Since 1994, Kevin Klinkenberg, a Senior Planner with Olsson Associates has explored his passion for walkable communities. That passion led him to the Congress for the New Urbanism, where he has been a member since 1997, and a 2003 fellowship with the Knight Program in Community Building through the University of Miami and the Knight Foundation. It also ultimately led him to become a co-founder of 180 Urban Design & Architecture in 2000. For more than 10 years, the firm enjoyed excellent working relationships with its clients and like-minded professionals around the country. Working on hundreds of projects in 27 states, Kevin and his team designed developments for both new and redevelopment locations, wrote ordinances for cities and developers, and led award-winning public involvement processes. Kevin was featured in the Pitch Weekly’s “Best of ” issue in 2009 as one of the “Best of Kansas City”. He joined Olsson Associates in January of 2012.
Kevin’s particular mission is to seek the balance between the practical and the visionary in projects of all scales, from individual sites to neighborhoods to entire regions. He’s a frequent speaker and writer about this and other topics related to urban design, and maintains this blog. (as much as time allows)
His volunteer activities include serving as 2010 president of AIA/Kansas City and board tenure on the Urban Society of Kansas City, Housing Choices Coalition, along with numerous volunteer committees.
Klinkenberg has also been a faculty member for the Form-Based Codes Institute and the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Architecture & Urban Design. Additionally he has been active in setting new standards for context-sensitive transportation policy through the CNU. Klinkenberg recently relocated to the beautiful and walkable city of Savannah, GA, where he lives and rarely uses a vehicle.
3 Responses to Who is Kevin Klinkenberg?
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Hi! New Urbanism is, or course, a good idea and not many planners are arguing with that. The only complaints that you sometimes hear are these rumblings about aspects of it being “contrived” or not feeling “real.” I am trying to get to the bottom of that at my new blog. BUT, I just started and I have like three(!) readers. So, some time when you are not too busy can you (and/or some of your readers) look and comment please?? If possible, be gentle, I am a new blogger
Thanks Libby,
There’s lots of discussion about that critique out there. But, what I’d ask first is – “what do you actually mean by that?” You have to get to the bottom of what people are saying. Most NU is very new, and new places tend to real not as “real” as places that have been around a while. But, all those places we seek to emulate were once new as well. There are those who complain about the architecture feeling “contrived” or “Disney-like.” Again, we have to get at what the real objection is. For many architects and designers, anything that is not one of the contemporary styles is “contrived.” But, does the lay person feel that way, too?
There are legitimate critiques, and we should listen to all of them. What I would suggest you do is continue to ask people hard questions, to try and find out what they specifically are objecting to.
Kevin
I often respond to the “contrived” argument by stating that these design principles harken back to an American urban design heritage which predates the ubiquity of the automobile. In that sense, the “New” Urbanism is not so “new” after all: it is the decentralized, homogenized, suburbanized city that is the “new” form which has now become standard. In a sense, our “New” Urbanism seeks an urban form our grandparents would readily be more at home in.