Chuck Wolfe is a London-based, multinational urbanism consultant, author, Visiting Scholar in Sweden, recent Fulbright Specialist in Australia for an award-winning project, and long-time American environmental/land use lawyer. He holds a graduate degree in regional planning, and has 34 years of experience in environmental, land use and real estate law. He has held leadership positions in both the legal and planning professions. He has represented public and private clients in property redevelopment, regulatory entitlements, drafting and brownfield remediation issues in Washington State and other venues. He is Founder and Principal Advisor of Seeing Better Cities Group, has practiced at several law firms, and has served as a long-time Affiliate Associate Professor in the College of the Built Environments at the University of Washington in Seattle, where has has taught land use law and contributed to major research efforts addressing urban center and brownfield redevelopment. He has served on the Board of Futurewise. He is former Vice Chair, Fund Development, and former Treasurer of the Northwest District Council/Urban Land Institute, and served on its Managing and Advisory Boards. He has written regularly for many publications, including The Atlantic, The Atlantic Cities/CityLab, Governing, CityMetric, Planetizen, The Huffington Post, Grist, and Crosscut. He blogs at myurbanist.com. His latest book, Seeing the Better City (Island Press 2017) is readily available in paperback and electronic versions at independent bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Play and iTunes. His first book, Urbanism Without Effort (Island Press, 2013), will appear as a revised paperback in January, 2019.
Unlocking the City with Context Keys
The human memory is so powerful that a place on pavement suddenly can trigger a stream of imagery from the distant past, or a meaningful story of something that once happened there. We should champion such keys to the context of a place.
A Farewell to One-Size-Fits-All Urbanism
Sustaining culture and character is more than a black or white proposition. It requires a careful blend that depends on local circumstances, meticulous research, and self-knowledge.
'Place-Healing': From Adaptation to Manifesto
Amid pandemic and protest, the need for urban mending has become abundantly clear, with responses that invoke the more ethereal elements of a physical place I like to call it "place-healing," a term that seems right for the times.
The Renewed Challenge: Sustaining a City's Culture and Character
From the outset, defining the culture and character of a city is a daunting task, especially when the city around you disappears.
Congestion Pricing: An Expat View
Writing from London in an Op-Ed for Seattle’s Crosscut, Chuck Wolfe argues for a contextual approach to a much-touted search for transportation equity.