2009-10 LECTURE SERIES

Sam Assefa, LEED AP

December 6, 2006 @ 6pm

Mr. Assefa is the new Director of Policy for the Department of Planning and Development charged with advancing Mayor Richard M. Daley’s vision of making Chicago Americas most livable city. In this position, he coordinates policies on land development, architecture, urban design, and sustainable development. Previously, he served as deputy chief of staff to Mayor Daley, and as head of urban design and interim head of the Zoning and Land Use Division at DPD.

Prior to joining the City of Chicago, Mr. Assefa worked both in the private and public sectors in architecture, urban design and community planning. He was responsible for the design and implementation of sustainable land use policies in various cities. As the senior urban designer for the City of San Francisco’s Planning Department, he developed and directed land use policies for high-density, transit-oriented developments, industrial area design guidelines, and guidelines for high-rise mixed-use developments for San Francisco’s downtown.

A member of Lambda Alpha International, Mr. Assefa taught architecture at the California College of Arts and serves on various boards and civic organizations. He has been a speaker on design and sustainable development topics at conferences and universities including the AIA, APA, Dutch Sustainable Conference, Railvolution Conference, University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Notre Dame and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, among others.  He has represented the City of Chicago and Mayor Daley as a speaker and a panelist at international forums including the National Urban Planning Institute in Ethiopia, OECD Conference in Montreal, Canada, and Mega Cities Development Forum in Nantong, China.

Mr. Assefa is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Master’s in City Planning, and the University of Illinois, Chicago, with B.A. in Architecture.

LECTURE

"Green City, Green Mayor, Sustainable Urban Policy"

Mayor Daley's pledge to make Chicago the "Greenest city in America" is helping create various policy initiatives both in the public and private sectors. As a result, Chicago is fast becoming a model for sustainability in the United States. The talk will highlight the key policy initiatives, with a focus on land and building development policies, to illustrate how the city is leading by example on sustainable development.

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