The Forum For Urban Design convenes the world’s preeminent leaders in architecture, urban planning, design and development–as well as professionals in government, education and journalism whose work intersects with the built environment–to discuss and debate the defining issues that face our cities.
The Forum, based in New York City, engages its members through programs and publications that promote awareness of contemporary urban design’s best practices and greatest challenges. Throughout the year, it hosts semi-annual Member Forums, exclusive tours of ongoing urban design projects, public roundtable discussions, and Director’s Luncheons for the Forum’s leadership. The Forum also publishes the Urban Design Review, a journal containing reviews of recent texts and exhibitions relevant to the field of urban design.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Daniel Rose, Chairman
Daniel Rose currently serves as the Chairman of Rose Associates, Inc., a New York-based real estate organization. He has pursued a career involving a broad range of professional, civic and non-profit activity. Professionally, he developed the award-winning Pentagon City complex in Arlington, and the One Financial Center office tower in Boston. He also created and implemented a new concept involving housing for the performing arts for New York’s Manhattan Plaza. Mr. Rose, who for a decade was a Director of U.S. Trust Corporation, is now a Director of over 20 Dreyfus-sponsored mutual funds. He has served as a special advisor to the Secretary of Department of Housing and Urban Development, and as an expert consultant to the Commissioner of Education. Over the years he has received many of the real estate industry’s most notable awards, including the American Society of Real Estate Counselors’ James E. Landauer Award, the Urban Land Institute’s Award for Excellence for Large Scale Mixed Use Development, and the Realty Foundation of New York’s Man of the Year Award.
Alexander Garvin, President
Alexander Garvin is currently President & CEO of AGA Public Realm Strategists, Inc. From 1996-2005, he was Managing Director of Planning for NYC2012, New York City’s committee for the 2012 Olympic bid. During 2002-2003, he was the Vice President for Planning, Design and Development at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the agency charged with the redevelopment of the World Trade Center following 9/11. Over the last 35 years he has held prominent positions in five New York City administrations, including Deputy Commissioner of Housing (1974-1978) and City Planning Commissioner (1995-2004). Mr. Garvin is Adjunct Professor of Urban Planning and Management at Yale University, where he has taught courses for more than 38 years. He is a member of the National Advisory Council of the Trust for Public Land and the Board of Directors of the Society of American City and Regional Planning History. Between 1996 and 2004, he was a fellow of the Urban Land Institute.
Deborah Berke, Vice President
Deborah Berke is founder of Deborah Berke & Partners Architects LLP and a professor of architectural design at Yale University, a post held since 1987. Previously, Berke has taught at the University of Maryland, the Rhode Island School of Design, the University of Miami, and The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, of which she was a Fellow. Of her numerous professional contributions, Deborah was for six years Chair of the Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture at Columbia University and continues in her role as a Founding Trustee of the Design Trust for Public Space in New York City. Deborah serves as a juror in numerous architecture and design award programs and continues to lecture throughout the country.
James Corner, Vice President
James Corner is a principal of Field Operations, a landscape, architectural and urban design practice based in Philadelphia and New York City. His design projects have won numerous awards and have been exhibited internationally. They include the High Line in New York, University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras Campus Master Plan, San Juan and Heng Chun Botanical Gardens, Taiwan. Mr. Corner serves as the Landscape Architecture department chair at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design, where he joined the faculty in 1989. He is the 2004 recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Design, the 2000 recipient of the Daimler-Chrysler Design Award for Innovative Design, and the first holder of the Jens Jensen Professorship in Landscape and Urbanism at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1996. He has = taught seminars and studios at Columbia University, Princeton University, the Royal Danish Academy, and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
Paul Katz, Treasurer
Paul Katz is a Principal at Kohn Pedersen Fox where he focuses on the planning, design, and development of office, mixed-use, and high rise buildings. He has senior responsibilities in all aspects of commercial architecture, including business development, management, and design. He established KPF’s strong presence in Japan and Hong Kong, and has been instrumental in setting up the firm’s China operations in Shanghai. He co-authored a book, Building Type Basics for Office Buildings, published by Wiley in 2002. His authority on the tall building and mixed-use projects has been cited in print media such as Newsweek, The Economist, TIME, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, among others.
Meredith Kane, Secretary
Meredith Kane is a partner in the Real Estate Department of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison LLP. She regularly represents developers, investors, and government agencies in public/private joint venture projects including the acquisition of New York’s World Trade Center complex, the development of Manhattan’s West Side Railyards, the development of Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn, and the restoration of Grand Central Terminal. She has served as a commissioner on the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission and as an advisor to the World Trade Center Memorial Center Advisory Committee and the Residential Advisory Council of the Lower Manhattan Downtown Corporation.
Daniel Brodsky
Daniel Brodsky is a partner with The Brodsky Organization, one of New York City’s leading developers, builders and property managers of residential and mixed-use real estate. As a supporter of housing development at various income levels, Mr. Brodsky has successfully campaigned for revisions in the 80/20 Rental Housing Tax-Exempt Finance Program. To date, the company has developed five 80/20 projects and manages more than 500 affordable housing units. Mr. Brodsky has actively developed a number of residential projects over the past 30 years, with completed buildings ranging in size from 75 to 1,000 units. The Brodsky Organization also supports many New York charitable, cultural and philanthropic organizations, such as The American Museum of Natural History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York City Ballet. Mr. Brodksy is Vice Chair of the Real Estate Board of the New York.
Timur Galen
Timur Galen is the Head of Corporate Services and Real Estate for Goldman Sachs, where he leads the Executive Group in charge of developing Goldman’s new headquarters in Lower Manhattan. Mr. Galen is a registered architect, having done his design internships with Pritzker Prize winning firms Venturi & Scott Brown and Maki and Associates. Prior to Goldman, Mr. Galen served as General Manager for California at Walt Disney Imagineering, where he was responsible for the development of California-based projects. He has also worked as Senior Vice President of Reichmann International LP, a real estate development firm.
Paul Goldberger
Paul Goldberger is the Architecture Critic for The New Yorker, where since 1997 he has written the magazine’s celebrated “Sky Line” column. He also holds the Joseph Urban Chair in Design and Architecture at The New School in New York City. He was formerly Dean of Parsons School of Design, a division of The New School. He began his career at The New York Times, where in 1984 his architecture criticism was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism, the highest award in journalism.
Hugh Hardy
Hugh Hardy is the founder of H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture, and is well known for the design of distinctive new buildings, restoration of historic structures and planning projects for the public realm. Among his most celebrated projects are the new New York Botanical Garden, the reconstruction and addition of the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, NY, the new 12 courtroom United States Courthouse in Jackson, Missouri, the restoration of New York City’s Radio City Music Hall and the redesign of Bryant Park in New York. Mr. Hardy’s latest national awards include the 2001 Placemark Award from the Design History Foundation and the 2000 Commissioner’s Award for Excellence in Public Architecture from the U.S. General Services Administration. In 2004, Mr. Hardy created H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture, an outgrowth of Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates, which he co-founded in 1967. HHPA was preceded by Hugh Hardy & Associates, established in 1962.
Marilyn Taylor
Marilyn Jordan Taylor is an architect, urban designer, and Dean of the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania. She joined Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in 1971 and was elected Partner in 1987. In 1985 Ms. Taylor moved to New York to lead an Urban Design and Planning practice within SOM. In this role, she was prepared plans for Columbus Center, Chase Metro Tech, South Ferry and residential development in Battery Park City. Her projects beyond New York City range from Celebration New Town in Florida, to the Yongtai New Town in China, to Canary Wharf in London. In July 2005, Ms. Taylor became Chair of the Urban Land Institute. She has served as the first female Chair of SOM, President of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, and chair of the AIA’s national Regional and Urban Design Committee. In 1995 she was selected as a David Rockefeller Fellow of the New York City Partnership, spending a year in studying the city’s public policy issues and strategies. In 1998 she was honored as the CREW Woman of the Year, and she has been twice named to the Crain’s List of Most Influential Women.
Robert Yaro
Robert D. Yaro currently serves as the Executive Director of Regional Plan Association, a position he has held since 1990. As the director of RPA’s planning and research staff, he led RPA’s five-year effort to prepare a Third Regional Plan. From 1985 to Massachusetts and Associate Professor of Regional Planning at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. From 1976 to 1984 Mr. Yaro served as Chief Planner and Deputy Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management. There he developed a number of innovative land conservation, historic preservation and urban revitalization programs. Mr. Yaro is also Practice Professor in City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania. Formerly, he served on the faculties of Harvard University and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
