Jeff Speck

Speck & Associates LLC

Jeff Speck is a city planner and urban designer 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 a new initiative, the Governors’ Institute on Community Design. Prior to his federal appointment, Mr. Speck spent 10 years as director of town planning at the leading new urbanist firm, DPZ & Co. Since 2007, he has led Speck & Associates LLC, a boutique planning firm that specializes in making American downtowns thrive.

Mr. Speck is a contributing editor to Metropolis magazine and serves on the Sustainability Task Force of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He is a co-author of “Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream,” and his book, “Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time,’ was the best-selling planning/design book of 2013.