WHO WE ARE

Meg Walker

Vice President

A registered architect and a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, Meg Walker has a broad range of experience in architectural and urban design, as well as planning, in both the public and private sectors. Ms. Walker rejoined Project for Public Spaces, Inc. in 2004 after five years as the Planning Director for the Village of Hastings-on-Hudson, NY.

As a Vice President at PPS and also Director of Design, Meg directs PPS’s work on new town centers and mixed-use development, focusing on the design and management of the public spaces in new developments, as well as facilitating community workshops that engage the public in the planning process. Her projects have ranged from master plans for new town centers and adaptive reuse of industrial sites, to waterfront and urban park designs. Projects she has recently directed or consulted on include: redevelopments plan for an industrial site in downtown Savannah, Georgia and for a historic neighborhood in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina; a concept for a new mixed-use development with a major urban plaza in downtown Orlando, FL; a plan for a new mixed-use town center and village green in a new residential community in Lincoln, Nebraska; and, a plan for a new town center and park in Oviedo, Florida.

As the Planning Director for the Village of Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, from 1998 to 2003, Ms. Walker facilitated a community-based planning process focusing on the redevelopment of Hastings’ fifty-acre, derelict waterfront and developed plans for the revitalization of Kinnally Cove, a new waterfront park. She also led the planning effort to revitalize and rezone the downtown, in addition to reviewing large development proposals for the Village.

Ms. Walker originally joined PPS in 1994 after fifteen years of architectural practice with the firms of James Stewart Polshek and Partners, Buttrick White and Burtis Architects, and her own partnership, Ryzinski Walker Architects.

Ms. Walker received a Bachelor’s degree in Government from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and she has a Master of Architecture from Columbia University. Meg is also an experienced facilitator and accomplished public speaker.

Education

Wesleyan University, Bachelor of Arts
Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Master of Architecture
The Land Use Law Center of the Pace University School of Law and the Glynwood Center, Community Leadership Alliance Training Program

Facilitation

Community Leadership Alliance Training Program (1998 – 1993)
The Land Use Law Center of Pace University School of Law and the Glynwood Center. Facilitated six CLA training programs for local leaders in the Hudson Valley.

Instruction

NYU, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service (1996- 1998)
Adjunct Professor of Urban Planning
Taught year-long planning workshop.

New Jersey Institute of Technology (1988)
Adjunct Instructor of Design in the School of Architecture

Guest Critic (1984 – present)
Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, City College of New York, City University Graduate Program in Urban Design, New Jersey Institute of Technology and Pratt Institute

Publications

Project for Public Spaces, Inc. TCRP Report 22, The Role of Transit in Creating Livable Metropolitan Communities, National Academy Press, (1997).
Federal Transit Administration. The Livable Communities Initiative, (1996).

Awards & Honors

Westchester Municipal Planning Federation (WMPF): Commendation Award for a Redevelopment Plan for the Hastings-on-Hudson Waterfront (2002)

William Kinne Traveling Fellowship, Columbia University: Preservation of Historic Towns in Poland (1981)