Cities excite me. Great cities are lively, welcoming, surprising, and offer boundless opportunities, but, at the same time, they can also be hostile, unattractive, and exclusionary. I became an Urban Planner because I wanted to be part of the process of shaping cities in a positive way, to fight for the things that work well, and challenge the things that don’t.
Achieving that positive change is what I love most about the job. From making somewhere more pedestrian friendly, to creating safe and comfortable places for local communities. I relish in seeing conventional wisdom challenged — particularly when it involves reclaiming spaces from cars for people. The outcome can be truly transformational.
As an Associate Director with 20 years’ experience, I have a deep understanding of urban issues, including built form, transport, infrastructure, and economics. I have developed a strategic skill set that I have successfully applied to a range of complex projects, including city and regional territorial planning, integrated urban infrastructure, urban masterplanning and property and real estate spatial strategies. Despite this, the most satisfying part of my job is finding ways to communicate issues and proposals to non-technical audiences. As urban planners and designers we can get caught up in our special language, our jargon, but if we can’t make our case to everyday people, and bring them on the journey, we can’t achieve our simple ambition: to make places that work for the people who will use them.