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Elizabeth
Macdonald, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor in Urban Design Department of City and Regional Planning |
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| Elizabeth Macdonald, Ph.D., is Assistant
Professor of City and Regional Planning, specializing in urban
design. She is also a faculty member of the Program in the Design
of Urban Places, an interdisciplinary program sponsored by the
College of Environmental Design that offers a Master's of Urban
Design Degree. She holds a B.A. in Architecture (1981), a M.L.A.
and M.C.P. (1995), and a Ph.D. (1999) from the Department of City
and Regional Planning at the University of California at Berkeley.
From 1999 to 2001 she taught at the University of Toronto, where
she helped start the first Master of Urban Design program in
Canada, and from 2001-2002 she taught at the University of British
Columbia, where she established a studio-based urban design concentration within
the Master of City Planning program. Macdonald's research interests encompass urban design theory, history of urban design, history of urban form, public space design, and environment-behavior research. Her recent book, The Boulevard Book: History, Evolution, Design of Multiway Boulevards (MIT Press, 2002, co-authored with Allan B. Jacobs and Yodan Rofé), explores the modern-day usefulness of a 19th century multi-functional street type, in which local traffic and pedestrian needs are balanced with through traffic needs within a single right-of-way. The exploration is made within the context of an historical analysis of the street type, and extensive empirical observation of boulevards throughout the world. Her article, "Structuring a Landscape/Structuring a Sense of Place: The Enduring Complexity of Olmsted and Vaux's Brooklyn Parkways," which appeared in the June 2002 issue of the Journal of Urban Design, explores the evolution of physical form and social use of two exemplary American multiway boulevards: how they were conceived, how they evolved, how they were managed, how they survived, and the impact they had on urban form. It describes, as well, how these streets helped create a unique sense of local place, how local place making intersected with larger, non-local forces, and the conflicts over meaning and use that ensued. Macdonald has a particular interest in the issue of livability. She is co-author with Peter Bosselmann of "Livable Streets Revisited," which appeared in the Journal of the American Planning Association Spring 1999 issue. This article reports on a study that evaluated the livability of residential multiway boulevards. In recent years, Macdonald's research interests have expanded to involve questions about the public/private interface in urban design. She is currently involved in a research study investigating the livability of Vancouver's new high density downtown neighborhoods. In Spring, 2003, Macdonald organized a symposium on the topic of Urban Design and Sustainability, which was held in Vancouver, British Columbia and sponsored by the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia, and the Vancouver Planning Department. The two-day symposium was attended by professionals, academics, and students from West Coast cities of Canada and the U.S. Macdonald teaches at both the graduate and undergraduate levels of the Department of City and Regional Planning curriculum. A recent undergraduate course was CP 110 Introduction to City Planning. Her current graduate courses include CP 208 Plan Preparation Studio, CP 248 Advanced Urban Design Studio, and CP 249 Urban Design in Planning. Her teaching responsibilities within the Program in the Design of Urban Places include ED 252 Urban Place Studies. As well as being an academic, Macdonald is also a licensed architect and practicing urban designer. She is a partner in the San Francisco based firm Jacobs Macdonald: Cityworks, whose recent projects have included a redesign of Pacific Boulevard in Vancouver, the design for Octavia Boulevard in San Francisco, a redesign of International Boulevard near the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland, and streetscape design for the Market-Octavia, Balboa Park, and Central Waterfront neighborhood plans, prepared as part of the San Francisco Planning Department's Better Neighborhoods Project.
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Department of City and Regional Planning
228 Wurster Hall
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California 94720-1850
510-643-3765