We Make Walkable Places.
Our Founding Partners:
Jeff Speck (FAICP, FCNU, LEED-AP, Hon. ASLA): Jeff Speck is a city planner who advocates internationally for more walkable cities. As Director of Design at the National Endowment for the Arts from 2003 through 2007, he presided over the Mayors' Institute on City Design and created the Governors' Institute on Community Design. Prior to his federal appointment, Mr. Speck spent ten years as Director of Town Planning at DPZ & Co., the principal firm behind the New Urbanism movement. From 2007 to 2023, he led Speck & Associates, a private design consultancy serving mainly American cities. With Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Mr. Speck is the co-author of Suburban Nation, which the Wall Street Journal calls "the urbanist's bible.” His 2012 book Walkable City was the best selling city-planning title of the past decade and has been translated into seven languages. He is also the writer of The Smart Growth Manual and Walkable City Rules. Jeff Speck has been named a fellow of both the American Institute of Certified Planners and the Congress for New Urbanism. He is the 2022 recipient of the Seaside Prize, whose former awardees include Jane Jacobs and Christopher Alexander. His TED talks and YouTube videos have been viewed more than five million times. He lives with his wife, Alice, and sons, Milo and Roman, in a third-floor walkup overlooking the MBTA’s Green Line.
Chris Dempsey: Chris Dempsey’s career has spanned the public, private, and non-profit sectors. He served as Assistant Secretary of Transportation for Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, where he co-founded the MassDOT open-data program, which made the MBTA the first transit agency on the East Coast to make available smartphone applications that tell riders when their bus or train will arrive. Chris has worked as a Consultant with Bain & Co., and led North American business development for Masabi, a mobile-ticketing company whose customers include the MBTA, New York MTA, Los Angeles Metrolink, and other large transit agencies. He was named “Bostonian of the Year” by the Boston Globe Magazine in 2015 for his volunteer work leading the grassroots campaign No Boston Olympics. From 2017 to 2021 he led the state’s largest transportation advocacy coalition. Chris has represented his hometown, Brookline, as an elected Town Meeting Member since 2012. He also served as Chair of the Transportation Board, which oversees the municipality’s transportation policy. Chris appears regularly on WBUR’s Radio Boston and WGBH’s Boston Public Radio, and he has been quoted in dozens of national and local news outlets, including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, for his expertise on transportation, infrastructure, and politics. He lives with his wife, Anna, and daughter, Sarina, and has never owned a car.
