City planner to talk about urban design

By Betty Lin-Fisher
Beacon Journal business writer

POSTED: 05:40 p.m. EST, Jan 07, 2011

A city planner and urban designer who has written extensively on smart growth and sustainable design is the first headliner for this year's University Park Alliance Urban Innovators Speaker Series.

The University Park Alliance, a group dedicated to revitalizing and transforming the University Park area in and around the University of Akron, started the speaker series last year.

The first speaker will be Jeff Speck, principal of Speck & Associates LLC in Washington, D.C.

His speech, ''City Design as if People Mattered,'' will be presented from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Jan. 20 at the Andrew Jackson House, 277 E. Mill St.

Speck is contributing editor to Metropolis magazine and co-author of Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream, which the Wall Street Journal calls ''the urbanist's bible,'' and The Smart Growth Manual, just published by McGraw Hill.

From 2003 through 2007, he served as director of design at the National Endowment for the Arts. Before this federal appointment, he spent 10 years as director of town planning at Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co., Architects and Town Planners, a leader in the international movement called ''New Urbanism,'' which promotes alternatives to suburban sprawl and urban disinvestment.

UPA officials said their Urban Innovators Speaker Series features ''world-class urban thinkers and practitioners who will present creative approaches to planning, economy and culture that can catalyze economic transformation in Northeast Ohio.''

The program provides a platform for the exploration of ideas to strengthen the innovation capacity of our region's urban centers, creating new investment and jobs.

''Historically, cities have been the engines of the U.S. economy and today play an even greater role in fostering economic growth as incubators of innovation,'' says UPA Executive Director Eric Anthony Johnson. ''This series is designed to transform thinking and accelerate the kinds of core city investment that will lead to competitive success for Greater Akron in the new urban economy.''

Urban Innovators Speaker Series is presented with support from the Greater Akron Chamber and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and in conjunction with promotional partners Western Reserve Public Media, through its new show Neotropolis, and the GAR Foundation.

The other speakers in the series are Deborah Shufrin, senior vice president and director of programs for the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City in Boston, who will present ''Investing in Your Inner City'' on Feb. 22; and Emily Talen, professor at Arizona State University and author of Design for Diversity and New Urbanism and American Planning: The Conflict of Cultures, who will present ''Diversity and the Power of the Place'' on March 22.

The presentations are free and open to the public, but reservations are required at 330-777-2070 or info@upakron.com. Seating will be limited to 100 per presentation.

Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com.