The Innovative Cities Lecture Series Video

“Where You Are Is Where You Are Not: Planning for an Uncertain Future” presentation by Michael Kavalar, AICP, Senior City Planner, NYC Department of City Planning

Lecture Summary

Come learn about planning across scales of time and space in the City of New York. This lecture will cover a representative set of examples of planning at different scales, from years-long work to get and plan for new regional rail service in the East Bronx, to more immediate efforts to understand and confront the impacts of COVID-19, among other items.

BIO

Michael Kavalar is a Senior City Planner with the New York City Department of City Planning. He is the lead planner for the agency’s Bronx Metro-North Station Area Study — a multi-year, transit-oriented development project focused on planned regional rail service in the East Bronx — among other responsibilities. Prior to this role, Michael worked as an urban planner/designer in the City Design Practice of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s Chicago office, where he worked on a range of international and domestic city design projects and as a core member of the firm’s Great Lakes Century pro bono project. He has also worked as an urban planner for Clarion Associates, a national planning consulting firm specialized in comprehensive plans and zoning code updates. Michael holds a Masters of Urban Planning and a Masters of Translation Studies from the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee.