WEBINAR | Planning School 2020 - Kathryn Firth (North American Planning)

This year, the Planning School goes Global!

“Reform the planning system!” is an evergreen refrain for those intent on political reform. This year, the central government has made it clear their intentions for change. Root and branch change. Historic change. Maybe you think this is about bloody time, or you think poor old planning is too easily made a political football.

Whatever your view, Johnson, Cummings and company have put their reforms on the table in a white paper – including simple site zoning, streamlined local plans, design codes, digitisation, and the emergence of… beauty. While many in the London planning community are aghast, some of these ideas are well known to international audiences.

So, for this year’s Planning School, we’re going to zoom out (pun intended) to place our planning system against a global backdrop. How does the UK compare against systems on three other continents? Three speakers from around the world will compare our battle-weary planning system against theirs at a pivotal time of change.

Kathryn Firth will enlighten us on the North American Experience with a focus on Boston.

Kathryn Firth is an architect and urban designer with some 25 years of experience. She recently returned to London from the US where she was Director of Urban Design at NBBJ and she led projects such as the Boston Downtown Planning Study; from 2011-14 she was the Chief of Design at the London Legacy Development Corporation.  She has led master planning and urban regeneration projects that range from those in sensitive heritage contexts to regeneration projects on former industrial sites. She has served on many design review panels and engages in research on topics such as urban intensification and the role of healthcare in creating equitable urban environments.  Kathryn has taught simultaneous with practice throughout her career and is a strong proponent of an inter-disciplinary approach to urban challenges.  She taught in the LSE Cities Programme, the Architecture Association, and continues to teach urban planning and design at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design where she has been a Visiting Design Instructor for the past 3 years. From 2015-17 she was an Executive Committee Member of The London Society.

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