THE GRID
THE GRID began in 2010 with Renée van Staveren, the Founder of Global Site Plans, blogging about branding, social media, content, and more – all related to environmental designers. Since its inception, the blog has grown to run weekly. Every weekday of the month The Grid is your destination for blogs related to architecture, engineering, environmental non-profits, landscape architecture, and urban planning. With a Featured Blogging staff of five, beginning in March 2011, and growing, Global Site Plans looks forward to providing you free and valuable information that relates to both the individual environmental designer, and firms. Furthermore, we hope that you will join our discussions and comment on what we are saying. Because without you, the reader, we would just be talking to ourselves. Below, please find a brief bio of each blogger.
Renée van Staveren
Renée van Staveren is the Founder of Global Site Plans. She holds a M.S. in Urban and Regional Planning with an emphasis in Environmental Planning and Policy from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. She also holds a B.S. in Sustainable Community Development from Prescott College. Prior to establishing Global Site Plans and The Grid, Renée van Staveren was an Assistant Planner for A-M-M-A Transit Planning and the Program Director for Planet Green. You can find Renée blogging about featured environmental design firms, providing free website critiques via 15 Days of Fame, plus helping you achieve industry distinction through innovative discussions. Renée currently lives in Istanbul, Turkey; adding to the list of places she has traveled and lived.
Jeff Jilek
Jeff Jilek has earned a B.S. in Architecture with a Minor in City & Regional Planning from the Ohio State University. He has been involved with architecture since his junior year of High School when he attended Eastland Career Center’s Architecture program. Sustainable Design is something that he is most interested in but also has taken many college level courses in psychology, political science, and philosophy. He will be attending Arizona State University for continuing education. He is planning on receiving both his M.B.A and Master of Architecture degrees. He will be blogging about pertinent issues in design and how design relates to global dynamics, culture, and economy.
Jordan Meerdink
Jordan Meerdink is a graduate of the The Ohio State University. He holds a B.S. in Architecture with a minor in studio art. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Jordan inherited an early interest in mechanics and construction from his grandfather, a developer who was one of the early practitioners of prefabricated housing, and his father who is a retired store owner and highly capable DIYer. Currently living in Columbus, Ohio, he continues to produce art and furniture with a focus on smart, ecologically responsible design. Jordan has a special concern for design that serves people outside the traditional clientele of architects, with has an interest in architecture that deviates from the beaten path, ranging from Baroque churches to dismantled bomb shelters.
Patricia Kent
Patricia Kent is a graduate student in Community & Regional Planning with a concentration in Latin American Studies at the University of New Mexico. A recent transplant to Mammoth Lakes, CA her interests range from political theory and public policy to sustainable tourism. A strong advocate for participatory planning practices, her studies focus on community capacity building and economic development. She is a strong believer in fostering entrepreneurship in communities. Currently, Patricia is working on economic sustainability policies that benefit both the preservation of the Eastern Sierras as well as the ever-increasing tourist population.
Alexandria Stankovich
Alexandria Stankovich graduated from The University of Michigan with a B.S. in Architecture. In order to gain an authentic understanding of the urban context through the lens of education, she became a Denver, Colorado corps member with Teach for America, teaching elementary Special Education. Returning to her hometown of Detroit, Michigan, Alexandria writes about the innovative design projects and urban programs taking place in the Motor City. Fueled by her passions for the triple bottom line – environment, economy, and social equity – she is currently applying to graduate Urban Planning programs with a concentration in Urban Design and Environmental Sustainability.
Akua Nyame Mensah
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A but raised in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire and Tunis, Tunisia, Akua Nyame-Mensah holds an A.B in Growth and Structure of Cities from Bryn Mawr College and a Masters in City Planning (M.C.P) with a concentration in land use and environmental planning from the University of Pennsylvania. Akua is currently serving as an AmeriCorps volunteer for a community-based watershed and riparian restoration education program based at a Conservation District in Tumwater, Washington. As a Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED) Green Associate and National Association for Interpretation Certified Guide, Akua enjoys learning about and sharing her knowledge of green infrastructure and low-impact development techniques with others.
Miriam Ansorena
Miriam Ansorena holds a Master’s Degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Navarre, in Spain. She currently lives in Spain, but in the past she has lived in Copenhagen, Denmark and Glasgow, Scotland. Strongly concerned about the environment, she works full-time as a Design Engineer of Wind Turbines. Her blogs will concentrate primarily on the effects of wind turbines and their prevalence; however, she will also cover environmental issues occurring around Zarautz, Spain.
Lillian Mathews
Lillian Mathews is a senior at Brown University pursuing a B.A. in Environmental Studies(Honors), where she focuses on Urban Sustainability and Land Use issues. For the past year, she has designed and implemented an arts-based gardening site at a neighborhood center in Providence, Rhode Island, and has completed work in ecological planning and design, sustainable agriculture, and urban planning. Although she has plans to relocate to the California’s Bay Area, she currently resides in Providence, Rhode Island, where she will be reporting on environmental design projects in the Northeast.
Nazlı Ödevci
Nazlı Ödevci is a recent graduate of Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden with an M.Sc.in Design for Sustainable Development in Architecture. She holds a B.S. in Architecture from Istanbul Technical University in Istanbul, Turkey. Currently, Nazlı is studying for her LEED Professional Credential, while gaining green building consultancy experience by interning at a leading consultancy firm in Turkey. She defines herself as a green-design oriented urban & architectural intervention practitioner. She is currently residing in Istanbul but has strong connections to Swedish sustainable design practice.
Erman Eruz
Erman Eruz is an undergraduate at Princeton University where he is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Architecture and Civil Engineering, along with a certificate in Urban Studies. Having grown up in Istanbul, Turkey, he is interested in a wide variety of topics related to the built environment and how people interact with it. Erman is fascinated by the interdisciplinary relation between architecture, engineering, and urban planning, and his interests include squatter settlements, architecture of the 20th Century, sustainable planning, bonds between architecture and other forms of art, and global and local aspects of cultural identities.
Ryan Kucinski
Ryan Kucinski is a Master’s of Urban Planning student at the University of Southern California concentrating in Urban Design and Historic Preservation of the built environment. Originally from Buffalo, New York, he graduated, in 2011, top of his class in the department of Urban and Regional Planning at SUNY Buffalo with a B.A. in Environmental Design and a Minor in Architecture. In addition to his architecture and urban planning education, Ryan also has experience with real estate development and construction. His blogs focus on urban design, adaptive reuse, preservation, and place-making in the City of Buffalo; at a time when downtown Buffalo is experiencing a renaissance.
Aascot Holt
Aascot Holt is an undergraduate student in Urban and Regional Planning with a minor in Visual Communication Design at Eastern Washington University. She is from Stevenson, Washington and currently lives in Spokane, Washington. Though a plucky little nineteen year old, she is a senior in college and will graduate in the spring of 2013. She is the sole writer for The Comprehensive. Most interested in participatory planning, urban design, historic preservation, and small city/rural planning, she hopes that planning will lead her across the world.
Kennith George
Kennith George grew up in the Greater Seattle, Washington area and holds a B.A. in Urban Studies from the University of Washington. His interest began in architecture, but he quickly found his passion in uban planning and policy. He views much of the built environment as unsustainable and detrimental to healthy societies and community life. He plans to pursue a Masters of Urban Planning from the University of Washington, but for now he is enjoying a local government internship in community and economic development and writing environmental design blogs for The Grid. Kennith’s area of focus lies with the new urbanism movement of creating walkable, compact, mixed-use, livable, and pedestrian-sized sustainable communities.
Selin Mutdoğan
Selin Mutdoğan holds a PhD degree in interior architecture and environmental design from Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey. Her dissertation was focused on sustainable residential interiors and research containing not only cases from Turkey, but also well-known green bulding certification systems used worldwide. She currently works at the same university as a full-time instructor. She is strongly concerned about sustainability, within all dimensions.
A Large Thank You to Previous Global Site Plans Blogging Contributors:
Benjamin Ha, Ubaid Khan, Christine Camilleri, Ashley Roberts, Nina Coveney, Sarah Thomas, Barrett Lane, Yosef Robinson, Laura Paterson, Daniel Sheehan, Shelley Rekte, Paul Drummond, Jessica DeVries, Nidia Garcia-Erceg, Ryan Champlin, and Pamela Abee-Taulli.
Global Site Plans is consistently seeking new bloggers for The Grid. If you are a student or professional with a passion and talent for writing about architecture, engineering, urban planning, landscape architecture, and related fields, and are able to make a minimum 6-month commitment, then Global Site Plans wants you as a contributing blogger. Visit http://www.globalsiteplans.com/internship for more details.
