Planning and Urban Design

The Planning and Urban Design Committee monthly meetings include a Salon component to activate exchange and dialogue. Currently, the Committee’s Salon features guest speakers vested in co-creating and advocating for Healthy Cities and Places around the world; each with intrinsically localized methodologies and dynamic community-oriented solutions. The assembly of diverse global perspectives offers an opportunity for sharing unique approaches which collectively express the role of planning and urban design across an evolving profession shaped by the growing imperatives of contemporary urbanism.

06/10/23
Healthy Hospital Streets
Magali Thomson, Placemaking Project Lead, Great Ormond Street Hospital, London

07/12/23
Healthy Public Spaces
Alexa Gonzales, Founder, Hive Public Space, New York

09/13/23
People Made Precincts
Heinz von Ekartsberg, Urban Design Lead, Woods Bagot; VP, Urban Design Forum, Melbourne

11/08/23
Tooling: NYC Zoning and Land Use for Advocacy
Wilson Parry, Co-founder, PropertyScout, New York

12/13/23
Transforming the Public Realm in Indian Cities
Mansi Sahu, Mahesh Waghdhare, Sarfaraz Momin, Co-founders, StudioPOD, Mumbai

02/14/24
Healthy Cities: the Value of Public Spaces (Rescheduled)
Lay Bee Yap, Department Head, Urban Redevelopment Authority, Singapore

03/13/24
Urban Design and Economic Development
Betsy Daniel, AIA, LEED GA, Neighborhood Strategies, NYCEDC

04/10/24
Tooling: Using Augmented Reality to Drive Inclusive City Development
Dana Chermesh, Founder & CEO, inCitu

05/08/24
Designing for Wellness     1 LU/HSW
Sreoshy Banerjea, Executive Director, NYC Public Design Commission
Jenna E. Miller, Director, Urban Design & Policy, NYC Public Design Commission

06/12/24
Barcelona: Green Strategies for a Vibrant and Healthier City      1 LU/HSW
Nuria Widmann, W2 Studio, UFM Arquitectura, University of Innsbruck
Cynthia Echave, PhD, Architect, Department of Research and Universities, Government of Catalonia

07/10/24
Designing Collective Space for Healthy Cities     1 LU/HSW
Maarten van Tuijl, Founder, Temp.architecture.urbanism; Lead Expert, EU URBACT, Author, The Flexible City: Solutions for a Circular and Climate Adaptive Europe

09/10/24
Battery Park City Resiliency Projects  
Kimberlae Saul, AIA, AVP Planning and Design, Battery Park City Authority

10/09/24
Reimagining Montefiore Einstein-Morris Park as a Transit-Connected Campus, ULI TAP     1 LU/HSW
Vivien R. Krieger, Co-chair, Zoning, Land Use & Development, Cozen O’Connor
Mike Aziz, AIA, LEED AP, Partner, Cooper Robertson

11/13/24
Sustainable Urban Design: A New Tool        1 LU/HSW
Nico Larco, AIA, Professor, University of Oregon

12/11/24
Michigan Central a Culture and Tech Hub, Detroit         1 LU/HSW
Melissa Dittmer, Head of Place, Michigan Central

While the extended crisis of the pandemic has upended long-standing practices and embedded new relationships between people and their environments, design and planning solutions are well positioned to guide post-COVID-19 recovery in New York City.

Even with the prospect of a return to “normal,” the new normal will not be the same normal.

Following 9/11, a primary ‘lesson learned’ from the leadership of the planning and design community with New York New Visions was the effectiveness of that community to organize itself in imagining the immediate future and inspiring transformational change.

Twenty years later, the allied disciplines are again poised to deploy our skills as stewards in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis by defining and evaluating built environment issues, examining assumptions and implications, proposing pathways and structuring alternative futures.

NYC Perspective

Friday, 4/23, 12:30-2pm

This moment presents widespread opportunity to advance equitable and sustainable urban strategies for healthy, transformational and economically viable futures. Convening local civic leaders, professionals, and practitioners to share their perspective in a fast-paced presentations that point to the impact of the pandemic on NYC’s urban fabric, this program initiated the Post-COVID Cities public dialog towards defining principles and strategies for the future.

Watch the replay >

Reinventing World Cities

Thursday, 6/10, 12-2pm

Reinventing Global Cities is the second of a series of three high-profile events focusing on New York City’s future. The NYC audience will mainly comprise planning and urban design professionals, students and stakeholders. In this summit, participants will learn how other global cities currently emerging from the pandemic are positioning themselves to reach aspirational social goals while implementing 21st century zero carbon policies.

Watch the replay >

Framework for Opportunity

Wednesday, 9/8, 12-2pm

In September, the third event of the series will present interactive discussion and recommendations for potential strategies that build on the NYC Perspective as informed by approaches presented during Reinventing Global Cities.

These strategies, resulting from three months of analysis by Working Groups representing expertise in Transportation (Streets and Mobility), Land Use (Housing, Zoning, and Economics), and Sustainability (Resilience, Climate, Environmental Justice, and Public Health), will identify scenarios for future action based on the economic, social and political implications of the City’s evolving recovery.

The program will conclude with a look back at advocacy lessons learned from the model of New York New Visions, 20 years after its establishment as a response to the 9/11 crisis. One major success of that venture was its facilitation of a vehicle for the design and planning community to speak with one voice in initiating and advocating for policies and programs.

Further Reading:

Post-COVID Cities: NYC Perspective
Post-COVID Cities: Reinventing Global Cities
Post-COVID Cities: Framework for Opportunity

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Post-COVID Cities intends to set in motion a similar action program among allied design and planning institutions advocating for a transformational approach to post-COVID recovery through invests in the built environment.

Organized by the AIANY Planning and Urban Design Committee and the AIANY Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

The AIANY Planning and Urban Design Committee is seeking applications to fill vacant co-chair seat by the end of the year.

The AIA New York Planning & Urban Design Committee is a platform for practitioners and communities to test innovative strategies and advocate for livable neighborhoods.

Interested AIA members can apply by sending a copy of their CV and a 250-word cover letter outlining their interest in the committee, why they feel suited to lead it, and in what direction they hope to take it, to Joseph Corbin, jcorbin@aiany.org. Please specify which committee you are applying to in the subject line. The deadline to apply is Friday, December 18.

The New York City Department of City Planning is in the process of writing the next Comprehensive Waterfront Plan, which will lay out the guidelines for the future of New York’s 520 miles of waterfront. The Plan is due to be published in 2020, and the city has appointed a diverse group of Waterfront Management Advisory Board members to advise and provide guidance as the plan is developed.

An AIANY Cross-Committee working group between Planning and Urban Design, Committee on the Environment, Design for Risk and Reconstruction, and Transportation and Infrastructure has developed The Waterfront Initiative to bridge the gap between architects and the city during the process of writing the Waterfront Plan. Over the course of the next year and a half, a series of programming oriented around the waterfront will engage AIANY members and solicit input towards the formulation of the plan. The Waterfront Initiative will be critical to providing a platform for architects and design experts in New York City to express their points of view and experience from work on the city’s waterfront.

An AIANY cross-committee working group between Planning and Urban Design and Committee on the Environment (COTE) has developed an initiative called Net-Zero Neighborhoods. Supported by a Committee Excellence Grant, the effort aims to exemplify standing committee objectives through establishing a best-practice visionary model for encouraging the achievement of carbon-neutral development in New York City by 2050. The initiative co-locates cross-disciplinary knowledge as it tests and supports a progressive sustainable development agenda. Findings will be shared publicly upon conclusion.

Read more here: AIANY Net-Zero Neighborhoods – Summary_April’19