Sustainable Development Projects: Integrated Design, Development, and Regulation

Development projects are the building blocks of urban growth. Put enough of the right projects together in the right way, and you have sustainable cities. But getting the pieces to stack up takes a feat of coordination and cooperation. In our market economy, developers, designers, and planners tend to operate in silos, each focused on its own piece of the puzzle.

shows how these three groups can work together to build stronger cities. It starts with a blueprint for a development triad that balances sound economics, quality design, and the public good. A step-by-step description of the development process explains how and when planners can most effectively regulate new projects, while a glossary of real estate terms gives all the project participants a common language.

Detailed scenarios apply the book’s principles to a trio of projects: rental apartments, greenfield housing, and mixed use infill. Readers can follow the projects from inception to finished product and see how different choices would result in different outcomes.

This nuts-and-bolts guide urges planners, developers, and designers to break out of their silos and join forces to build more sustainable communities. It’s essential reading for practicing planners, real estate and design professionals, planning and zoning commissioners, elected officials, planning students, and everyone who cares about the future of cities.

Jason Porter is the Director of Education + Programs at MoPOP (Museum of Pop Culture) in Seattle. Previously, he was the Director of Education and Public Engagement at the San Diego Museum of Man and Associate Director of Education at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. His work focuses on experiential education and public programs that serve community, school, family, and teacher audiences and on using the arts as a vehicle for personal and social change.

Prior to his work in the museum world, Jason was a public school teacher. His dissertation examined charter schools meeting the needs of special education students. Professional development activities have included panel presentations at conferences including AAM, CAM, and WMA, and serving as a mentor to emerging museum professionals and a guest lecturer at Harvard University's Masters in Museum Studies program at the University of Washington's Museology program. He served as a board member of EdCom (at AAM) from 2014 through 2016, a jurist with the Excellence in Exhibitions competition (at AAM) in 2017 and 2018, a grants reviewer for IMLS (from 2018 to the present) and as a peer reviewer for the Journal of Museum Education since 2016.

In the last 25 years, Mary Kay Cunningham has served over 35 different cultural institutions or attractions in the diverse roles of consultant, manager, educator, volunteer coordinator, and docent. She founded Dialogue Consulting in 2001 to support institutions in their efforts to improve the visitor experience by inspiring conversational learning through inclusive and collaborative interpretive planning, programming, and professional development.

Mary Kay is the author of The Interpreters Training Manual for Museums (published by AAM in 2004 and translated into Italian by the University of Macerata in 2013) that guides front line staff in facilitating meaningful learning conversations with visitors. She continues her commitment to fostering professional development in the field by serving on the editorial board of The Journal of Museum Education since 2010, creating and serving as an instructor for a graduate-level course on Visitor Experience design at the University of Victoria, B.C. since 2013, and presenting over 45 sessions or workshops in the last 20 years for professional meetings including AAM, WMA, NAI, ASTC, APGA and the Northern California Arts Foundation.

David R. Godschalk, Stephen Baxter Professor Emeritus of City and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Emil Malizia, Institute for Economic Development in the City and Regional Planning Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill