Alameda Point

Alameda Point Community Planner

About Peter Calthorpe

Peter Calthorpe is a co-founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism and a Principal at Calthorpe Associates. He has helped solidify a growing trend towards the key principles of New Urbanism: that successful places - whether neighborhoods, villages, or urban centers - must be diverse in use and user, walkable and transit-oriented, and environmentally sustainable. His work has focused on how regional-scale planning and design can integrate urban revitalization and suburban renewal into a coherent vision of metropolitan growth.

After studying at Yale's Graduate School of Architecture, Calthorpe promoted energy-efficient buildings and solar design initiatives at the Farrallones Institute, the California Office of the State Architect, and with Van der Ryn, Calthorpe and Partners. In 1983, he established Calthorpe Associates, allowing him to successfully implement his philosophies of regional design through cutting-edge projects in Portland, Salt Lake, Austin, the Twin Cities, and Los Angeles. During the Clinton Administration, Calthorpe provided guidance for HUD's Empowerment Zone and Consolidated Planning Programs as well as the HOPE VI program to rebuild failed public housing projects. His international work has demonstrated that community design with a focus on environmental sustainability and human scale can be adapted throughout the globe. Chosen by the State of Louisiana to lead long-term planning efforts following the destruction caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Calthorpe is now the Lead Planner for the "Louisiana Speaks" planning initiative, and his firm is helping advise the Louisiana Recovery Authority on how southern Louisiana can recover from Hurricane Katrina while restoring wetlands and other ecologically sensitive areas.

Calthorpe has written influential works such as Sustainable Communities with Sim Van der Ryn (1986), Pedestrian Pocket Book (1989) with Doug Kelbaugh, The Next American Metropolis: Ecology, Community, and the American Dream (1993), and The Regional City: Planning for the End of Sprawl (2001) with William Fulton, He has lectured extensively throughout the world and has taught at U.C. Berkeley, University of Washington, University of Oregon, and University of North Carolina. Calthorpe has received numerous honors and awards, including appointment to the President's Councils for Sustainable Development and, most recently, the Urban Land Institute's prestigious JC Nichols Prize for Lifetime Achievement.

For more information, visit calthorpe.com.

 

A Glimpse of the Future Alameda Point

 

» Click here to view slideshow of Peter's work