Ilaria Salvadori
Design Manager

Ilaria Salvadori joined PPS in June 2001 as director of the Design Department managing both graphic and design production. She currently works with PPS on transportation and public space redesign projects across the United States. Among these projects are Farmington Avenue redesign in Hartford, CT; several improvements to train stations-downtown connections for New Jersey Transit's "Transit Friendly Communities" pilot projects; and most recently the redesign of two civic spaces: Mt. Vernon Park in Baltimore, MD and the Wade Oval green area in Cleveland, OH.

Ilaria also has experience in community participation with a particular focus on children and teenagers. She facilitated numerous workshops in Milan, Italy and in USA helping children and youth express their concern about their daily environment and formulate ideas to redesign it. In 1997 Ilaria directed the pilot study "Growing Up In Cities" in Oakland, CA working with immigrant children from Cambodia and Mexico. The international study, funded by Unesco and conducted in 8 countries around the world, was the replication of Kevin Lynch's 1976 research about young people development in urbanized countries. Results of the research are forthcoming in a Unesco publication at the end of 2001.

Her research in urban design explores the perception of safety and its connection with public space redesign. Her Masters thesis attempted to redefine the idea of safety in the public urban environment with a particular focus on the Tenderloin neighborhood in San Francisco, CA. In the Tenderloin Ilaria managed also a Façade Improvement Program for TNDC (Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corp.) a major low-income housing developer in the city. The program brought together business and property owners with community leaders and agencies to improve and promote the physical character of the neighborhood's main commercial corridors and its rich architectural heritage.

Ilaria's research also explores the role of design elements and amenities in the urban design practice; control and privatization of public space in history and current planning and the cultural importance of vernacular landscapes and architecture. 

EDUCATION

Ilaria Salvadori holds a Laurea in Architecture from the Politecnico of Milan, Italy and a joint Masters Degree in City Planning and Landscape Architecture from the College of Environmental Design At UC Berkeley, CA.

PUBLICATIONS

"Running the Gauntlet. Is safety about exclusion or participation?" in Landscape Architecture, December 2000, pp.127-128.

"A Bold Act of Faith: Inclusive Design at Lafayette Square" in Places, vol.14, n.1, 2001.

"In Between Fences: Living and Playing in a California city" forthcoming in Chawla, L (ed.) "Growing Up In an Urbanizing World", Earthscan, London (2001)

"Children for Cities and Cities for Children: Learning How to Know and Care about Urban Ecosystem" with Louise Chawla, forthcoming in Berkowitz, A, K. Hollweg, and C. Nilon (eds.) Understanding Urban Ecosystems, -Springer-Verlag, New York, (2001).

"Strolling Down Main Street with Dolores Hayden: A Feminist Perspective on Celebration, FL" in Critical Sense, University of California at Berkeley, Spring 2001.

"Remove a Fence, Invite Chaos: Children as active agents of change", in Local Environment, Vol.6, no.1, 2001. 

"A Dragon in the Neighborhood: City Planning with Children in Milan, Italy" in "Children's Environment", Social Justice, San Francisco, Fall 1997.

"Urban Design Strategies for the Balboa Park Station Area in San Francisco" with Mukul Mahlotra & Tanu Sankalia. Research report and CD-Rom funded by Bay Area Rapid Transportation (BART) and City and County of San Francisco, 1999.

CONFERENCES

"Strolling down Main Street with Dolores Hayden: a Feminist Perspective on New Urbanist Celebration, FL," presented at "Thinking Gender", UCLA Center for the Study of Women, Los Angeles, CA, March 2, 2001

"The Growing Up in Cities Project" presented at EDRA/ 31 2000, San Francisco, CA, May 10-14, 2000

"Between Fences: Living and Playing in Oak Park/ The Growing up in Cities project" presented at "Urban Childhood", Trondheim, Norway, June 9-12, 1997.

AWARDS 

1997 Institute of Urban and Regional Development (IURD) Berkeley, CA -HUD Seed Grant for community development in Oakland, CA. " Growing Up In Cities" pilot study.

1/1997-11/1997 FAAR Foundation, Milan, Italy. "Premio Ricerca 1996": Scholarship Research Abroad in collaboration with Politecnico of Milano, Italy . "Growing Up In Cities" pilot study.

1/1997-7/1997 University of Padua, Department of Architecture & Engineering "Borsa di Specializzazione all'estero": 6 months scholarship for participation in the team project "The Urban Plan" a collaborative program between UC Berkeley City and Regional Planning Dept and Oakland High Tech School, Oakland, CA.