GSA Lecture Series: The Future We [Cannot Yet] See:
Stories of Reconciliation, Imagination, Land and Worth by @tonilgriffin
Date: 29 May 2025
Time: 17:30 for 18:00 – 20:00 SAST
Venue: LG011 & LG012, JBS Park, 69 Kingsway Avenue, JHB
RSVP:https://forms.office.com/r/9svxGvSTAi
Toni L. Griffin is founder of urban American city (urbanAC LLC), a planning and design practice working with public, private, and nonprofit partners to reimage, reshape, and rebuild more just cities and communities. urbanAC leads transformative projects rooted in addressing historic and current disparities involving race, class, and culture. The firm has collaborated with cities on the cusp of just social and economic recovery including strategic city plans for Detroit, Chicago, and Pittsburgh, as well as equitable public realm designs for Rochester and St. Louis.
Toni Griffin is also Professor in Practice of Urban Planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design @harvardgsd , and is founding director of the Just City Lab @justcitylab , a research platform that investigates how design impacts social and spatial justice in cities. Toni has also served as strategic advisor to several philanthropic organisations including @theheinzendowments and Bloomberg Philanthropies @bloombergdotorg , each looking to embed principles of just and equitable impact into their funding and evaluation criteria for investing in urban development, civic infrastructure, and wealth creation.
Toni’s current practice is built upon her early expertise and experience as a licensed architect and Associate Partner at Skidmore Owings & Merrill @skidmoreowingsmerrill , and later as a public official serving in senior planning director roles in Washington, DC and Newark, New Jersey working to shape equitable growth and design excellence. She has published numerous articles on design justice, including co-editor of The Just City Essays and has received numerous awards, including the Edmund N. Bacon Urban Design Award. She has lectured extensively in the US, Netherlands, South Africa, and South America, and served as an Obama Presidential appointee to the U.S. Commission on Fine Arts. #happeningatthegsa#unitsystemafrica#tonigriffin#urbandesign
All lectures are free and open to the public.
All lectures earn Cat 1, 0, 2 CPD credits.