Economy & Finance & Development Archives - Page 13 of 14

Al Levine

As an Affiliate Faculty member of UDP since 2008 he has had the pleasure of teaching a variety of courses including Neighborhood Planning, Affordable Housing Policy and Development, Real Estate Development Studio and Real Estate Competition Prep Class.

His classroom approach is to use his forty years of experience in the public and private sectors to help students understand the realities of “real world” lessons in the context of an academic learning experience. He prefers case studies, current analyses and Internet resources as his reading choices over traditional textbooks and strives to create student engagement in the classroom.
While he does not do formal research, he is heavily engaged in Seattle’s affordable housing conversation and focuses particularly on homelessness, condominium legislation reform, transit oriented development, incentive and inclusionary zoning issues and mixed income communities.

He is an active member of the Urban Land Institute and has chaired the ULI NW Technical Advisory Committee for the past five plus years. He also serves on a number of other Boards and Commissions and regularly engages in pro bono consulting for non-profit, faith based and for profit entities undertaking projects with a social purpose. He has also been an active member of the Professional’s Council for about ten years.

Jan Whittington

Dr. Jan Whittington is Associate Professor of the Department of Urban Design and Planning, at the University of Washington, Seattle. Her research applies transaction cost economic theory to networked infrastructures, such as transportation, water, and communications systems, to internalize factors historically treated as external to transactions. Her publications include methodologies for greenhouse gas mitigation and resilience through capital investment planning, examination of the efficiency of public-private contractual arrangements for infrastructure, and the evaluation of online transactions for efficiency, security, and privacy. At the University of Washington, she is the Director of the Urban Infrastructure Lab, Associate Director of the Center for Information Assurance and Cybersecurity, and Affiliate Faculty at the Tech Policy Lab. She teaches infrastructure planning and finance, public finance, infrastructure mega-projects, science for environmental policy, planning for water, and land use planning. Her PhD (2008) is in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley, where she was advised by economic Nobel laureate Oliver Williamson. Prior to her academic career, she spent 10 years with infrastructure giant Bechtel Corporation, as a strategic planner and environmental scientist. She holds bachelor degrees in Biology and Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz (1987). Her master’s degree is in City and Regional Planning, from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (1993).

Qing Shen

Qing Shen is Professor of Urban Design and Planning and Chair and Director of the University of Washington Graduate School’s Interdisciplinary PhD Program in Urban Design and Planning. He holds a PhD in City and Regional Planning from University of California, Berkeley. Professor Shen’s primary areas of interest are urban economics and metropolitan transportation planning and policy. Author of numerous scholarly publications, he has developed methodological frameworks for analyzing urban spatial structure, examined the social and environmental consequences of automobile-oriented metropolitan development, and investigated the differential impacts of information and communication technologies (ICT) on various population groups. A primary focus of his current research is on the opportunities and challenges created by mobile ICT-enabled new mobility services. Exploring the paths toward more efficient, equitable, and environmentally responsible urban transportation, he is working with colleagues and graduate students to conduct innovative research on travel behavior and its connections with shared mobility services, built environments, and transportation demand management policies.

Professor Shen’s scholarly work has gained wide recognitions, which include a Horwood Critique Prize given by the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA), an Emerging Scholar Paper Award in spatial analysis and modeling specialty given by the Association of American Geographers (AAG), a Chester Rapkin Award given by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP), and a Best Paper Award by the World Society for Transportation and Land Use Research (WSTLUR). A highly active member of the academic community, he has served on the editorial boards of seven academic journals, including the Journal of the American Planning Association (since 2000; Associate Editor since 2020) and the Journal of Planning Education and Research (since 2006).

Professor Shen was educated in China (Zhejiang University) and Canada (University of British Columbia) before coming to the United States. He started his academic career at MIT as an assistant professor in 1993 and was promoted to associate professor in 1999. That was followed by his tenured faculty appointment in 2000 at the University of Maryland, College Park where he also served as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs of the School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. He joined the University of Washington as Professor and Department Chair in 2009. In addition, he has served as a visiting professor at several leading universities in China. In 2005, he was appointed by the President of Nanjing University as the first holder of Siyuan Chair Professorship, an endowed visiting position. In 2009, he was appointed as a visiting Tongji Chair Professor at Tongji University. In 2014, he was appointed by the President of Southwest Jiaotong University as the Oversea Dean of the School of Architecture and Design, a visiting advisory position. He was a primary founder and former Chairman of the International Association for China Planning (IACP).

Himanshu Grover

Himanshu Grover’s research focus is at the intersection of land use planning, community resilience, and climate change. Dr. Grover, is also the co-Director of the Institute for Hazard Mitigation and Planning at the College of Built Environments. Dr. Grover received his PhD in Urban and Regional Sciences from Texas A&M University. In his research, Dr. Grover examines inter-linkages between physical development, socio-economic concerns, and the natural environment. His research is primarily focused on planning for development of safe, equitable, and sustainable communities. Dr. Grover is broadly interested in climate change management (both mitigation and adaptation strategies), environmental and land use planning, social equity, urban infrastructure management, hazard mitigation, and community resilience. His research emphasizes place-based planning policies to balance economic, environmental and social priorities to achieve equitable development and enhance community resilience.

Dr. Grover has been a practicing planner for more than a decade and is a certified planner in India (ITPI), and in United States (AICP). He has received research funding from a number of agencies including National Science Foundation (NSF), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Dr. Grover is also a fellow of the prestigious NSF funded Enabling the Next Generation of Hazards & Disasters Researchers Fellowship Program (Round 4). Dr. Grover teaches courses in Research Methods, Comprehensive Planning, Land use and Infrastructure Management, Introduction to Emergency Management, and Introduction to Urban Planning. His recent research projects focus on pro-environmental decision-making, and adaptive planning for urban resilience. Dr. Grover also interested in issues related to social vulnerability, and environmental justice. More details about his ongoing research are available on his homepage.

Sofia Dermisi

Sofia Dermisi holds a joint appointment between the Department of Real Estate and the Department of Urban Design and Planning. She is the Victor L. Lyon and Alvin J. Wolff Endowed Professor in Real Estate. She is also the Chair of the Interdisciplinary Group for Real Estate (IGRE), which focuses in cross-discipline collaboration in teaching and research. In her joint appointment role she focuses on maintaining a formal two-way connection between the two departments on courses, student interests and research. This role is especially important among the MUP students who pursue the Real Estate specialization or have interests in real estate courses, for which she serves as their advisor.

Dermisi has an interdisciplinary approach in her teaching and research as real estate is one of those fields someone can have significant flexibility in focusing on different uses (e.g. office, residential, retail etc.), scales (local, national, international etc.) and aspects (e.g. market analysis, development, investment etc.). Real estate is also typically linked with other fields such as social and economic, construction among many others, which help us understand and possibly predict in the short and long-run expansion and contraction patterns of the real estate markets. Her area of research has always focused on understanding the evolution of office markets and the effect of internal and external shocks in downtown areas. Office markets have evolved significantly through time and understanding how real estate markets react to deferent economic conditions helps predict future market shifts in a highly cyclical industry. The adoption of sustainable practices by office buildings is another aspect of her research especially in regards to existing buildings, when the capital investment tends to be more significant than a new construction. The last but not least aspect of her research focuses on the effect of disasters on office and hotel markets.

Dermisi has received various grants for her research and received multiple awards highlighting her contribution to the field. She also serves as the elected Program Chair of the American Real Estate Society conference in 2018 and the Vice President of the Society. She will be the President of the American Real Estate Society in 2019-2020, and only the second woman to be elevated by members in such a position, but the first non-US born.

Dermisi, holds a Diploma in Planning and Regional Development Engineering from the University of Thessaly-Greece (1998) and a Master and Doctorate in Design Studies (1999 and 2002 respectively) from Harvard University.

Christine Bae

Christine Bae is an Associate Professor in the Department of Urban Design and Planning at the University of Washington, Seattle. She received her Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Southern California. Her primary areas of interest are transportation and the environment; land use, growth management and urban sprawl; urban regeneration; environmental equity and justice; and international planning and globalization. She recently co-authored an article on measuring pedestrian exposure to PM2.5 in the Seattle, Washington, International District. She teaches a course “Mega City Planning”, in which she leads a group of students to Seoul, South Korea for two weeks in spring quarter. She is currently the West Representative for the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, and a Board Member for the Western Regional Science Association. She is also the recipient of an on-going Sea Grant for The Economic and Environmental Impacts of Moorage Marinas in the West Coast.

Nancy Rottle

Professor Nancy Rottle brings over two decades of landscape architecture professional experience to her role at the UW, where she has been teaching since 2001. Her work centers upon design as a means to create places that are ecologically healthy, culturally meaningful, and educationally and experientially resonant. Her recent scholarship, including the co-authored book Ecological Design, has focused on the application of theory and new practices to regenerate the health of urban and urbanizing environments.

Professor Rottle currently directs the UW’s Green Futures Research and Design Lab, which addresses questions and projects related to urban green infrastructure, topics on which Nancy publishes and lectures (www.greenfutures.washington.edu). Collaborative projects and publications include the use of waterfronts to treat and re-use stormwater; urban green infrastructure for city streets and college campuses; public space planning and design; pedestrian and active transport environments; green roofs and walls; metrics to evaluate sustainable design projects; public engagement to envision positive futures; and the role of green infrastructure in mitigating and adapting to climate change. She co-edited the 2007 special journal edition of Places on Climate Change and Place, and researched this topic in New Zealand supported by a Senior Scholar Fulbright Fellowship.

Professor Rottle teaches design studio, theory and technical courses and advises on theses that examine the potential of design to positively affect our urban ecological futures, taking a special focus on public space design, water in the landscape and design for environmental literacy. Professor Rottle regularly teaches courses that integrate water into the planning and design process, from watershed to site scales, integrating knowledge of urban water-based projects from around the world. With support from the ScanlDesign Foundation, she leads urban design study tours to Denmark and Sweden, and collaborates with Gehl Architects of Copenhagen to teach interdisciplinary studios at the UW that merge considerations for ecological, economic, social and physical health. As the UW’s ScanlDesign Endowed Chair in Built Environments she also facilitates internships and exchanges between the UW and Denmark.

A registered landscape architect, Nancy’s professional and academic planning and design projects have won local and national awards, including the acclaimed Cedar River Watershed Education Center, and Open Space Seattle 2100, a multidisciplinary planning process to develop a 100-year vision for Seattle’s green infrastructure. Her studios, thesis students and work of the Green Futures Lab have also won prestigious college, local, national and international awards. Passionate about sharing ecological design approaches and models, Nancy has lectured in the US, New Zealand, China, Canada, Russia and Europe.

Susan Jones

Susan Jones, FAIA, LEED BD+C, is a practicing architect and the founder of atelierjones, an architecture and urban design firm. Founded in 2003, the firm’s work entwines design, research, and community engagement to create projects of urban reclamation: of sites, buildings, materials, waste, and ways of living. With her clients and her staff, her projects seek out sites and materials with inherent but underutilized value – to harvest their embodied energy, their catalytic power for owners and communities, and their beauty. In 2015, atelierjones completed the highly acclaimed CLTHouse, one of the first in the US, and was recently selected to design Pike Station, a highly sustainable live/work loft project targeting net-zero water use. atelierjones’ Bellevue First Congregational Church, also one of the larger commercial CLT projects in the US, is under construction and scheduled to be completed in early 2016.

Jones’s work has been recognized by numerous national, regional, and local design awards, including an AIA National Honor Award. Her work has been published nationally and internationally. Licensed in over 15 states, she has been a visiting design professor and critic at numerous universities. In 1999, she was made the first woman partner of the large firm, nbbj. She resigned her position to start atelierjones in 2003.

Jones earned her B.A. from Stanford in Philosophy, and her M.Arch from the Harvard GSD in 1988. She became a Fellow of the AIA in 2010 and was awarded a UW Runstad Research Fellowship in 2013. Originally from Bellingham, Washington, she has traveled extensively, living in San Francisco, Boston, Vienna, Berlin, Catania, Sicily, and Sri Lanka. Currently she lives in Seattle with her husband, Marco, and their two teenage children, Rogan and Domenica.

Jim Nicholls

Senior Lecturer Jim Nicholls has over 20 years of experience teaching architectural tectonics in lectures and studios at the undergraduate and graduate level.

Arch 570 Design Development, a graduate lecture class on tectonic theory, produces strong student work in both 1:1 precedent constructions and large-scale tectonic models of studio projects. In Arch 532, Materials and Assemblies, Jim offers a foundation in construction issues and design syntax. In both required graduate classes, the emphasis is connecting design opportunities and construction issues, subverting the traditional separation of theory and practice.

In Jim’s design studios, content varies with the level and focus, always including an opportunity for human scale detail development within a larger context of urban and environmental design. This nesting of design concerns at all scales begins at the city scale with the urban design study of Copenhagen, followed by a collaborative Seattle based studio with students and faculty from Landscape Architecture and Planning. At the human and material scale, each summer Jim teaches a furniture design studio each summer based in the School of Art’s wood shop. Between those brackets, the building scale is taught through his tectonic studio, based on detailed development of a simple program on a provocative site with a limited set of materials. In all the studios, a student’s subjective responses and interpretation of objective constraints provide the design’s theoretical constructs. Jim offers the Storefront Studio as an opportunity for architecture students to design work based in community outreach, preservation, and small town economic sustainability. It enjoys the support of the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, and the Main Street Program, Washington Trust for Historic Preservation, and the City of Seattle. The communities of Snoqualmie, Roslyn, Vashon, Gig Harbor and Fall City have supported recent studios. A studio website archives all Storefront Studio work.

Jim practiced architecture in Vancouver BC for 10 years on projects ranging in scale from urban design to furniture. He has taught at the University of British Columbia and continues to be a studio critic. His publications include a book on Glenn Murcutt. Professor Nicholls maintains a diverse practice. He exhibits and curates regularly in art and design.

Elizabeth Golden

Elizabeth Golden is an architect and an Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Washington, where she teaches in the areas of design, materials, and building technology. Her teaching, academic research, and creative work are dedicated to revealing the systemic complexities that shape our physical and cultural realities. Golden investigates the relationship between people and their environments, both at the micro and macro scales, analyzing architecture as an index to its larger cultural context.

Golden is a licensed architect in Washington and New York state and has practiced nationally and internationally for over 25 years. She holds a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University GSAPP and a Bachelor of Architecture (professional degree) from the University of Arkansas. She currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Architectural Education. Underpinning her practice is an ongoing analysis of the complex relationship of architecture and the built environment to systemic issues such as social marginalization and economic globalization. Together, her built and speculative work, research, and community activism demonstrate architecture’s dynamic potential to drive social change.

Research + Practice

Golden cultivates a reciprocal relationship between her research and practice, treating them as integral parts of an interconnected feedback loop. She frequently collaborates on design initiatives that combine expertise from the University of Washington, local nonprofits, governmental agencies, and other educational institutions. A recent example is the Seattle Street Sink and Clean Hands Collective, a community effort to promote hand hygiene in the midst of COVID-19. Her collaborative projects have received numerous honors including a National Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA), an Award of Merit from AIA Seattle, and an R+D Award from Architect Magazine. They have been published internationally including features in Architectural Record, Architectural Review, and the BBC World Service.

Across her research and teaching, Golden is committed to transforming the discipline of architecture by building productive connections between academia and professional practice. Her recent book Building from Tradition: Local Materials and Methods in Contemporary Architecture (Routledge, 2018) offers a critical analysis of traditional building practices and their contemporary resurgence in the context of globalization. A belief in the power of collective intelligence drives the practice, with the expertise of local professionals, craftspeople, and user groups integral to each project. Ultimately, Golden is concerned with the mutual exchange between people and place, studying ways in which architecture can evoke our shared humanity.