The first draft of BECOMING JANE JACOBS, University of Pennsylvania, 2009. This document is provided to scholars and close readers who might be interested in comparing this work with trade press publications by other authors.

Presented at Session "Remembering George Kubler", SAH LXV Annual Meeting, Detroit, April 2012

Oculus, Winter 2010/11

A discussion of ecological networks in cities. Find open access link to the article in the 'Publications' section of www.melissasterry.com

2011 - 2014 urban futures research program

This paper presents an overview of my dissertation work at roughly mid-stage. The paper examines the depiction of urban space and its destruction in three significant works of visual culture -- the Metropolis tales – attempting to understand its articulation as an expression of political and social conditions of interwar Germany, postwar Japan, and Japan today. The destruction which threatens each of the imagined cities in these three stories is also tied to the destruction of the human body. The paper advances the hypothesis that this twinned annihilation speaks of tensions relating to identity, citizenship, and biopolitics.

Active and lively streets are indicators of successful communities. The provision of mixed uses and concentration of diverse people and activities are perceived as necessary conditions for vitality at the street level. Active streets help promote sustainable and healthy behaviours such as walkability. Most research on urban vitality has focused on city centres with less attention has been paid to non-central residential areas. There is a lack of understanding of how residents experience street vitality or how vitality can be integrated into urban design interventions at the local level. This paper reports on ongoing research that explores the concept of vitality in the case of non-central residential areas. It addresses the questions of what vitality means for local people and how they experience vitality in their everyday lives. These questions are addressed through a qualitative approach including multiple methods: participant observation (26), walking interviews with residents (24) and semi-structured interviews with residents (11), local small businesses (12) and stakeholders (10). The research is underpinned by a comparative case study approach in Madrid (Valdebebas) and Edinburgh (Granton Waterfront), focusing on mixed- use areas (mainly residential, retail and offices uses) in an intermediate stage of redevelopment in which new residential buildings live together within vacant plots. By examining local people perceptions and experiences of vitality in their everyday lives, this research suggests that street vitality is required to create a sense of place and wellbeing. Despite the increasing mobility and specialization of contemporary lifestyles, everyday spaces and opportunities near home are essential to encourage walkability and allow for contact between diverse people, helping create an inclusive sense of community. A variety of services and facilities and the quality of urban design are necessary elements to build street and urban vitality.

I served as International Program Committee for the 2017 Metropolis Congress. To achieve an international scope, I was among a few key people to share my expertise with the Congress. I provided my feedback on and enhance the list of themes, the program's structure, as well as the list of guest speakers. I was also involved in reviewing scientific abstracts.

Architecture is both an art and the embodiment of a society's values at any moment in time. It involves negotiation between an artistic vision and the public's notion of the ideas and ideals it wishes to express through architectural form. 1 But who is included in the " public " has evolved over time, reflecting changing notions of democracy and its basic emancipatory thrust toward greater inclusiveness in decision-making processes. 2 Over the past 150 years of American history, forward-thinking architects have expanded their purview to address the needs of immigrants, low-income families, people of color, women, and disabled persons, as well as to protect the natural environment by responding to an exponential growth in development. Accordingly, their strategies for involving an increasingly diverse constituency around increasingly complex environmental issues have evolved from generating heroic design solutions top-down to greater engagement with the public in co-creating shared, environmentally sustainable visions of spaces and places. As this thrust toward democracy proceeds, today's architects, more than ever, are called upon to negotiate common ground among overlapping and often conflicting interests. This chapter presents nine profiles, both historical and contemporary, of architects who have successfully orchestrated public decision-making processes. Collectively, their stories foretell the trajectory of a profession engaged in a 21st-century, socially constructed art.