innovation and the Sustainable City of Tomorrow. Dr. Riggs has been both a fellow with the National Science Foundation fellow and the University of California Transportation Center, is the founder of ReStreet.com(app.restreet.com)—an online tool for democratizing street design. Dr. Riggs sits on the City of Palo Alto’s Planning and Transportation Commission and is a member of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Committee on Transportation Economics and the Standing Committee on Policy and Law.
Michael V. Johnson, PLA, ASLA, is Director of Urban Design at SmithGroup. Michael’s ability to understand and distill complex urban challenges spans catalytic landscape architecture and urban design projects in major American cities, innovative campus plans for top urban research universities and Fortune 500 companies, and international large-scale mixed-use development efforts. Michael serves on the Board of the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF), where he advances the measurable role that placemaking and urban design can play in fostering healthy cities and supporting landscape and streetscape performance. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Landscape Architecture from Ball State University, and a Master’s in Urban Design from the University of Michigan.