Ken Greenberg
Principal Greenberg Consultants Inc.
- Toronto ON
Can you see what I see? Engage your imagination and improve your community with Greenberg Consultants award-winning urban designer
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Biography
For over three 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, neighborhoods and on campus master planning, regional growth management, and new community planning. Cities as diverse as Toronto, Hartford, Amsterdam, New York, Boston, Montréal, Washington DC, Paris, Detroit and San Juan Puerto Rico have benefited from his advocacy and passion for restoring the vitality, relevance and sustainability of the public realm in urban life.
With over three decades of experience, he has managed large multi-disciplinary staff and consultant groups for both the public and private sectors. He applies a holistic approach to city building, crossing traditional boundaries and working in team settings collaborating with many talented professionals from a variety of disciplines. In each city, with each project, his strategic, consensus-building approach has led to coordinated planning and a renewed focus on urban design.
He is the recipient of the 2010 American Institute of Architects Thomas Jefferson Award for public design excellence and the author of Walking Home: the Life and Lessons of a City Builder published by Random House.
Ken is a frequent lecturer and teacher in both North America and Europe, inspiring professionals and students in thinking about the demographically diverse, post-industrial city.
He has been the Charles Moore Visiting Professor of Architecture at the Taubman School at the University of Michigan and taught Masters studios in urban design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the University of Toronto, L'Université de Montréal, UC Berkeley and the University of Pennsylvania. He is a frequent contributor to the Mayor's Institute for City Design.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Institute of Architects, the Toronto Society of Architects and the Institute for Urban Design as well as a frequent participant in the Mayors Institutes. His work has garnered awards from the Canadian Institute of Planners, Progressive Architecture, the City of Toronto, the Canadian Architect, the American Planning Association and the American Institute of Architects.
Industry Expertise
Areas of Expertise
Accomplishments
Fellow - Institute for Urban Design
For thirty years the Institute for Urban Design has positioned itself as a central platform for debate over issues related to urban planning, development, and design. By creating a common territory for architects, planners, policy-makers, developers, academics, journalists, and urban enthusiasts, we acknowledge that to ensure quality in planning and urban design, a dialogue must emerge that represents the diversity of stakeholder voices affected by urban development.
Fellow - Toronto Society of Architects
Established in 1887, the Toronto Society of Architects (TSA) is a non-profit volunteer-based organization comprised of architects, interns, students, urbanists, politicians, academics, retirees, citizens and enthusiasts. The TSA plays an advocacy role in the City, ensuring that architecture and design are key considerations in public discussions and in processes that have an impact on our urban environment.
Fellow - Royal Architecture Institute of Canada
The College of Fellows formally recognizes members and distinguished laypersons who have made outstanding contributions to the profession. Fellowship in the RAIC is an honour conferred on members singled out for their contribution to research, scholarship, public service or professional standing to the good of architecture in Canada, or elsewhere.
Recipient - Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture
In 2010, Ken received the American Institute of Architects Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture, which recognizes excellence in architectural advocacy and achievement. The award honours public officials or other individuals who by their role of advocacy have furthered the public's awareness and/or appreciation of design excellence in public architecture.
Principal - Greenberg Consultants Inc.
At Greenberg Consultants, creative problem-solving is applied to managing change in all aspects of city building and re-building including land use, built form and public space, municipal infrastructure, transportation and environment. Assignments range from leading large multi-disciplinary teams encompassing environment, transportation and economics for a broad range of clients - governments, institutions, Universities, and the development industry to strategic supporting roles.
Recipient - Excellence in Planning Award (Ontario Professional Planners Institute)
In 2011, Ken received the Excellence in Planning Award for "Lower Don Lands Framework Plan and Keating Channel Precinct Plan" in the Urban/Community Design category. The Excellence in Planning Awards recognizes:
*excellence in all aspects of the profession;
*a strong awareness of the planning profession among related professions, all levels of government, potential private - and public-sector clients, and the general public;
*professional planners serving their communities.
Recipient - Calgary Mayor's Urban Design Award
In 2011, Ken received the Calgary Mayor's Urban Design Award for 'RiverWalk'
with Calgary Municipal Lands Corporation. The Mayor's Urban Design Awards are awards that acknowledge the important contribution that designers, architects and artists make in improving the quality of life in our city by producing high quality buildings and public spaces. Well-designed spaces make people feel welcome, support pedestrian activity, improve safety and accessibility, and create a memorable sense of place.
Author
In Walking Home: The Life and Lessons of a City Builder, Ken Greenberg shares his passion and methods for rejuvenating neglected cities and argues passionately for the importance and possibilities of their renewal. Walking Home is both Ken's story and a lesson in turning the world's urban spaces back into places that can give us not only a platform to face the challenges of the future, but also a place we can call, with pride and satisfaction, home.
Education
University of Toronto
Bachelor of Architecture
1970
Amherst College
Bachelor of Arts
1965
Links
- Book Review: Walking Home, by Ken Greenberg
- Architects Selected to Receive the 2010 American Institute of Architects Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture
- Greenberg Consultants Inc.
- Getting Closer: On the Need for New Urban Manners
- Ken Greenburg to Guide Strategic Planning for Ottawa's Downtown Transit Corridor
- Transit Pros Support Eglinton Subway-Surface LRT Plan
- Suburbia salvageable: planner
- Ken Greenberg Talks Flexible Urbanism in New Book
- Architect, urban planner humbly shares lessons
- Ken Greenberg Built This City on Walks, Not Sprawl
- Urbane renewal: a life in cities
- Planner’s first book is a wake-up call for Toronto
- Walking Home: Ken Greenberg On How Jane Jacobs Was Right
- Why condo-villes don’t work
- Q&A: Ken Greenberg on the Future of Urban Planning
- Cities around the world undergoing major transformations
- Ken Greenberg and the future of cities
Event Appearances
KEYNOTE SPEECH
Riverdale Community Arts and Letters Club Speaker Series Toronto, Ontario
2012-03-21
City Building: Beyond the Concrete
Toronto In Question Lecture Series Toronto, Ontario
2011-11-29
KEYNOTE SPEECH
Toronto Talks Mobility - Symposium Toronto, Ontario
2011-11-10
KEYNOTE SPEECH
Inspire Burlington Lecture Series Burlington, Ontario
2012-04-11
Leveraging Your Existing Economic Strengths to Map Your Unique Competitive Advantage
Cultivating and Sustaining Your Creative Economy Summit Toronto, Ontario
2012-02-29
KEYNOTE SPEECH
Toronto Public Library Lecture Series Toronto, Ontario
2012-03-21
KEYNOTE SPEECH
Shimmerman Penn LLP Speaker Series Toronto, Ontario
2010-11-04
KEYNOTE OPENING & CLOSING REMARKS
Complete Streets Forum 2012 Toronto, Ontario
2012-04-23
KEYNOTE SPEECH
I Heart YEGDT - Downtown X-posed Edmonton, Alberta
2011-12-15
KEYNOTE SPEECH
2012 Ontario Association of Landscape Architects Conference and Annual General Meeting Markham, Ontario
2012-03-23
KEYNOTE SPEECH
Brampton Downtown Development Corporation Annual General Meeting Brampton, Ontario
2012-04-24
KEYNOTE SPEECH
Mimico 20/20 Community Workshop Toronto, Ontario
2012-02-11
KEYNOTE SPEECH
Downtown Mobility Summit Ottawa, Ontario
2011-11-03
KEYNOTE SPEECH
Centre for City Ecology Speaker Series Toronto, Ontario
2012-01-17
KEYNOTE SPEECH
Our Future Mississauga Speaker Series Mississauga, Ontario
2007-11-13
KEYNOTE SPEECH
Design Regina Speaker Series University of Regina
2011-09-22
Regent Park Revitalization - the past, the master plan, and the development phase
Toronto Society of Architects Urban Affairs Series Toronto, Ontario
Past, Present, and Future of our Brownfields
Toronto Society of Architects Urban Affairs Series Toronto, Ontario
KEYNOTE SPEECH
CaGBC National Conference & Expo 2012 Toronto, Ontario
2012-06-12
Making Big Change in Big City Regions
Greater Toronto Summit 2011 Toronto, Ontario
2011-02-10
Walking Home: The Life and Lessons of a City Builder
Authors at Harbourfront Centre Toronto, Ontario
2011-06-08
Sample Talks
Leveraging Your Existing Economic Strengths to Map Your Unique Competitive Advantage
To compete for talent, cities need to leverage their existing assets. Before economic development plans are established, you need to know where your existing strengths lie. Take away strategies for:
* Mapping assets to understand your advantages and weaknesses
* Conducting SWOT reviews to generate competitive advantage
* Developing effective strategies to cultivate clusters that fit your city's advantages
Transform car dependent communities into denser urban locale
Altering a downtown that is dominated by cars is no easy task. Many cities struggle with phasing in plans to pedestrianize their downtown and reduce auto dependency. Inspired by leading examples, cities are learning from each other as this process gains momentum.
- Explore innovative strategies guiding successful planning policies
- Capitalize on the benefits of a populated downtown core
- Learn from approaches to sustaining community involvement
City Building on the Toronto Waterfront
Ken will provide an insider’s view of the Waterfront Toronto project, the role of the economic, environmental and community forces that are shaping it and discuss the opportunities for the City of Toronto to be transformed by its waterfront.
City Building: A New Convergence
We are living through one of the most remarkable transformations in urban history as 21st century cities worldwide are redefining themselves. At the core of this transformation is an increased focus on the concept of place and the quality of the public realm. From a youth spent in New York City and other great cities of the world, to his beginnings as an architect in Toronto, Ken Greenberg has long recognized that cities at their best provide much of what we seek in a place to call home.
Availability
- Keynote
- Moderator
- Panelist
- Workshop Leader
- Host/MC
- Author Appearance
- Corporate Training
