Distinguished Speakers

Next: TBA

Last updated, Nov 13, 09.

Tagged with distinguished speaker series, meetings

Houston Tomorrow invites at least four Distinguished Speakers every year to bring important voices from across the nation to inform Houston leaders and decision makers on the best practices and emerging ideas in urban planning, transportation, and quality of life. The events are free and any interested persons are encouraged to attend.

Lectures normally begin at 7 pm and are preceded by a free reception at 6:30 pm.

The Distinguished Speaker Series is sponsored by the Anchorage Foundation of Texas. Please contact Jay Blazek Crossley at 713-523-5757 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) if you are interested in co-sponsoring a particular speaker or reception.

UPCOMING SPEAKER: To be announced

PREVIOUS SPEAKERS:

March 25, 2010: Emily Talen is a professor at Arizona State University’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning. Her recent book, Urban Design Reclaimed: Tools, Techniques and Strategies for Planners, is for anyone who believes that the design of the built environment is central to urban life and community well-being, according to Dr. Talen’s ASU website. The book offers step-by-step instruction on how to observe, analyze, and design places that are civic-minded, well-functioning, and pedestrian-oriented, which she discussed in an interview on the APA YouTube channel.

In addition to her Distinguished Speaker presentation, Talen will also spend time with the City of Houston’s planning department taking a tour of the Montrose area, analyzing MyCity data about Montrose and Houston, and exchanging information to help the city prepare for its presentation at the American Planning Association’s national conference in New Orleans, April 10-13.

October 30, 2009: Andrés Duany, a founding principal at Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, discussed what he calls agricultural urbanism. Agricultural urbanism is much more systematic and planned than urban agriculture, and it applies the New Urbanist idea of transects to food production. According to this system, the edge of the city would be heavily agricultural, and arable plots would become progressively and methodically smaller and more urban toward the center of the city.

September 30, 2009: John Norquist, the president of the Congress for the New Urbanism and former mayor of Milwaukee, spoke about the fall of urbanism in the 20th century and the rise of New Urbanism in the last 15 to 20 years. Norquist said that streets serve transportation, social, and economic functions, but that US policies have ignored the last two and focused on speeding the flow of traffic and reducing congestion. However, he said, busy streets - so long as they are pedestrian-friendly - are economic engines. During his tenure as mayor, Milwaukee became one of the few US cities to actually remove a portion of a freeway.

July 21, 2009: Stella Chao, the Director of the City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, spoke about Seattle’s community planning methods that involve an explicit role for neighborhoods within the City government. She explained the neighborhood plans which guide City efforts in general as well as in each neighborhood, how citizens have been empowered to improve their neighborhoods through matching grants and institutional support, and important lessons learned as the City enters a second round of neighborhood planning efforts.

June 18, 2009: Richard Jackson, MD, MPH discussed how the urban form affects health, including striking increases in obesity, diabetes, and asthma. Jackson is chair and professor of Environmental Health Sciences at UCLA’s School of Public Health. He is a former CDC department director and advisor to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Jackson is currently analyzing the human health implications of existing public policy on farming, education, housing, and transportation.

April 29, 2009: Jim Charlier spoke about how to design walkable streets, stating that walking has numerous health and social benefits and is a boon to businesses. Charlier is a nationally recognized transportation planning professional with over three decades of experience in local, regional and statewide settings across the country. He is a certified planner (AICP) based in Boulder, CO, and is active in the Congress for New Urbanism, the Urban Land Institute, the American Planning Association and the Institute of Transportation Engineers.

January 22, 2009: Peter Newman discussed how to create resilient cities in the face of peak oil, climate change, and the current economic collapse. Newman is a professor of sustainability at Curtin University in Western Australia and director of the Curtin University Sustainable Policy Institute. He recently co-authored a book entitled Resilient Cities: Responding to Peak Oil and Climate Change.

More Initiatives