Toni Griffin Biography

Urban Planning and Design for the American City, with its headquarters in New York, was founded by Toni L. Griffin. Through the practice, Toni served as Project Director for the Detroit Work Project's long-range planning program. In 2013, Detroit Future City, a comprehensive citywide framework plan for urban change, was completed and released. Working with the cities of Memphis, Milwaukee, and Pittsburgh are some of our most recent customers. At the Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York, Ms. Griffin most recently held the positions of Professor of Architecture and Founding Director of the J. Max Bond Center on Design for the Just City. The Bond Center, which was established in 2011, is committed to advancing design practice, teaching, research, and advocacy in ways that create and sustain resilient and fair communities, cities, and regions. The Legacy City Design Initiative explores creative design solutions for cities that have lost more than 20% of their population since their peak, and the "Just City Design Indicators Project" aims to define the fundamental principles of a just city and provide a performance measurement tool to help cities and communities assess how design promotes urban justice in the built environment. Ms. Griffin held the position of Deputy Director for Revitalization Planning and Neighborhood Planning in the D.C. Office of Planning between 2000 and 2006, where she was in charge of the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative, the downtown City Center redevelopment, and a number of neighborhood revitalization plans. She also served as Vice President and Director of Design for the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation in Washington, DC, where she oversaw planning for the Washington Nationals Ballpark District. Vice President for Planning & Tourism Development at the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation in New York City from 1998 to 2000, Ms. Griffin was a resident of the Big Apple. She started her career as an architect with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP in Chicago, where she later rose to the position of Associate Partner working on architectural and urban design projects in both London and Chicago. The University of Notre Dame awarded Ms. Griffin a Bachelor of Architecture degree, and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design awarded her a Loeb Fellowship. From 2006 to 2011, Ms. Griffin worked there as an Adjunct Associate Professor. Toni was on the board of the New York Regional Plan Association in 2014 and was a visiting associate professor and Theodore B. and Doris Shoong Lee Chair in Real Estate Law and Urban Planning in the Department of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley.

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