Three reasons why you should attend the nextCITY: Urban Design speaker series

How are great cities planned and built? How do they change and evolve? Urban designers and expert architects from around the world are visiting our city this fall to speak about how their experiences can be applied to a Calgary context.

The first speaker on our roster, Ken Greenberg, is the former director of urban design and architecture for The City of Toronto. He has played a pivotal role in projects for cities like Amsterdam, New York and Paris.

But if you’re not a city planning buff, why should urban design matter to you?
Greenberg weighs in.

1. Planning and development decisions made today affect future generations.
“What we decide today will affect our children, our grandchildren, great-grandchildren. Urban design affects how everybody lives their daily lives. This is something that people need to be deeply involved in and understand. Know what your neighbourhoods are, what they could be and what changes mean for you.” – Ken Greenberg

2. The way cities are planned impacts climate change.
“We are embracing the role of cities like Calgary as the places where the big problems of our time get solved. The change that is occurring is extraordinary. Some of what I’ll be talking about involves the ways in which we are making complete communities to be more sustainable, like embracing mixed use of buildings, key investments in infrastructure, dealing with climate change and the importance of a green economy.” – Ken Greenberg

And another good reason to attend...

3. There’s going to be free food.
Enough said.

nextCITY: Urban Design speaker series
Ken Greenberg
Date and time: Oct. 6, 2015, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Location: Fort Calgary mess hall, 750 9 Ave S.E.
Free and open to the public. No RSVP required.

Ken Greenberg is an urban designer, teacher, writer, former Director of Urban Design and Architecture for the City of Toronto and Principal of Greenberg Consultants. For over four decades he has played a pivotal role on public and private assignments in urban settings throughout North America and Europe, focusing on the rejuvenation of downtowns, waterfronts, neighbourhoods and on campus master planning, regional growth management, and new community planning. Cities as diverse as Toronto, Hartford, Amsterdam, New York, Boston, Montréal, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary, St. Louis, Washington DC, Paris, Detroit, Saint Paul and San Juan have benefited from his advocacy and passion for restoring the vitality, relevance and sustainability of the public realm in urban life.