WHY URBAN DESIGN?
As a native Seattleite, I have watched this city grapple with the challenges and demands of becoming one of the fastest-growing major cities in the last decade. The deluge of new construction in the city has transformed the architectural context and character of many of the historic neighborhoods while etching a new skyline in the downtown commercial core. Seattle’s physical transformation captured my imagination and led me to question the quality of space being created for Seattle’s future. The rapid growth of the city also lead to the gentrification and displacement of marginalized communities, and a historic number of people experiencing homelessness. These inequities, illuminated by the built environment, exposed the structurally racist mechanisms of urban planning in the American context. My commitment to being part of the solution took me back to school, where I graduated Cum Laude from the University of Washington’s Master of Urban Planning program while completing the Urban Design Certificate. This is what led me to planning for the City of Seattle.
INTERESTS
I engage urban planning through the lenses of urban design, historic preservation, and social justice. Of particular interest to me are the concepts of legibility, place keeping, and exploring the tensions held between equity, economy, and environment in the planning for urban futures.
APPROACH
As an urban planner and designer, I approach my work using both qualitative and quantitative methods to yield more nuanced results as I argue that urbanism is messy and the answers to complex issues are rarely binary. I believe the built environment shapes and informs how people act within the physical frame of the built space. My focus on built space is grounded in the need to address the structural as well as sociological components of built environments.
As a native Seattleite, I have watched this city grapple with the challenges and demands of becoming one of the fastest-growing major cities in the last decade. The deluge of new construction in the city has transformed the architectural context and character of many of the historic neighborhoods while etching a new skyline in the downtown commercial core. Seattle’s physical transformation captured my imagination and led me to question the quality of space being created for Seattle’s future. The rapid growth of the city also lead to the gentrification and displacement of marginalized communities, and a historic number of people experiencing homelessness. These inequities, illuminated by the built environment, exposed the structurally racist mechanisms of urban planning in the American context. My commitment to being part of the solution took me back to school, where I graduated Cum Laude from the University of Washington’s Master of Urban Planning program while completing the Urban Design Certificate. This is what led me to planning for the City of Seattle.
INTERESTS
I engage urban planning through the lenses of urban design, historic preservation, and social justice. Of particular interest to me are the concepts of legibility, place keeping, and exploring the tensions held between equity, economy, and environment in the planning for urban futures.
APPROACH
As an urban planner and designer, I approach my work using both qualitative and quantitative methods to yield more nuanced results as I argue that urbanism is messy and the answers to complex issues are rarely binary. I believe the built environment shapes and informs how people act within the physical frame of the built space. My focus on built space is grounded in the need to address the structural as well as sociological components of built environments.
Its imperative to bridge academia and practice to facilitate more resilient and functional urban environments. In doing so, urban design can be used as a tool to tell stories about our connections to the built environment and ourselves. Urban design can tell us who we are, where we have been, and where we are going. It is a way to write the future and right the errors of the past. To help facilitate transformation, I read and analyze the build environment through three specific lenses:
Memory: The city as a historic artifact
Motion: The city as an emergent, cinematic experience
Connection: The city as a collection of networks, both digitally and physically
EDUCATION
I hold a Master of Urban Planning degree and Urban Design Certificate from the University of Washington’s College of Built Environments, and a BA in Marketing with a minor in Art History from Western Washington University. In parallel with practice, I regularly write about urban planning and design contexts local to Seattle, and participate as a guest reviewer for bachelor and masters level urban design studios at the University of Washington.
Motion: The city as an emergent, cinematic experience
Connection: The city as a collection of networks, both digitally and physically
EDUCATION
I hold a Master of Urban Planning degree and Urban Design Certificate from the University of Washington’s College of Built Environments, and a BA in Marketing with a minor in Art History from Western Washington University. In parallel with practice, I regularly write about urban planning and design contexts local to Seattle, and participate as a guest reviewer for bachelor and masters level urban design studios at the University of Washington.
