Jeffrey Raven

Jeffrey Raven

Title
Associate Professor, Director of Graduate Program in Urban & Regional Design
Department
Urban and Regional Design
Campus
New York City
Educational Credentials
MSt. (Cantab.), B.Arch., B.F.A., B.A.
Industry Credentials
FAIA, LEED BD+C
Joined New York Tech
2012

Jeffrey Raven is a specialist in sustainable and resilient urban design whose research is applied through his professional practice and disseminated throughout the profession, government, and allied disciplines.

Director of the graduate program in Urban and Regional Design, Raven has shaped the program to reflect the fluid, interdisciplinary, and global urban design profession as it is practiced today.

Raven is a practicing architect-urbanist and owner of RAVEN A+U, a professional practice with a focus on U.S. and international projects and knowledge transfer; he has carried out projects in the Arabian Gulf, India, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the United States, including low-carbon communities, green buildings, and smart growth. Raven contributes to the development of U.S. and international guidelines and metrics of sustainability and resilience, including STAR Communities, the Global EcoDistrict Protocol, McKinsey's Green Districts, and the Urban Land Institute Technical Assistance Panel. His work expands on the traditional influence of architect-urbanists by bridging climate science, policy, and design practice.

Raven has delivered lectures and workshops at Cambridge University (England), the World Bank (Washington), the Humboldt Foundation (Germany), the Pavillon de l'Arsenal (Paris), the Pierre and Marie Curie University (Paris), Columbia University, Cornell University, Tongji University (Shanghai), Beijing University of Civil Engineering & Architecture, Peking University, Xiamen University (China), Mumbai First (India), the Asian Development Bank (Manila), the United Nations (UNEP, Habitat, UNDP), the Regional Assembly (NYC), and The New York Times Knowledge Network. His publications include coordinating lead author of Climate Change and Cities (Cambridge University Press 2018); Climate Resilient Urban Design, Resilient Cities (Springer 2011); and Shaping Resilient Cities in China, India and the United States (P. Lang 2014).

In 2015, Raven was elevated to Fellow of American Institute of Architects (FAIA) by the national College of Fellows. 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." In addition to this distinction, Raven was appointed to the Board of Directors of the American Institute of Architects (New York State) and is co-chair of the American Institute of Architects Planning & Urban Design Committee.

Recent Projects/Research

  • National Science Foundation (NSF) Grants totaling $1.17 million:
  • City-As-Lab INFEWS/T3 RCN: $747,000; 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 stakeholders, advising graduate students on field tests, and validating the proposed model and framework. 2019.
  • National Workshop on Architectural Faculty in Environmental Sustainability Research (WAFES): $50,000; co-PI, WAFES investigator/session leader. The intent is to engage architectural researchers who are pursuing environmental sustainability research related to the built environment and to build architecture faculty capacity to successfully pursue NSF proposals. As session leader/investigator, Raven invited two urban design faculty experts from NYIT School of Architecture and Design to build their research capacity. 2019.
  • The Sustainable Urbanisation Global Initiative (SUGI-Belmont-InSource): $375,000; co-PI for 3 years. Raven leads the InSource (a European-American urban research consortium) Case Study in New York City in collaboration with local experts from the Urban Land Institute, the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter (AIANY) in coordination with key community stakeholder groups on net-zero carbon and resilient districts in New York City. The InSource consortium is developing a 3-D data modeling tool to enhance sustainability of the food/energy/water (FEW) nexus in urban environments. 2018.
  • Raven's widely-circulated work "Cooling the Public Realm: Climate-Resilient Urban Design" (in Resilient Cities, Springer 2011) provides an operational framework and case studies for practicing urban design professionals and a policy framework for municipal governments.
  • Raven serves as coordinating lead author for Climate Change and Cities (Cambridge University Press 2018).
  • Raven's section of the 2015 Summary for City Leaders, "Embedding Climate Change in Urban Planning & Design," released at the Paris Climate Change Conference (COP21), presented cities with the scientific basis for effective climate-resilient planning and urban design strategies. 2010-2018.
  • Member of the Urban Land Institute Technical Assistant Panel, comprised of leading design, planning, financial, infrastructure, and sustainability experts, to configure a sustainable and resilient Gowanus district in Brooklyn, N.Y. 2017.
  • EcoDistricts Global Protocol: Raven is an advisory committee member, developing a global protocol for EcoDistricts, to define performance requirements for delivering district and neighborhood sustainability projects worldwide. Seven North American EcoDistrict Target Cities are underway, including Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. 2014-15.
  • Project EAST- Euro-Asian Sustainable Towns, Raven's three-year collaboration as technical expert with Chinese, Indian, and European officials and urban experts tested climate-resilient urban design in Asia, resulting in his publication, "Shaping Resilient Cities in China, India, and the United States." European New Town and Pilot Cities Platform (ENTP) is the managing partner of this program, with Basildon (UK), Baoshan (China), Qingpu (China), Naya Raipur (India), and the Euro-India Center. Raven contributed to the research initiatives in Qingpu, Shanghai, to survey the condition of strategic and vulnerable settlements within Shanghai's expanding regional growth zone. 2014.
  • STAR Community Rating System 1.0: Sustainability Tools for Assessing and Rating Communities, STAR Communities, Washington, D.C., 2012. Raven served as technical advisor for three years to develop a national sustainability and resilience rating system, now being adopted by twenty American cities. For the publication "STAR Community Rating System 1.0: Sustainability Tools for Assessing or Rating Communities" (2013), Raven was co-leader of the Green Infrastructure goal, and contributed to Climate Resilience/Adaptation; Comprehensive Planning; Transportation/Mobility; Compact/Complete Communities; and Natural Systems. 2008-2013.
  • Global Change Impacts and Adaptation Program, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development: Raven was a member of the technical steering committee to develop an Urban Resilience Framework for American Communities based upon urban areas' resilience to climate change. The steering committee shaped federal policy by ensuring realistic, useful, and rigorous project outcomes from the practitioner's perspective. 2012-2013.
  • McKinsey and Company, Unlocking the Value of Green Districts: Developing a Business Case. Raven was an external expert on this project to provide cities with the value proposition for implementing sustainable district strategies. 2012.

Publications

  • 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.

Lectures/Workshops/Juries

  • 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.

Honors & Awards

  • College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA), 2015.

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