PUBLIC LECTURE
Free and Open to the Public

Urban Life: Design for Change
Friday, February 20, 2009 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Raleigh Municipal Building
Council Chamber
222 West Hargett Street

Presented by:
NC State University College of Design and
City of Raleigh Department of City Planning

Sponsored by: Cark Nexsen

Three nationally known urban designers moderated by Raleigh planning director Mitchell Silver will bring to the table strands of contemporary thinking in urban design. In particular, they will critique and discuss ideas and initiatives relating to the urban family in the public realm, design approaches to affordable housing and urban environments that promote the health and well being of their citizens.

PANEL OF SPEAKERS:

Michael Pyatok, FAIA, Principal, Pyatok Architects, Oakland, CA

Robin Moore, Professor of Landscape Architecture, Director, Natural Learning Initiative, NC State University College of Design

Simon Atkinson, Ph.D., Professor of Community and Regional Planning, University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture

MODERATOR: Mitchell Silver, AICP, Director, City of Raleigh Department of City Planning

PANEL BIOS:

Simon Atkinson, Ph.D., is an award winning registered architect and registered town planner, with a professional career spanning thirty years and five continents. He is member of the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Royal Town Planning Institute. He holds degrees in architecture from Leeds University, a Post Professional degree in Planning from the Architectural Association, London, a Masters Degree in Urban and Regional Studies (Development Economics) from Sussex University, England, and a Doctorate in Urban Design from the University of Sheffield, England. He is the Mike Hogg Centennial Professor at the University of Texas School of Architecture. Dr. Atkinson's special field of expertise is inner city revitalization. He has applied these skills to urban projects in North Africa, Iraq, Venezuela, England, Gibraltar, Japan, Mexico, and El Salvador. Dr. Atkinson has been professionally based in Texas since 1982, and since that time has consulted on projects in Austin, Galveston, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, Corpus Christi, Gruene, Eagle Pass and Grapevine.

Robin Moore is Professor of Landscape Architecture and Director of the Natural Learning Initiative, NC State University. Professor Moore is an urban designer and design researcher, specializing in child and family urban environments that support healthy human development, informal play, and nonformal education. Originally from England, he holds degrees in architecture (London University) and city and regional planning (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). His publications include, "Our Neighbourhood is Like That!" in Growing Up in an Urbanising World (2002); “Healing Gardens for Children,” in Healing Gardens (1999); Natural Learning (1997); Plants for Play (1993); the Complete Playground Book (1993); and the Play For All Guidelines (1987, 1992). He is an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Health Promotion and a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for the on-line journal Children, Youth and Environments. In 2001, Robin was recipient of the Great American Gardeners, Landscape Design Award, from the American Horticultural Society.

Michael Pyatok, FAIA, founder of Pyatok Architects, Inc., has 40 years of experience, and has served the American Institute of Architects on its National Affordable Housing Task Group. Besides designing and actively participating in the firm's projects, Pyatok is also a professor of architecture at the University of Washington. His award-winning practice serves non-profit organizations and private developers in building market-rate and affordable housing, mixed-use developments and community facilities. Since opening his office in 1984, he has designed more than 35,000 units of affordable housing. He has published numerous articles about affordable housing, urban design and community participation. He has been a Fulbright Fellow in Helsinki, Finland and a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University as well as its Buschbaum Professor of Affordable Housing. He is the author of "Good Neighbors: Affordable Family Housing" sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Mitchell J. Silver, AICP, is director of the Raleigh Department of City Planning and specializes in comprehensive planning, urban design and implementation strategies. Silver has worked as a city planner with the New York City Department of City Planning; director of the Northern Manhattan Office for the Manhattan Borough President; principal of a New York City based planning firm; and, deputy director for the Office of Planning in the District of Columbia. Silver’s major accomplishments include helping to launch Harlem’s Renaissance in the 1990s, leading the successful Harlem on the River Project, developing New York City’s tower and plaza regulations, serving on the post-9/11 team to plan the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site and leading revitalization efforts in Philadelphia and Washington, DC. His most recent accomplishment was overseeing DC’s update to their Comprehensive Plan. For over 10 years, Mitchell has championed a movement to increase diversity in the planning profession at the national and state level. Silver received a Bachelors Degree in Architecture from Pratt Institute and a Masters Degree in Urban Planning from Hunter College.