Park at Harvard for independent study

Park

Peter Park, an associate professor adjunct of planning and design at the University of Colorado Denver, is spending the year at Harvard Graduate School of Design as a Loeb Fellow, having received one of 10 annual post-professional awards for independent study at Harvard University.

Park’s speaking engagements in February were in Mumbai, India, at “Planning for Mumbai: The Development Plan Workshop 2 for Greater Mumbai 2014-2034,” at a Cinarch special event at Saptaparni, Hyderabad, and the “Reimagining Urban Highways” conference in Philadelphia (watch the video), and at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is Peter’s lecture “Planning for the Post-Freeway American City.”

Park’s recent work contends that freeways in American cities have not delivered on promises made more than 50 years ago. Skillfully sold as instruments of freedom and prosperity, in reality, freeways have weakened cities and financially burdened the nation, he says. He argues that continuing to spend taxpayer dollars on maintaining ineffective freeways -- or worse, expanding them -- only saddles future generations with even greater challenges.

In his lecture he explores America’s historic freeway campaign, damage caused by freeways in cities, and today's opportunity to counter this failed 20th century experiment. He includes proven alternatives to costly and outdated freeway designs and a case for a freeway removal campaign aimed at strengthening cities, regions and the nation.