Jeffrey Raven

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Jeffrey Raven is a specialist in sustainable and resilient urban design whose research is applied in professional practice and disseminated throughout the profession, government and allied disciplines. As Director of the NYIT Graduate Program in Urban and Regional Design from 2012-2020, he shaped the program to engage the fluid, interdisciplinary and global urban design profession that is practiced in the 21st century.

His professional practice focuses on US-international urban design projects and knowledge transfer. Projects in the Arabian Gulf, India, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa and the United States include low-carbon communities, climate resilience, green buildings, and smart growth. Jeffrey contributes to the development of US and international sustainable-resilient guidelines-metrics, including STAR Communities, the Global EcoDistrict Protocol, McKinsey’s Green Districts and Urban Land Institute Technical Assistance Panel. His work expands on the traditional influence and capabilities of architect-urbanists by bridging climate science, policy and design practice.

His lectures and workshops include MIT-Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge University (England), The World Bank (Washington), the Humboldt Foundation (Germany), Le Monde CITIES (Paris), École Polytechnique (Paris), Pavillon de l’Arsenal (Paris), Université Gustave Eiffel (Paris), Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris), Columbia University, Cornell University, Tongji University (Shanghai), Beijing University of Civil Engineering & Architecture, Peking University, Xiamen University (China), Chinese University of Hong Kong, Mumbai First (India), Asian Development Bank (Manila), Climate Change Summit 2017 (Morocco), Urban Design Climate Workshop for Durban (South Africa), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), United Nations (UNEP, Habitat, UNDP), the Regional Assembly (NYC), the Center for Architecture (NYC) and The New York Times Knowledge Network.

Publications include coordinating lead author of Urban Planning & Urban Design - Climate Change and Cities (Cambridge University Press 2018); From Climate Science to Practice, Urban Design & Climate Change, (Urban Design Journal-London 2019), Climate Resilient Urban Design, Resilient Cities (Springer 2011); and Shaping Resilient Cities in China, India and the United States (P. Lang 2014), Urban Design Climate Workshop: Gowanus (Urban Land Institute 2020), Ville chaude - quartiers cool : À la recherche des îlots de fraîcheur (Urbanisme-Paris 2020), Les villes doivent s’inspirer de la climatologie urbaine, Le Monde-Paris 2020. Externally Funded research: Three National Science Foundation projects on sustainable urban systems and climate-resilient urban design.

The American Institute of Architects elevated him to the College of Fellows (FAIA) in 2015. Co-Chair of the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter Planning & Urban Design Committee (2016-22), served on Board of Directors for AIA New York State, Partnership Chair Group in Architectural Pedagogy and Research for the French Ministry of Culture. In Paris, he has served on doctoral thesis jurors at Université Gustave Eiffel and Université Paris 8, as juror for the Habilitation à Diriger les Recherches (HDR) and as C40 Cities juror in Houston for C40 Reinventing Cities competition. He was educated at Université Paris-Est Sup (France), Cambridge University (England), the Rhode Island School of Design and Trinity College (USA).

Recent Projects/External Research

• National Science Foundation - INFEWS/T3 RCN: City-as-Lab Supplemental Grant. A Research Coordination Network for the Study of the Food, Energy, and Water Nexus for Sustainable and Resilient Urban Development. Prof. Raven leads the $150K 3-year project as subject matter expert with NYIT students focusing on sustainable and resilient urban design. (2021-2024).
• National Science Foundation - City-as-Lab INFEWS/T3 RCN: $747K; Co-PI for 5 Years. A Research Coordination Network for the Study of the Food, Energy, and Water Nexus for Sustainable and Resilient Urban Development. Lead researcher to working group on visioning, engaging stakeholder, engaging NYIT graduate students on field testing and validating the proposed model and framework. National Science Foundation (2019-present).
• National Science Foundation - The Sustainable Urbanisation Global Initiative (SUGI-Belmont-InSource): $375K; Co-PI for 3 Years. Prof. Raven leads the InSource (a European-American urban research consortium) Case Study in NYC in collaboration with local experts from the Urban Land Institute, the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter (AIANY) and NYIT graduate students; in coordination with key community stakeholder groups on Net-Zero Carbon and resilient district in NYC. The InSource consortium is developing a 3-D data modeling tool to enhance sustainability of the food/energy/water (FEW) nexus in urban environments. National Science Foundation (2018-present).
• National Science Foundation - National Workshop on Architectural Faculty in Environmental Sustainability Research (WAFES): $50K; Co-PI, WAFES investigator/session leader. The intent is to engage Architectural researchers who are pursuing, environmental sustainability research related to the built environment; to build architecture faculty capacity to successfully pursue NSF proposals. As session leader/investigator, Prof. Raven invited two urban design faculty experts from New York Tech's School of Architecture and Design to build research capacity. National Science Foundation (2019-2020).

Publications

• Raven J., Braneon C., Rosenzweig C. (2021) Embedding Climate Change in Urban Planning and Urban Design in New York City. In: Ren C., McGregor G. (eds) Urban Climate Science for Planning Healthy Cities. Biometeorology, vol 5. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87598-5_3
• Raven, J. Strategies for Urban Sustainability, (2021) Stream05 – New Intelligences, Paris, ISBN: 978-2-9575780-0-9.
• Raven, Jeffrey, Christian Braneon, and Michael Esposito. Urban Design Climate Workshop: Gowanus, Brooklyn. Washington, DC: Urban Land Institute, 2020. https://knowledge.uli.org/urban-design-climate-workshop-gowanus
• Raven, J. (2020) La Revue Urbanisme, Ville chaude - quartiers cool : À la recherche des îlots de fraîcheur, Edition #417, Paris, France.
• Raven, J. (2020) Les villes doivent s’inspirer de la climatologie urbaine pour répondre à la crise sanitaire (cities must take inspiration from urban climatology to respond to the health crisis), Le Monde, Paris, ISSN: 19506260.
• Raven, J. (2019) From Climate Science to Practice, Urban Design & Climate Change, Urban Design Journal, Urban Design Group, London, ISSN: 1750 712X.
• Raven, J., Stone, B., Mills, G., Towers, J., Katzschner, L., Leone, M., Gaborit, P., Georgescu, M., and Hariri, M. (2018). Urban planning and urban design. In C. Rosenzweig, W. Solecki, P. Romero-Lankao, S. Mehrotra, S. Dhakal, and S. Ali Ibrahim (eds.), Climate Change and Cities: Second Assessment Report of the Urban Climate Change Research Network, Cambridge University Press. Raven is Coordinating Lead Author to this international publication to help cities around the world address the causes and consequences of climate change. The confluence of research and operational application in this scholarship is providing a blueprint for how to convincingly configure sustainable and climate-resilient urban districts. Prof. Raven is presenting this work across multiple platforms and locations worldwide. He is organizing workshops with urban designers/urban planners, climatologists, policymakers, stakeholders and graduate students working side-by-side.
• Hamdi, R., Tapper, N., Raven, J., Cleugh, H., Di Lullo,G., Urban Climate Information to Support Decision Making: From Local to Global (2018). International Conference on Climate Change and Cities, United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), Nairobi, Kenya.
• Raven, J., Klein-Rosenthal, J. (2017). "Urban Heat and Urban Design: An Opportunity to Transform in NYC." The Sallan Foundation, Inc.
• Raven, J. (2017). "To Curb Climate Change, Cities Need the Right Design," Forbes.com.
• Raven, J. "Embedding Climate Change in Urban Planning and Design" (2015). In C. Rosenzweig, W. Solecki, P. Romero-Lankao, S. Mehrotra, S. Dhakal, and S. Ali Ibrahim (eds.) ARC3.2, Climate Change and Cities: Second Assessment Report of the Urban Climate Change Research Network, Earth Institute, Columbia University.
• Raven, J. Shaping Resilient Cities in China, India and the United States, Gaborit, P. (ed.), European and Asian Sustainable Towns, PIE Peter Lang SA, Brussels,2014.
• Raven, Jeffrey. Cooling the Public Realm: Climate-Resilient Urban Design · Resilient Cities (2011) Springer 1: 451-463, 2011. Cities and Adaptation to Climate Change - Proceedings of the Global Forum 2010, Series: Local Sustainability, Vol. 1, Otto-Zimmermann, Konrad (Ed.), 2011, XLIV, 576 p.

Interviews

• Interview, Strategies for Urban Sustainability, Stream05 – New Intelligences, Paris, 2022. https://www.pca-stream.com/en/writers/jeffrey-raven-188
• Interview on CTV News Channel-Canada; NYC climate-resilient design strategies, 2021. https://www.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=2271814
• Interview: Nature Podcast, Nature Research, Modeling hot cities, Springer Nature, 2019. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02645-x
• Interview, Urban Manifesto by Lucy Bullivant (Urbanista) & Prathima Manohar (The Urban Vision), London/Mumbai, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8Yi7wkPa-Y
Interview, Sustainable Urban Design, Global Forum on Urbanization + Health, Japan, 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2M02IFVGMw

Workshops, Presented Papers, Lectures

• École Polytechnique, From Climate Research to Climate Action, Lecture, Jury Member and Internship Supervisor, Paris, 2023.
• Durban, South Africa Urban Design Climate Workshop and Climate-Resilient Planning Project, 2023; funding from the National Science Foundation.
• Dublin, Ireland Urban Design Climate Workshop and Climate-Resilient Planning Project, 2023; funding from the National Science Foundation.
• Barcelona Urban Design Climate Workshop and Climate-Resilient Planning Project, 2023; funding from the National Science Foundation.
• Chair Group in Architectural Pedagogy and Research for the French Ministry of Culture, member of the scientific committee, developing innovative cross-sectoral approaches to the built environment to confront the challenges of climate change. “Habitabilité sur terre : Que peut l'architecture ? - Conversation vulnérabilités” https://vimeo.com/678770082, 2022.
• Le Marché International des Professionnels de L'immobilier (MIPIM) - Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), Changement Climatique et Aménagement Urbain: De la Recherche à l ’Application, France, 2023.
• EduBIM 2022, chaired Research Day on digital transformation of A/E/P/C to confront the impacts of climate change, Gustave Eiffel University https://lnkd.in/ecRqz26T, Paris, 2022.
• Urban Design Climate Workshop: Ten Years of Experiences & Methodologies, Climate-Resilient Urban Design (CRUD) project, UCCRN_edu/ERASMUS+ program of the European Union & National Science Foundation RCN grant, Paris, 2022.
• Bringing Science into Action: An Educational Alliance for Climate Resilient Design, Planning and Governance of Cities. Centre International des Conférences, Sorbonne Université, panelist. UCCRN_edu/ERASMUS+ program of the European Union & National Science Foundation RCN grant, Paris, 2022.
• Scaling Up Research Networks and Educational Alliances for Urban Systems and Climate, panelist, Università di Napoli Federico II, Dipartimento di Architettura (DiARC), UCCRN_edu/ERASMUS+ program of the European Union & National Science Foundation RCN grant, Naples, Italy, 2022.
• Écoles d'art américaines de Fontainebleau, lecture, France, 2022.
• Bringing Science into Action: An Educational Alliance for Climate Resilient Design, Planning and Governance of Cities. US-European research consortium workshop at the New York Institute of Technology: National Science Foundation RCN grant & UCCRN_edu/ERASMUS+ program of the European Union, New York, 2022.
• Researchers Panel on Community Engagement, National Science Foundation RCN, NYC panelist, 2022.
• Net Zero Neighborhoods – Gowanus, Brooklyn Project, Project Lead. INSOURCE Belmont Forum: Sustainable Urbanization Global Initiative (SUGI), National Science Foundation Grant No. 1830718. Collaboration with the American Institute of Architects, as co-Chair of Planning & Urban Design Committee. LinkedIn, 2019-2022.
• Climate Resilient Urban Design: Graduate lecture series, Université Gustave Eiffel, Paris, France, 2021.
• Evaluating Urban Issues of Climate Change, Barnard College – Columbia University, New York, 2021.
• City of the Future: Zero carbon buildings and quarters - Case studies from Montreal, Hamburg and New York, MTL Connecte, Panelist, sponsored by Consulate of Germany, Montreal, Canada, 2021.
• Reinventing World Cities – Post-Covid Cities; Global cities emerging from the pandemic while implementing social goals and 21st-century zero-carbon policies, Center for Architecture, NYC, 2021.
• National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine: Transportation Research Board. Panelist for Metropolitan Planning Organization forum on resiliency in transportation, 2021.
• City-as-Lab Research Coordination Network seminar moderator for the National Science Foundation-funded initiative aiming to explore the nexus of urban food, energy, and water systems, 2021.
• Food, Energy, and Water (FEW) Nexus in a City in Times of Climate Change, Building Sustainable Communities, New York Tech Energy Conference, 2021.
• MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Lecture and panel, Urban Planning & Urban Design - Climate Change and Cities, MIT DUSP: MIT School of Architecture + Planning, 2020.
• Urban Manifesto interview, co-hosted by Lucy Bullivant (London), place strategist, author & founder of Urbanista.org and Prathima Manohar (Mumbai), founder of think-do-tank The Urban Vision, 2020.
• Urbanism of the Southern China Metropolis: NYIT – Tsinghua University Symposium, panelist, 2020.
• Leveraging Our Strengths: An Open Call for Science, Advocacy, and Design, Climate Justice Panel by the American Institute of Architects, panel moderator, 2020.
• Dialogue: Heat in the City, Global Heat Health Information Network, lecture and panel moderated by Laurie Goering (Thomson Reuters). Panelists included C40 Manager of Cool Cities; Dep. Director NYC Mayor’s Office of Resiliency, leading Hong Kong developer, 2020.
• Featured in AIA Blueprint for Better, a national campaign by the American Institute of Architects to bring to life the role of architects as leaders in the fight against climate change, 2020.
• Workshop on Governing Climate Resilience Cities, hosted by University of Pisa, Italy. Directed the Planning and Building workshop comprising NYIT MSAURD graduate students, experts from NASA Goddard Institute (Columbia University), researchers/students from universities of Pisa, Naples and Dublin, 2020.
• MTL Connect - City of the Future, Montreal, Canada; keynote presentation, 2020.
• Archtober: Challenges in Future Cities, hosted by the Consul General of Sweden in NY and Exec. Director of the van Alen Institute. Panel from Rwanda, Kenya, UK, Canada, Sweden and the US, 2020.
• Anhui Jianzhu University, China: Sustainable and Resilient Urban Design; Lecture and Workshop: Sustainable & Resilient Urban Design; expert delegation sponsored by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, New York, 2020.
• Cool District Hot City, University of Miami School of Architecture, graduate lecture, 2020.
• Tongji University, Shanghai: Designing for Net-Zero (2019); Lecture to graduate faculty and students, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, China.
• Shenzhen University School of Architecture: Sustainable and Resilient Urban Design (2019); Lecture to undergraduate and graduate faculty and students, China.
• First International Urban Forum on City of Challenges: Eco-Technological Innovation, Laayoune, Western Sahara, Morocco (2019). Lecturer and panelist on bridging climate science, policy and design practice. The Moroccan Phosboucraa Foundation organized this international event held at the Palais des Congrès in Laayoune. Panel moderated by Michael Berkowitz, former President of 100 Resilient Cities at the Rockefeller Foundation.
• Le Monde CITIES, lecturer and member of the Awards Selection Committee, Paris (2019). Raven presented New York Institute of Technology's urban design studio project for Gowanus, Brooklyn, through the lens of integrating climate adaptation and climate mitigation. Raven then presented the Innovative Cities Urbanism award to Parques del Rio, an organization working to transform the waterfront of Medellín, Colombia.
• Urban Design Climate Workshop for Durban, South Africa (2019). Sessions engaged representatives from Durban to integrate and scale up mitigation and adaptation principles by reducing energy consumption in the built environment, strengthening urban climate resiliency, and enhancing human comfort and quality of life. Sponsored by the German government Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the Government of Durban.
• "Integrating Climate Science and Urban Design," lecture and design charrette at Chinese University of Hong Kong (2019), with participation by Hong Kong University and The Secretary for the Environment of Hong Kong.
• Juror for the Habilitation à Diriger les Recherches (HDR) by the research director from École des Ponts ParisTech/Université Paris-Est (2018). The HDR is a high-level specialization, a university-granted, higher education-sanctioned degree obtained post-PhD and required to reach the rank of "Professeur des Universites." Jurors must be internationally recognized experts in the field of research.
• Sustainable Urban Design, a workshop for a delegation from Shandong Provisional Government, China (2018). Raven organized this event and donated its proceeds to NYIT School of Architecture and Design.
• Global Practices and Policy on Urban Risk, Resilience, and Crises (2019), lecture delivered at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.
• Archtober: Responsive Cities (2018), panelist with experts from ETH Zurich, sponsored by the Consulate General of Switzerland, Parsons-New School.
• AIA2018 - Project New York: Collaborative Mapping Platform (2018), panelist.
• "Shaping Climate Resilient Cities through Innovative, Multi-Scale and Adaptive-Mitigation Design Methods" (2018), speaker, IAUC International Climate Conference, CUNY.
• International IPCC Cities (2018), Panel Chair and Presenter. Raven's panels comprised other global experts on the intersection of urban form and climate, Edmonton, Canada.
• "Climate-Resilient Urban Design: Bridging Science and Practice" (2017), IDBE Master's Programme/Institute for Sustainability Leadership, Cambridge University, England. Invited lecturer and workshop leader on the intersection of urban form, climate, and implementation strategies.
• International Climate Chance Summit (2017), Agadir, Morocco. Co-led workshop with a panel of European and American experts. A graduate student from NYIT School of Architecture and Design joined the panel to present innovative research carried out by graduate urban design student team for East Midtown Manhattan.
• "Integrating Mitigation and Adaptation in Urban Planning, Urban Design, and Architecture," Urban Transition in Face of Climate Change (2017), Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris. Co-led international workshop; joined by leadership from the French national and Paris city governments to evaluate innovative strategies for a carbon-neutral Paris. Sponsored by UCCRN, CNRS, Sorbonne Universités.
• Climate Change in NYC: Bridging Science and Practice (2017), Center for Architecture, New York City. Co-moderator/panelist and lecturer. Panel discussion featured in Oculus magazine and video.
• Toward Developing a Blueprint for Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure, International Conference on Sustainable Infrastructure (2016), invited and sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation as speaker and panelist, Shenzhen, China.
• "The South Bronx: Seeds for Urban Transformation," How Policy, Planning & Design Shape New York Neighborhoods (2016). Raven organized and moderated this panel for the interdisciplinary conference of the American Society of Landscape Architects, American Planning Association, and the American Institute of Architects.
• Sustainable Megacities: US-China EcoPartnership Forum (2015), Beijing; panel chair/lecturer. Led by New York Institute of Technology and Peking University; co-funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.
• Urban Transitions in the Face of Climate Change: Jeffrey lectured and was a panelist at a COP21-labelled event in Paris, France. Jeffrey presented his key research findings in the Summary to City Leaders for Climate Change in Cities (2015). The event was held at the Pavillon de l'Arsenal, the center for urban planning and architecture of Paris. It marked the launch of the Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN) Hub in Europe.

Juries

• École Polytechnique, Science et Défis pour l’Environnement : L’urbanisme et l’Aménagement du Territoire -Vecteur d'une Société plus Durable (EA586), Paris, 2023.
• Delano & Aldrich / Emerson Foundation, member of jury selected by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) at the Académie d’Architecture, Paris, 2023.
• Université Paris-Est, Génie Urbain, Master 2, Risque Urbain - Résilience Urbaine (RU²), Paris, 2023.
• École des Ingénieurs de la Ville de Paris, Urbanisme Master 2, Paris, 2022.
• Doctoral Thesis Juror, École des Ponts ParisTech/Université Paris-Est. The thesis is Architecture as Indicator of Risk, at the Risk of Urban Temporalities. Delivered a detailed verbal and written response and exchange with the doctoral candidate and fellow jury in French, 2021.
• Le Monde CITIES, Member of the Awards Selection Committee, Paris, 2019-present.
• I-Site FUTURE Scientific Committee at Université Gustave Eiffel, France (current).
• Juror for the Habilitation à Diriger les Recherches (HDR) by the research director from École des Ponts ParisTech/Université Paris-Est. The HDR is a high-level specialization university-granted and higher education-sanctioned degree obtained post-PhD needed to access the rank of "Professeur des Universites". The criteria for jury selection requires internationally-recognized experts in the field of research, Paris, 2019.
• C40 Cities jury panelist in Houston for the Reinventing Cities competition, organized by the C40 and the City of Houston, Texas, 2019.
• Doctoral Thesis Juror, Université Paris 8, Socio-Semiotics and Research-Action Approach to the Visual Identity of Museums in Paris and New York, As Doctoral Thesis Juror, Raven delivered a detailed verbal and written response and exchange with the doctoral candidate and fellow jury in French, 2016.
• Shaping a New Capital City to Fit Indian Life, Naya Raipur, India, International jury invited by a joint European Union program Euro-Asian Sustainable Towns Programme (EAST) and L’association Les Ateliers Internationaux de Maîtrise d’Oeuvre Urbaine (Cergy-Paris), 2012.

Professional Honors & Service

• College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA). Elevated to the national AIA College of Fellows in 2015. The FAIA "is awarded to architects who have made a significant contribution to architecture and society and who have achieved a standard of excellence in the profession”. Listed as a Best Example FAIA submission in Research.
• External Expert Advisory Board member of the Horizon Europe project “KNOWING – Framework for defining Climate Mitigation Pathways based on Understanding and integrated Assessment of Climate Impacts, Adaptation Strategies and Societal Transformation” funded by the European Commission, 2023.
• Elected member of the Century Association, New York City, 2021.
• Foreign visiting professor invited by the Université Gustave Eiffel (France), selected by jury from the directors of the doctoral schools and Doctoral Training Council, the President of the university, 2021-22.
• Co-Chair of the American Institute of Architects Planning & Urban Design Committee - New York Chapter; nominated by AIA peers and supported by the AIANY Board of Directors, 2016 to 2022.
• AIA New York State Board of Directors, appointed 2018.
• Steering Board member of sustainable cities NGO Pilot4Dev Steering Board (Brussels)
• Bronx Center; awarded Best Practice prototype by UN Habitat, Project Coordinator

Courses Taught at New York Tech

• ARCH 701: Urban and Regional Design Studio I
• ARCH 702: Urban and Regional Design Studio II
• ARCH 703: Urban and Regional Design Studio III
• ARCH 824: City + Regional Resources + Infrastructure

Faculty Work

Contact Info

• jraven@nyit.edu
• jeffraven.com/
• ResearchGate
• Check out Spotlight on Urban Design for recent graduate urban design news