DCRP Event: Regaining Relevancy
There is an emerging sense, especially among young practitioners and scholars, that the planning field has lost its agency to incite positive change in our cities and regions. Some argue that rather than formulators and implementers of forward-thinking plans, the profession has been reduced to administering code and facilitating process. Others contend that the field’s redefined role gives it new legitimacy to tackle to pressing challenges of the 21st century.
To address this concern, the UNC-Chapel Hill Department of City and Regional Planning in partnership with Planner's Forum and the Carolina Planning Journal is offering a forum in which planning students and practitioners can engage in a discussion that questions, critiques, and reinvigorates the fundamental purpose of our field.
>> Pictures from the event <<
Regaining Relevancy – A Vision for the Practice of Planning
Featuring: Mitchell Silver, President of American Planning Association;
Uwe Brandes, Urban Land Institute Senior Vice President of Initiatives
“The Relevancy of Planning in the 21st Century”
Mitchell J. Silver, President, American Planning Association (APA), AICP
As APA president, Mitchell Silver is leading the effort to make planning one of the most relevant professions in the 21st Century. Mr. Silver is also the Chief Planning & Development Officer and Planning Director for Raleigh, North Carolina. Mr. Silver is an award‐winning planner with over 25 years of experience in the public and private sectors. As planning director in Raleigh, he is led the comprehensive plan update process to create a vibrant 21st century city with a modern transit system, great streets, great places and great neighborhoods. He is now overseeing a rewrite of the City’s Development Code. Mr. Silver is a contributing editor and author of ICMA’s “Local Planning: Contemporary Principles and Practice,” which was released in February 2009. Mr.
Silver’s work and commentary has been featured in Time.com, the New York Times, Planning Magazine, the Triangle Business Journal, Crain’s Business Journal and National Public Radio (NPR).
"What's Next?"
Uwe S. Brandes, Senior Vice President, Initiatives at the Urban Land Institute (ULI)
Uwe Brandes leads ULI’s initiatives on Climate Change, Land Use and Energy (CLUE) and The City in 2050. Prior to ULI, Uwe was Vice President of Capital Projects at the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation in Washington D.C and Associate Director of the D.C. Office of Planning where he managed the award winning Anacostia Waterfront Initiative, an unprecedented $3 billion public-private partnership including the District of Columbia, the U.S. General Services Administration, the U.S. Navy and the National Park Service to revitalize the shores of the Anacostia River in the nation’s capital.