Urban Design, Urban and Regional Planning, Landscape Architecture, and GeoSpatial Analysis
Masters of Environmental Planning and Design, University of Georgia, 2016 Masters of Landscape Architecture, University of Georgia, 2015 Bachelor of Geography, University of California at Santa Barbara, 1996 Bachelor of Anthropology, University of California at Santa Barbara, 1996
Senior Planner/Designer
KTU+A
San Diego, California 2018 - 2021
Urban Designer
Dunedin City Council
City of Dunedin, Otago, NZ 2018
Urban Designer/ Landscape Architect
Align Limited
Wellington, NZ 2017
Urban Design Specialist
Carl Vinson Institute of Governments
University of Georgia, Athens, GA 2014 -2016
Landscape Architect
Byers Design Group Charleston, South Carolina 2015
Senior GIS Specialist
CH2M HILL Portland, Oregon 2007-2012
• project-managing, designing, and managing community-input processes for community parks and mobility hubs, through construction documentation
• analyzing the impacts of a large-scale public/private development using specialized urban design tools
• contributed significantly to both
• promoted innovative public space solutions that met the social and economic needs of the urban community
urban and regional park master plans, including trail design advanced skills in 3D modeling and advanced rendering techniques of visual simulations
• involved with the conceptual design and visual simulation of multi-modal solutions for urban communities
• contributed significantly to the establishment of a large trial pedestrian area within the heart of downtown
• wrote landscape and visual impact assessments & mitigation plans for resource consents
• learned the planning statutory framework of New Zealand
• solely developed the concept and design of a temporary parklet coinciding with an annual science festival
• created photorealistic digital renderings of proposed developments and concepts
• developed strategic and visionary downtown master plans
• promoted urban infill designs
• drafted detailed public space designs
• created and presented master plans of historic parks
• designed detailed planting plans for large-scale residential developments
• conducted tree and plant inventories of existing plants and heritage trees for proposed developments in the field
• GIS project management of largescale GIS projects
• coordinated GPS field data collection teams
• designed hundreds of complex maps
• designed 3D models of proposed concepts to model visual impacts
• composed detailed urban design and landscape assessments of engineering plans of large-scale transportation projects
• devised complex 3D and photorealistic digital renderings
• facilitated community input through focus groups and interviews
• identified community priorities
• presented concepts to community
• assisted in the design of structural details and dimensions of architectural floor plans
• quantified the environmental & cultural impacts of different project alternatives of large-scale transportation projects
San Diego Chapter President, 2021
American Society of Landscape Architecture (ASLA)
Honor Award, 2016
American Society of Landscape Architecture (ASLA)
Student Director, 2014-2015
Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA)
Student Boardmember, 2014-2015
Georgia Society of Landscape Architects (GSLA)
Student President , 2015-2016
Sigma Lambda Alpha Honor Society
• wrote scopes & estimates of GIS aspect of civil engineering projects
• gave numerous presentations within the corporation
A CCOMPLISHMENTS & P UBLICATIONS
Continued Advococy for Urban Public Spaces, San Diego, Statewide, and Nationally, 2018-2021
Through presentations and targeted outreach to firms, political staff, city departments, academics, and students, I continue to advocate for the vital need for socially-oriented public spaces in urban communities. A central theme is the loss of these places throughout America, and the proven universal principles for designing them that are often overlooked. Recent appearances include the American Planning Association (APA) Academy, the Alpha Rho Chi chapter at the NewSchool of Architecture and Design, and the ASLA San Diego 2021 Lecture Series.
I also participate in numerous adjudications for student projects at the NewSchool of Architecture in San Diego, where I incorporate social-orientation and urban design best practice into my critiques of student proposals.
City Centre Trial Pedestrianisation Event, “The Octagon Experience”. Dunedin City Council, New Zealand. 2018
I was a critical organiser for a large-scale placemaking event over 5-days, which greatly expanded the extent and scope of the existing public space in the centre of the city called The Octagon. This temporary installation was filled with street furniture, surface treatments, plants, accent lighting, and family-oriented amenities. Based on feedback from officials, the public, and the media, it was a smashing success. This led to the City Council’s consideration for a permanent public space solution of the Octagon.
A Tool to Evaluate Urban Plazas for Planning and Design Patterns That Support Sociability Publication and Defense of the Masters of Landscape Architecture Thesis. 2014-2015
Through a comprehensive review of design and public life literature over the last 100 years, I developed a detailed list of planning and design patterns that optimise informal sociability in urban public spaces. From these patterns, I developed a comprehensive scoring methodology which evaluates the social performance of existing public spaces, but may also be used as a checklist to develop new public spaces.
This research has received 235 downloads from academics worldwide on academia.edu. I have since presented this work to Group8Asia Architecture firm in Hanoi, the School of Landscape Architecture at Lincoln University in Christchurch, New Zealand, and to the planning department at the Dunedin City Council in Dunedin, New Zealand.
A New Urban Plaza for Downtown Athens, Georgia: A Planning and Programming Concept Publication and Defense of the Masters of Environmental Planning and Design Practicum, 2016
This practicum proposed a planning and design concept to introduce a central urban plaza in downtown Athens, Georgia. The concept divided the site into four functional parts, which were each informed by specific theory: the overall “plaza district” concept, the “Woonerf” street treatment, the “naked” intersections, and the “core” plaza space. The “core” was directly informed by the author’s previous masters thesis on the design and planning of urban plazas that support sociability.
Downtown Strategic and Visioning Plan. City of Clarkesville, Georgia. 2014-2015
I contributed heavily to a community planning and design report for the City of Clarkesville, Georgia. I personally administered over a comprehensive public input process, and later analyzed the resulting information to identify the town’s priorities. In respect to these priorities, myself and the rest of the team designed and introduced innovative infill and adaptive reuse solutions. I personally introduced and designed the concept of a new urban hub that included sociable public spaces. The report was highly lauded by elected and appointed officials of the city and actions have already been taken on this work.
Led the Local Submission of the International Park(ing) Day Event. Athens, Georgia. 2015-2016.
Within the University of Georgia’s College of Environment and Design, I led my department’s submission for the annual Parking Day event (parkingday.org), which converts parallel parking locations into a temporary public open space. The purpose of which is to highlight the need for better uses of public space other than parking. I championed the entire concept, planning, and design process, as well as communicated with legal entities and performed volunteer management of over fifty members. The result was a grand success, with three linked parking spots converted into a continuous, lush and intricately designed park space. Officials of both the City of Athens and the university lauded the results.
Group Leadership and Technical Facilitator of the Department-Wide Design Charrettes. 2014 & 2015
At the University of Georgia’s College of Environment and Design, I participated in two department-wide vertical planning and design charrettes, both covering different urban regions in the state of Georgia. For each project group, I was assigned to, I became the natural leader and organizer. Through group discussion, I facilitated the identification of future trends and developed our group’s goals to meet them. During the second charrette, I was hired to be a technical facilitator for the entire event, I presented gave orientations and provided technical assistance to individual students and faculty leaders of the project groups.
CHRISTOPHER STEBBINS, ASLA
Urban Design, Urban and Regional Planning, Landscape Architecture, and GeoSpatial Analysis
P ROFESSIONAL R EFERENCES:
Umit Yilmaz, Ph.D
Graduate Coordinator
Master of Urban Planning and Design Program College of Environment and Design University of Georgia 1.706.542.4723 yilmaz@uga.edu
Patricia Ferman
Principal Landscape Architect Landscape Architecture Division City of Chula Vista 2022 San Diego ASLA President 619.409.3890 pferman@chulavistaca.gov
David Spooner, ASLA
Associate Professor Associate Dean of Academic Affairs College of Environment and Design University of Georgia 706.542.5125 spoonerd@uga.edu
Jack Crowley Professor Emeritus MUPD Program Founder College of Environment and Design University of Georgia 706.247.4712 jcrowley@uga.edu
503.701.0454
urbanplazas@gmail.com
issuu.com/chrisstebbins
linkedin.com/in/chrisstebbins
Judith Wasserman, MLA, MRP
Professor of Landscape Architecture, Director of the School of Design and Community Development
West Virginia University, Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Design 304.293.5524 judith.wasserman@mail.wvu.edu
Crystal V Filep, Ph.D
Urban Design Manager
Urban Design Team
Wellington City Council +64 21 0282 7006 Crystal.Filep@wcc.govt.nz
Daniel Bivins
Senior Public Service Associate Carl Vinson Institute of Government University of Georgia 706.583.0856 dbivins@uga.edu
Skip Graffam, RLA, ASLA, LEED AP Partner, Director of Research The OLIN Studio 215.440.0030 x852 sgraffam@theolinstudio.com
I NTE r NATIONAL U r BAN D ESI g N E x PE r IENCES
After traveling intensely over the last 10 years both throughout the United States and internationally, I have gained a global persepective of urban planning and design practice and theory. Throughout these travels, I engaged in the study, application, and detailed observation of urban design, and also met with several firms and presented to planning and design practitioners.
Spain
For nearly a month in the winter of 2007, I observed a daily phenomenon known as the El Paseo, or “the walk” which occured every afternoon in every town and city in southern Spain. This is where a majority of a town’s local population would dress up, step outside their homes, and amble for hours through the streets of the historic centre of the city. It was a social institution, where they window-shopped together, visited each other in tapas bars, and found each other in the city’s plazas and streets. The local citizens appeared relaxed, confident, and generally happy, which was quite different than my isolated upbringing in surburban
California. I later realised this cultural institution was made possible by a more compact, human-scaled built urban environment.
Italy
For two months I lived and studied landscape architecture and urban design throughout Italy. Our professor David Spooner tooks us through the spaces all over Rome, Florence, as well as many smaller hill towns throughout Tuscany. He related the seminal urban design and planning texts A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander and A Great Good Place by Ray Oldenberg to our observations and studio projects. David took us through iconic landscapes, classic medieval gardens, human-oriented streets, and piazzas of all sizes and shapes. It was here that I understood first-hand how design directly influenced human behaviour.
Turkey
Within an advanced landscape architecuture and urban design studio, our class spent 10 days in the cities of Istanbul and Eskişehir. We made many walks throughout multiple urban districts and sociable streets of both cities. Our class was tasked to work with the local mayor to create a new urban design master plan for downtown Eskişehir that had been heavily damaged from earthquakes. I personally took solo walks throughout the medieval Odunpazari district of Eskişehir, which was quite human-scaled, with narrow cobblestone streets, street-corner retail, and intimate public spaces circled with cafes that were always full of locals.
United States
Through my graduate research at the University of Georgia, I gained deep insight into the physical attributes that contribute to successful public spaces. In addition, my work with the urban design studio at the Carl Vinson Institute included the active exploration and scrutinization of the existing conditions of the downtown area. I took these insights and regularly walked, explored, and examined urban areas throughout the united states, including numerous cities and districts throughout Georgia, Chicago, Denver, San Diego, Santa Barbara, as well as Greenville and Charleston, South Carolina. I took photographs, looked at the details, and notice what works and what doesn’t. I continue my involvement in the U.S. while serving as a boardmember of the local chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA).
Denmark
After finishing both master’s defences in landscape architecture and planning, I spent over a month in Denmark to observe their urban design techniques and world-renowned bicycle infrastructure. I walked and biked within each village, town, and city I explored and on pathways in-between, photographing and taking notes on urban design techqniques in regards to pedestrian and bicycle circulation. The towns included Odder, Odense, Køge, as well as larger cities Roskilde, Aarhus, and of course, Copenhagen. I met with the head of the landscape architecture division of C. F. Møller in Aarhus, as well as the lead at the urban placemaking think-tank called Urgent Agency in Copenhagen. I took hundreds of photos of the streetscapes, squares, paving material changes, and traffic infrastructure techniques.
Sweden
I lived for two months in the small, medieval port city of Ystad, and frequently visited both the beautifullydesigned cities of Malmö and Lund. The urban fabric and central square of Ystad was the community hub of all social activity of the entire town. I intensely explored the streets and public spaces of these cities. I met with White Arkitekter in Malmö to discuss their challenges and approaches to the design process and how they coordinate with the state and major develpers in the region. I also met with a faculty-member in the planning department at Malmö University to discuss her research of how foreign immigrants create unique cultural districts with public spaces that mimic their home countries.
Vietnam
Over the course of 3 months I resided in Hanoi, Vietnam, and considered the french-colonial historical context of the city and how it shaped the city as it is today. The streets were highly-activated and, by nature, always mixed-use buildings often with residences upstairs from the service they own on the ground floor. I met with the Swiss-based regional planning and architecture firm, group8asia, and provided the entire 50-member staff at the Hanoi office with a presentation in my research in effective planning and design principles for creating highly-sociable public spaces.
New Zealand
I travelled, lived, and worked throughout New Zealand for over two years. Many of my urban explorations throughout Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, Oamaru, and Dunedin took me through greenways linking green spaces, and critically analyzing urban public spaces and city promenades. I worked for the private consulting firm Align Limited and a small firm in Queenstown, where I gained knowledge of the Resource Management Act (RMA) and how it fits in the overall planning framework for New Zealand at the city, regional and national levels. During my fixed-term position as an Urban Designer with the Dunedin City Council, I understood Council processes while being involved in temporary public space installations.
Australia
I lived for a total of 4 months in Bribane and Melbourne, where I spent considerable time critically-observing urban spaces and transportation infrastructure. I met with the leaders of the urban design team of Werribee outside of Melbourne, as well as academics at the Melbouren School of Design, where I also attended lectures and met with presenters.
