Peter Calthorpe (born 1949) is a

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

-based architect, urban designer and

urban planner An urban planner (also known as town planner) is a professional who practices in the field of town planning, urban planning or city planning. An urban planner may focus on a specific area of practice and have a title such as city planner, tow ...

. He is a founding member of the

Congress for New Urbanism New Urbanism is an urban design movement which promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating walkable neighbourhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has gradually in ...

, a Chicago-based advocacy group formed in 1992 that promotes sustainable building practices. For his works on redefining the models of urban and suburban growth in America Calthorpe has been named one of twenty-five ‘innovators on the cutting edge’ by Newsweek magazine.

Early life

Calthorpe was born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and raised in Palo Alto,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. He attended the

Yale School of Architecture The Yale School of Architecture (YSOA) is one of the constituent professional schools of Yale University, and is generally considered to be one of the best architecture schools in the United States. The School awards the degrees of Master of Arc ...

Career

In the 1986 he, along with

Sim Van der Ryn Sim Van der Ryn is an American architect. He is also a researcher and educator. Van der Ryn's professional interest has been applying principles of physical and social ecology to architecture and environmental design. Van der Ryn has promoted s ...

, published Sustainable Communities. In the early 1990s he developed the concept of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) highlighted in The Next American Metropolis: Ecology, Community, and the American Dream. He has taught at U.C. Berkeley, the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seatt ...

, the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc Nike, Inc. ( or ) is a ...

, and the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC S ...

. In 1989, he proposed the concept of

Pedestrian Pocket A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, whether walking or running. In modern times, the term usually refers to someone walking on a road or pavement, but this was not the case historically. The meaning of pedestrian is displayed with t ...

, an up to pedestrian-friendly, transit-linked, mixed-use urban area with a park at its centre. The Pedestrian Pocket mixes low-rise high-density housing, commercial and retail uses. The concept had a number of similarities with Ebenezer Howard's Garden City and aimed to be an alternative to low-density residential suburban developments. As an expert on urban planning, Peter Calthorpe, is frequently cited in various reputable mass media including

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widel ...

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

, Grist, Metropolismag, The Advocate and others. In 2006 Calthorpe won the ULI J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development. In his 2017 TED Talk Calthorpe addressed the necessity of efficient use of space and resources in the context of climate change and identified urban sprawl an urgent trend that requires immediate attention. In 2018 Calthorpe launched urban-planning software UrbanFootprint that should help fight sprawl allowing non-experts to model the impacts of different urban planning scenarios. Among most recent Calthorpe's concerns are autonomous cars as potential reason for increased urban congestion and suburban sprawl. Unlike the advocates of self-driving cars who believe that they will lead to fewer cars and faster commutes, Calthorpe believes that the convenience of autonomous transport will only encourage more car trips. He suggests alternative plan to avoid congestion – autonomous rapid transit – fleets of self-driving vans in reserved lanes on main arteries.

Personal life and family

He is married to Jean Driscoll. He has three children: Lucia, Jacob, and Asa. His sister Diana Calthorpe is married to real estate developer Jonathan F. P. Rose. His niece is artist

Rachel Rose Rachel Rose (born September 20, 1970) is a Canadian/American poet, essayist and short story writer. She has published three collections of poetry, ''Giving My Body to Science'', ''Notes on Arrival and Departure'', and ''Song and Spectacle''. Her ...

Writings

*Calthorpe, Peter and

(1986). ''Sustainable Communities: A New Design Synthesis for Cities, Suburbs and Towns''. San Francisco:

Sierra Club Books Sierra Club Books was the publishing division, for both adults and children, of the Sierra Club, founded in by then club President David Brower. They were a United States publishing company located in San Francisco, California with a concentrat ...

. * Calthorpe, Peter: ''The Pedestrian pocket'', in Doug, Kelbaugh (ed.) ''Pedestrian Pocket Book'', 1989 * Calthorpe, Peter: ''The Next American Metropolis: Ecology, Community, and the American Dream'',

Princeton Architectural Press Princeton Architectural Press is a small press publisher, specializing in books on architecture, design, photography, landscape, and visual culture, with over 1,000 titles on its backlist. In 2013, it added a line of stationery products, includin ...

, 1993 * Calthorpe, Peter and Fulton, William: ''The Regional City'', Island Press, 2001 * Calthorpe, Peter: ''Urbanism in the Age of Climate Change'', Island Press, 2010

References

External links

Calthorpe Associates
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Calthorpe, Peter 20th-century American architects American urban planners New Urbanism Antioch College alumni Yale School of Architecture alumni Living people Urban designers 1949 births 21st-century American architects Sustainable transport pioneers