• home
  • chevron_right
  • Courses
  • chevron_right
  • Regenerative Communities

Regenerative Communities

2023-RUDC01
Included in subscription Included in subscription
1.50 LU|HSW
4.54
Course expires on: 03/28/2026
$35
Architect$35

Member Price

$50

Non-member Price

Sign in to purchase chevron_right

Description

Join the AIA Regional & Urban Design Committee for a series exploring sustainability practices at the intersections of natural and man-made systems.  In a time with increasing global challenges perpetuated by environmental and socioeconomic inequities, cities are looking to implement more regenerative urban strategies that replenish resources faster than we are consuming them through circular economies. This panel seeks to discuss adaptable tools and strategies used across the globe that aim to strengthen our cities and restore communities long separated by harmful infrastructure. 

Course expires 03/27/2026

 

Learning Objectives

check

Explore the benefits of geospatial mapping technologies that highlight areas in need of restoration/preservation. 

check

Analyze how regenerative urban practices are mutually beneficial to the health and development of our communities and surrounding ecosystems. 

check

Identify how urban practices have historically segregated communities into environmentally harmful living conditions. 

check

Explore case studies in which regenerative practices have stimulated resilient circular economies.

This session was recorded live on May 3, 2023.

Instructors
Ashlee Dingler-Marshall
AIA, LFA 

Ashlee is a certified planner, currently working as the Programming and Communications Coordinator for American Institute of Architects (AIA) Cincinnati Chapter in Cincinnati, Ohio, and served as a 2022 Urban Sustainability Directors Network’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Fellow in Tucson, Arizona. She applies her broad experience in the fields of program management, community engagement, education, graphic communications, and strategy planning to focus on communicating the value of AIA membership to members and the public, supporting the work of local chapter committees, facilitating the AIA Continuing Education System process for local participation, delivering customer service to AIA Cincinnati’s nine-county community, and chapter administration. She holds a Master of Arts in Community Planning with a certificate in Geographic Information Science, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs with a minor in Urban and Economic Geography from the University of Cincinnati. She is an alumna of the Judith Koroscik Graduate Fellowship and Erwin S. and Rose F. Wolfson Fellowship at the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (UC DAAP). Her studio project experience includes team participation in a competition led by Uber and the University of Cincinnati to design for urban parking futures in Cincinnati, Ohio, as well as a studio capstone in the socio-ecological dimensions of urban site design. In design teams, she has held the role of creating research-informed design and communicating to public and private audiences how policy innovation and vision (theory) could translate into improved use and built form (practice). Her recent focus has been the critical importance of applied equity frameworks within the context of sustainability and land use (climate planning, energy planning, and building efficiency), municipal-led community engagement, and policy analysis for improvement in city infrastructure, building community power in disenfranchised communities, and local development outcomes in both existing and future development.

Ravindra Ganvir
P.E.

Mr. Ravindra Ganvir, P.E., is the Deputy Chief Engineer for Washington D.C.’s District Department of Transportation (DDOT). In this position, he has the dual responsibilities of helping oversee the agency’s Infrastructure Project Management Division (IPMD) and leading its Anacostia Waterfront Initiative (AWI) Program, which is creating a world class waterfront in our Nation’s capital. With the AWI Program, Mr. Ganvir administers the planning, design, engineering, maintenance and construction of some of the largest bridge, highway, street, trail and other multi-modal transportation projects in the District of Columbia’s history. In helping oversee the IPMD, he supervises DDOT’s Storm Water Management Program, Green Infrastructure Team, Right-of-Way Team, Utilities Team, and the Materials Quality Control Division.

Margaret Minzer
Ed. D., GISP 

Margaret is the Senior Environmental Planner for Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI), the Metropolitan Planning Organization for the Cincinnati region. Margaret is responsible for managing the Greenspace program, including coordinating the consultation process and implementing the OKI's Strategic Regional Policy Plan recommendations for conserving natural systems and integrating greenspace into the development process. Margaret holds a Doctorate in Education Leadership from Northern Kentucky University, a Master's degree in Integrative Studies from Northern Kentucky University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Skidmore College. She is also a certified Geographic Information Systems Professional.

Meghen Quinn
ASLA, RLA, LEED AP

Meghen provides expertise in conceptualization, design, and construction of institutional, commercial, and public landscapes of a variety of types and scales. Her project experience includes working with derelict and adaptive reuse sites, reflecting a range of interests with a consistent focus on expressing the context of the site: its history, natural systems, and inhabitants. Ms. Quinn is adept at the use of BIM technology not only as an efficient, collaborative design tool, but as a catalyst for developing performance-based site systems. She is versed in managing project teams of all sizes and collaborating with a broad and diverse group of stakeholders to ensure transparency and inclusion in the realization of constructible, award-winning design solutions. Her current projects include a master plan that repurposes a decommissioned urban reservoir into a public park at the Silver Lake Reservoir Complex Master Plan in Los Angeles as well as Taylor Yard which will transform a former railyard into a public park also in Los Angeles. Select past urban projects in her portfolio include Wilmington Waterfront Park, a 30-acre brownfield site at the Port of Los Angeles, which was transformed into a public park, as well as Hunters Point Northside Park in San Francisco and Scissortail Park in Oklahoma City. Meghen holds a Master’s in Landscape Architecture and Master’s in Urban and Environmental Planning from the University of Virginia.

Michelle D. Todd
AIA

She is a notable female, African American architect, licensed in New York State and certified as a Minority Women Business Enterprise (MWBE) on the state and city level. She delivers architecture that is modern, expressive, and uniquely reflective of each client’s character and values. Her core ethics and strengths are reflected in the superior work she produces for her clients, educating and engaging their spirits, within the designs, creating adaptable and sustainable spaces.

 

Michelle is a strong advocate for her clients and the environment, aiming to create and design spaces that she calls ‘socially responsive.’ That is where her mantra comes in: “Essence, Space, Design.” Intrinsic to her superior architectural work and expertise, she does her part through education and helping clients understand what products are good for their project, the environment, as well as health and wellness.

 

With over 24 years of professional experience in the architecture field. Her work within her firm, and work she has been a participating architect in, have spanned across New York State, various parts of the United States, as well as internationally in the United Kingdom and Indonesia. Prior to starting her own firm in 2008, she has worked with notable firms including Perkins Eastman Architects PC, and Gruzen Sampson.

 

As for projects within her own firm, of M. Todd Architect she has worked with New York City agencies such as the Office of Emergency Management in Brooklyn, NY; Commercial Bakery Renovation in Astoria, Queens, NY; Residential Brownstone Renovations in Brooklyn and Harlem.

 

Michelle holds a B.A and B.S. of Architecture from City College of the City University of New York; and a Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design from Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation in which her group won the Master of Science Architecture & Urban Design Program, GSAPP Prize for Excellence in Urban Design (1995). She attended the École des Beaux-Arts de Fontainebleau, France.

Deborah J. Weintraub
AIA, LEED AP

Deborah is the Chief Deputy City Engineer for the Bureau of Engineering, and the highest-ranking architect for the City of Los Angeles. She provides design and management leadership for an integrated architecture and engineering organization of approximately 800 people, with approximately 500 active projects totaling $4 billion. The projects in her current and recent portfolio include homeless facilities such as the Tiny Home Villages, various Los Angeles River projects including the 42 acre Taylor Yard G2 site, bridges including the Sixth Street Viaduct, a master plan for the Silver Lake Reservoir - a decommissioned urban reservoir, a master plan for the Sepulveda Basin, cultural facilities such as the Vision Theater and the Madrid Theater, historic restorations such as the Hollyhock House complex, transportation facilities, a plan to reconfigure the Hollywood Walk of Fame, recreational buildings, pools, parks including the Pacific Palisades Potrero Canyon, general office facilities, City maintenance yards, and Police and Fire facilities. Deborah has a BA in Architecture and Cultural Studies from Princeton University and a Master’s in Architecture from the University of California at Berkeley. She also has specialized management training from Pepperdine University, and extensive training in sustainability and green design. She has held leadership roles with the American Institute of Architects in Los Angeles and tor the AIA at the State level. She was a founding member of the US Green Building Council LA Chapter. Currently she is on the Board of Heidi Duckler Dance.