Peter Calthorpe

Author

About This Expert

Peter Calthorpe has been named one of 25 “innovators on the cutting edge” by Newsweek Magazine for his work redefining the models of urban and suburban growth in America. Through design, innovation, publications, and realized projects, Peter Calthorpe’s 30 year practice has helped solidify a national trend towards the key principles of New Urbanism: that successful places – whether neighborhoods, villages, or urban centers – must be diverse in use and user, human scaled, and environmentally sustainable. In recognition of this broad body of work, he was awarded ULI’s prestigious “J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development” in 2006.

In the early 90’s he developed the concept of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) highlighted in The Next American Metropolis: Ecology, Community, and the American Dream, an idea that is now the foundation of many national policies and best planning practices. Around the same time he became a founder of theCongress for New Urbanism and was its first board president.

His seminal regional plans for Portland, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, and post-hurricane Southern Louisiana created a more interactive approach to environmental design at the Metropolitan scale. His book Urbanism in the Age of Climate Change documents new work and analysis relating patterns of development to energy and carbon consumption, along with other environmental, social and economic impacts.