What got you interested in planning?
It’s a bit hard to say, but I think my urban upbringing being raised in Brooklyn, NY and Phoenix, AZ played a big role. From an early age I was seeing different urban areas and how they functioned, and moving to a small town in NC made me realize the need for good regional planning too. Beyond that I also have a strong interest in architecture and urban design. Over the course of my architecture undergrad, I realized just how much good architecture and good urban design relies on good planning policy being in place first. It grew my passion in that area and made me realize that I needed to understand the policy just as much as the design to be effective in either area.
What’s your favorite project that you’ve worked on?
I’d sort of have to draw from my experience with school projects- more on the urban design side there was an architecture studio project I had to do for a community center next to a major light rail station in Charlotte where I had to think about how all the different community plans for the area came together. My other favorite would be a community planning project where me and my team were working to help a Latin American non-profit figure out how to redo their site and surroundings to better fit their hopes and goals.
What future goals do you have for your specialization?
Public transportation has always been a lot of my passion for transportation planning, but I understand the importance of walkability and accessibility as well. Overall I really just want to get a better understanding of the process and how best to approach planning for various modes of mobility. Being in the transportation specialization also gives me good access to much of the classes and resources in Land Use and Environmental Planning, which is good because coming from architecture and with a strong interest in urban design I understand how much land use and transportation affect each other.