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EDRA GREAT PLACES AWARDS

EDRA is thankful to the Great Places Awards jurors for their service to our organization.

Place Design

Kurt Culbertson, PhD, FASLA is the President of Studio and former Chairman and CEO of Design Workshop, a leading international landscape architecture and urban design firm. He holds degrees from LSU, SMU, and Edinburgh College of Art and is a Fulbright Scholar and Fellow of ASLA, AICP, the Urban Design Forum, Bogliasco Foundation, and Dumbarton Oaks. Awarded the ASLA Medal in 2016, his research explores German-American contributions to landscape architecture, patch dynamics in urban ecology, and spatial equity. His recent work at Bogliasco Foundation and the American Academy in Rome refines a human habitat quality model for understanding settlement patterns.
Aaron’s boundless curiosity and willingness to get lost—in cities, podcasts, music— keep his creative antennae attuned to new avenues, ideas, and riffs that lead to unexpected design solutions. Whether he’s drawing on these experiences or the experience of designing award-winning architecture in Beijing (like Vanke’s Park 5), an expansive sense of the possible enables Aaron to design deeply empathetic and joyful spaces. Patients, families, and medical staff benefit from this in projects like Cincinnati Children’s Family Pet Center, Cincinnati Children’s Clinical Services Pavilion, and Mercy Health’s Mason Montgomery Ambulatory Care Building. Outside of work, Aaron can reliably be found supporting the unique passions of his five kids
Luis Rico-Gutierrez serves as Dean of the College of Design at Iowa State University, where 2,200 students and 150 faculty and staff in seven departments nurture a comprehensive design ecosystem determined to enhance how we live, work, and thrive. An architect whose career spans three continents, he previously served as Associate Dean at Carnegie Mellon’s College of Fine Arts, where he co-founded the Remaking Cities Institute, demonstrating the power of connecting academic expertise with community knowledge. As a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council, Rico-Gutierrez is recognized internationally for advancing excellence by connecting people, disciplines, and cultures.

Place Planning

Dr. Jules Bruck, RLA, joined the University of Florida College of Design, Construction, and Planning on July 1, 2022, as director of the School of Landscape Architecture and Planning and chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture. She came to DCP from the University of Delaware, where she was a professor and founding director of the landscape architecture program. In those roles, she taught capstone and design process studios and courses in creativity, field sketching, and ecological planting design. She is a registered landscape architect and a SITES Accredited Professional (AP).
Maria Perbellini is the Dean of the School of Architecture and Design at NYIT, a tenured Professor, and the co-founder of Pongratz Perbellini Architects, advancing design innovation and emerging computational technologies. She served the Italian Pavilion Advisory Board at the 17th Architecture Venice Biennale 2021, co-curated the section “Architecture as a Caregiver”, was a Creative Director of the Virtual Italian Pavilion, and the Curator of the collateral event “Students as Researchers” at the 18th Architecture Venice Biennale 2023. Perbellini is a member of the NYC Architecture Biennial Advisory Board, NYCxDesign Steering Committee, and the 2024 AIA NY Public Director for Educational Affairs, and she received the AIA LI Educator Award. She holds a B.Arch from IUAV, Italy, an M.Arch from Pratt Institute, NY, and has completed the Harvard Management Development Program on Higher Education Leadership.
June Williamson is Professor and Director of Graduate Programs in Architecture at the Spitzer School of Architecture of The City College of New York and serves as Second Vice President of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. A registered architect and urban designer, she documents transformations of obsolete suburban built form. Her books include Retrofitting Suburbia (Wiley, 2008, updated 2011), the Great Places Book Award-winning sequel, Case Studies in Retrofitting Suburbia (Wiley, 2021), both with Ellen Dunham-Jones, and Designing Suburban Futures: New Models from Build a Better Burb (Island Press, 2013). She and Dunham-Jones are recipients of the 2025 Seaside Prize.

Place Research

Catherine De Almeida is an associate professor of landscape architecture at the University of Washington. Her design research, landscape lifecycles, applies material, social, ecological, and economic lifecycle lenses to the understanding and design of waste landscapes. Her work emphasizes waste relations to illuminate the performance, visibility, citizenships, emotions, perceptions, attitudes, and injustices of waste materials and landscapes.
June Williamson is Professor and Director of Graduate Programs in Architecture at the Spitzer School of Architecture of The City College of New York and serves as Second Vice President of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. A registered architect and urban designer, she documents transformations of obsolete suburban built form. Her books include Retrofitting Suburbia (Wiley, 2008, updated 2011), the Great Places Book Award-winning sequel, Case Studies in Retrofitting Suburbia (Wiley, 2021), both with Ellen Dunham-Jones, and Designing Suburban Futures: New Models from Build a Better Burb (Island Press, 2013). She and Dunham-Jones are recipients of the 2025 Seaside Prize.
Kara is the Director of Healthcare Research at Flad Architects, where she focuses on advocating, leading, and advancing strategic research initiatives for pre-design services and post-occupancy evaluations within the firm’s healthcare practice. Serving as a subject matter expert, she educates and advises firm leadership and teams on the development of planning tools, operational studies, and research-based services. Her work has received multiple Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) Certificates of Research Excellence (CORE) and The Center for Health Design, Evidence-based Design Touchstone Awards.

Place Book

Dr. Galen D. Newman, FASLA, FCELA, is Professor and Head in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning (LAUP) at Texas A&M University. Dr. Newman's research interests include community resilience, urban regeneration, land use science, spatial analytics, and built environment performance. His work has been published in many high-quality peer-reviewed outlets (over 130 journal articles) and has been funded through numerous internal and external funding sources, including the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, totaling over 73 million. He has also won many national and international awards/recognitions for his research, teaching, and service.
Sara Jensen Carr is an Associate Professor of architecture, urbanism, and landscape at Northeastern University. Her work examines the connections between built environment, human health, and social equity and has been funded by the Mellon Foundation, Graham Foundation, and National Endowment for the Humanities. Her book, The Topography of Wellness: How Health and Disease Shaped the American Urban Landscape, was a recipient of the John Brinckerhoff Jackson Book Prize and the Award of Excellence from the American Society of Landscape Architects, among others. She works extensively with nonprofits, local governments, and professional associations on participatory public realm design and community-driven research.
Vinit Mukhija is a Professor of Urban Planning, the former Chair of the Department of Urban Planning, and has a courtesy appointment in Asian American Studies at UCLA. He is leading the Department of Urban Planning’s efforts to develop a new, one-year self-supporting graduate professional degree program in real estate development, which will situate real estate development pedagogy within a broader framework of politics, policy analysis, sustainability, and equity at the urban level. [...] Professor Mukhija trained as an urban planner (Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology), urban designer (MUD, University of Hong Kong), and architect (M.Arch., University of Texas, Austin, and B.Arch., the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi). He also has professional experience as an urban designer and physical planner in India, Hong Kong, and Kuwait, with new town design proposals and projects in India, China, and the Middle East. Before coming to UCLA, he worked as a post-doctoral researcher for the Fannie Mae Foundation in Washington, D.C., and developed neighborhood upgrading and renewal strategies for American cities. Some of his past projects have been funded by the Haynes Foundation, the California Policy Research Center, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the World Bank.

Place Art

William (Bill) John Batson Jr., a Cleveland native, holds a BA in Art, a BS in Architecture, and a Master of Architecture from The Ohio State University. After a decade in the private sector, he transitioned to academia, teaching at the University of Kentucky before joining Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) in 2007. Now a tenured professor and Director of the CURES Center, he teaches Design Studio, CAD, and Architectural History. Through CURES, he uses advanced technology for historic preservation. Passionate about architecture, Bill is committed to mentoring students and promoting sustainable design to protect the built environment.
Sadık C. Artunç, FASLA, FCELA, PLA, PE, is a professor of landscape architecture. He served as the Head of the Department of Landscape Architecture at Mississippi State University (MSU) from 2007 until 2024. Before MSU, he taught in the Robert S. Reich School of Landscape Architecture at Louisiana State University from 2007 to 1981. He is a registered landscape architect in the U.S.A. and a registered forester and forest engineer in Türkiye. His teaching and professional consulting involve design implementation and construction, site planning and design, large-scale planning and design (mainly on recreation and tourism), and resource planning.

GPA 2024 Jurors

Place Design

Ervin Garip || Professor, Istanbul Technical University
George Hallowell || Professional Faculty, North Carolina State University

 

Place Planning

Ellen Dunham-Jones || Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology
Jason Sowell || Associate Professor, University at Buffalo

 

Place Research

Ge Lun || Professor, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture
Jeri Brittin  || Director, Social and Behavioral Sciences & HDR

 

Place Book

Ashraf M. Salama || Professor of Architecture and Urbanism, University of Northumbria
Mohammad Gharipour || Professor and Architecture Program Director, University of Maryland

 
Place Art

Stan Carroll || Public Artist, Beyond Metal
Christina Hite || Founding Partner, Dix.Hite + Partners

GPA 2023 Jurors

Place Design

Liz Gálvez || Critic, Yale School of Architecture

Belinda Tato || Associate Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture, Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Li Xiaodong || Professor, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, China

 

Place Planning

Elena Madison || Director of Projects, Project for Public Spaces

Setha Low || Distinguished Professor of Environmental Psychology, Geography, Anthropology, and Women's Studies, and Director of the Public Space Research Group at The Graduate Center, The City University of New York

Bo Yang || Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, Associate Dean for Research, Interim Director, Drachman Institute, University of Arizona

 

Place Research

Newton D’souza || Associate Professor, Interior Architecture, College of Communication, Architecture and the Arts, Florida International University 

Michelle Ossmann || Director, Health Knowledge & Innovation at MillerKnoll

Mardelle McCuskey Shepley || Professor, Executive Director of CIHF, Human Centered Design, Cornell University

 

Place Book

Miguel Guitart || Assistant Professor, University at Buffalo-SUNY Department of Architecture

Kent F. Spreckelmeyer || Professor of Architecture, University of Kansas School of Architecture & Design

Nate Storring || Co-Executive Director, Project for Public Spaces

 

Place Art

Chris Cornelius || Chair of the Department of Architecture, The University of New Mexico

Richard R. Davison || Professor, Texas A&M University College of Architecture

Julia Jamrozik || Toronto-based Designer, Artist and Educator, Toronto Metropolitan University Department of Architectural Science

GPA 2022 Jurors

Place Design

David Hays || Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Alessandra Galletti || Architect and Landscape Architect, Project for Public Spaces

 

Place Planning

Joy Knoblauch || Associate Professor, Director PhD Program in Architecture, University of Michigan

Elena Madison || Director of Projects, Project for Public Spaces

 

Place Research

Keith Diaz Moore || Ph.D., Professor and College of Architecture + Planning Dean, University of Utah

Kathryn H. Anthony || ACSA Distinguished Professor, University of llinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Architecture

Place Book

Jeff Hou || Professor of Landscape Architecture, Director of the Urban Commons Lab, University of Washington

Ann Sussman || Archiitect, Author, President of the Human Architecture + Planning Institute Inc.

  

Place Art

Kevin Hamilton || Professor of New Media and Dean of the College of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Todd Palmer || Director, Diversity in Design

GPA 2021 Jurors

Place Design

Kimberly Dowdell || Principal at HOK in Chicago and as the 2019-2020 National President of NOMA

Jenny B. Osuldsen || Partner at Snøhetta and Professor in Landscape Architecture at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences at Ås

Fabian Winkler || MFA, Professor, Purdue University,  Co-founder of  Critical Gardening

Suchi Reddy || Founder of Reddymade

 

Place Planning

Luisa Bravo || Ph.D., Founder and President of City Space Architecture, Founder and Editor in chief of The Journal of Public Space

Rainy Hamilton || Founder at Hamilton Anderson Associates

María Arquero de Alarcón || Founder of MAde Studio and Associate Professor at Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning

 

Place Research

Wenche Dramstad || Ph.D., Head of Department/Head of Research at Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research

Debajyoti Pati || Ph.D., Professor at Texas Tech University

Upali Nanda || Ph.D., Director of Research at HKS and Professor of Practice at Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning

 

Place Book

Kirk Hamilton || Ph.D., Professor of Health Facility Design at Texas A&M University

Alessandro Melis || Ph.D., Professor of Architecture at University of Portsmouth and curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 17th International Biennale of Architecture in Venice 2020

Charlie Hailey || Ph.D., Professor of Architecture at University of Florida

 

Place Art 

Emanuele Montibeller || Art Curator, Artesella, Italy

Shannon McMullen  || Ph.D., Professor, Purdue University, Co-founder of  Critical Gardening

Fabian Winkler || MFA, Professor, Purdue University,  Co-founder of  Critical Gardening

F. Philip Barash || Fellow, the Boston Foundation 

GPA 2020 Jurors

Place Design

Antje Steinmuller || Associate Professor at California College of the Arts, and Co-Director of the Urban Works Agency

Kevin Conger || Founding partner of CMG Landscape Architecture

 

Place Planning

Alpa Nawre || Assistant Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at University of Florida, Executive Director of Critical Places, and Partner at Alpa Nawre Design

Russell Baltimore ||Assistant Director at Planning and Development Department, City of Detroit

 

Place Research

Keith Diaz Moore || Dean of the College of Architecture and Planning at the University of Utah

Sanjoy Mazumdar || Professor emeritus in the Department of Urban Planning and Public Policy, Asian American Studies, and Religious Studies, at the University of California, Irvine

 

Place Book

Stephen Vogel || Distinguished Professor of Architecture and Dean Emeritus of the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture

Federica Goffi || Associate Professor, Co-Chair of the PhD Program in Architecture, and Chair of Carleton Research | Practice of Teaching | Collaborative at the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada

GPA 2021 Jurors

Place Design

Kimberly Dowdell ||Principal at HOK in Chicago and as the 2019-2020 National President of NOMA

Jenny B. Osuldsen ||Partner at Snøhetta and Professor in Landscape Architecture at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences at Ås

Fabian Winkler ||MFA, Professor, Purdue University,  Co-founder of  Critical Gardening

Suchi Reddy || Founder of Reddymade

 

Place Planning

Luisa Bravo || Ph.D., Founder and President of City Space Architecture, Founder and Editor in chief of The Journal of Public Space

Rainy Hamilton ||Founder at Hamilton Anderson Associates

María Arquero de Alarcón || Founder of MAde Studio and Associate Professor at Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning

 

Place Research

Wenche Dramstad ||Ph.D., Head of Department/Head of Research at Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research

Debajyoti Pati ||Ph.D., Professor at Texas Tech University

Upali Nanda || Ph.D., Director of Research at HKS and Professor of Practice at Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning

 

Place Book

Kirk Hamilton ||Ph.D., Professor of Health Facility Design at Texas A&M University

Alessandro Melis ||Ph.D., Professor of Architecture at University of Portsmouth and curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 17th International Biennale of Architecture in Venice 2020

Charlie Hailey || Ph.D., Professor of Architecture at University of Florida

 

Place Art

Emanuele Montibeller || Art Curator, Artesella, Italy

Shannon McMullen ||Ph.D., Professor, Purdue University, Co-founder of  Critical Gardening

Fabian Winkler ||MFA, Professor, Purdue University,  Co-founder of  Critical Gardening

F. Philip Barash ||Fellow, the Boston Foundation 

GPA 2020 Jurors

Place Design

Antje Steinmuller ||Associate Professor at California College of the Arts, and Co-Director of the Urban Works Agency

Kevin Conger || Founding partner of CMG Landscape Architecture

 

Place Planning

Alpa Nawre || Assistant Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at University of Florida, Executive Director of Critical Places, and Partner at Alpa Nawre Design

Russell Baltimore || Assistant Director at Planning and Development Department, City of Detroit

 

Place Research

Keith Diaz Moore || Dean of the College of Architecture and Planning at the University of Utah

Sanjoy Mazumdar || Professor emeritus in the Department of Urban Planning and Public Policy, Asian American Studies, and Religious Studies, at the University of California, Irvine

 

Place Book

Stephen Vogel || Distinguished Professor of Architecture and Dean Emeritus of the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture

Federica Goffi ||Associate Professor, Co-Chair of the PhD Program in Architecture, and Chair of Carleton Research | Practice of Teaching | Collaborative at the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada

GPA 2019 Jurors

Peter C. Bosselmann ||Professor of the Graduate School in Architecture, City & Regional Planning, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design - University of California, Berkeley

Taryn Sabia ||Associate Professor of Research - University of South Florida

Cheryl S. Durst, Hon. ||President of IIDA

Jill DeLozier ||Vice-President, DOKC-Downtown Oklahoma City Partnership

Joel Burns || City councilman, City of Fort Worth, Texas