Jeff Speck

Jeff Speck is a city planner who advocates internationally for more walkable cities. As Director of Design at the National Endowment for the Arts, he led grantmaking in that field and presided over the Mayors' Institute on City Design. Prior to his federal appointment, Mr. Speck spent ten years as Director of Town Planning at DPZ & Co., helping to establish them as the principal firm behind the New Urbanism movement. Since 2007, he has led Speck & Associates—now Speck Dempsey—where his work has focused on making vibrant downtowns. His book Walkable City is the best selling city planning title written this century, and his TED talks have been viewed more than six million times. He lives with his wife, Alice, and sons, Milo and Roman, in a third-floor walkup overlooking the MBTA’s Green Line.

Courses taught by Jeff Speck

Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?

Jeff Speck explains his five principal reasons for building more walkable places — Economics, the Environment, Public Health, Equity, and Social Cohesiveness — arming practitioners with a full range of arguments in favor of pro-walkability planning.

79 Mins
CIP
AIA CES
AICP CM
Free

Walkable City 2: The Useful Walk

Learn the principal components of “the useful walk,” how zoning can create walkability and boost housing density, and why visual components are key to a walkable city.

82 Mins
CIP
AIA CES
AICP CM

Walkable City 3: The Safe Walk (A)

Pedestrian deaths are up 78% since 2009. While car use and size are long-term issues, safer street design — like narrower lanes and two-way roads — can reduce speeding now.

77 Mins
CIP
Equity
AIA CES
AICP CM

Walkable City 4: The Safe Walk (B)

Explore how Vision Zero street design reduces speeding by addressing lane width, parking, street trees, intersections, signals, cycling, and pedestrian zones, with case studies from Lancaster, California, and Queens, New York.

82 Mins
CIP
Equity
AIA CES
AICP CM

Walkable City 5: The Comfortable Walk

To encourage walking, cities must create comfortable, well-designed pedestrian environments — like outdoor living rooms — with clear orientation, shade, tree cover, and cohesive design, achievable through tools like form-based codes, urban forestry plans, and strong urban design.

66 Mins
CIP
AIA CES
AICP CM

Walkable City 6: The Interesting Walk

People are most interested in other people — so an appealing walk is one shaped by urban design that hides parking lots, avoids blank walls and monotony, shows signs of human habitation and craftsmanship, celebrates regional character, and offers a human scale.

77 Mins
CIP
AIA CES
AICP CM

Walkable City 7: The Planner's Pledge

North America’s car-dependent landscape stems from planning’s past focus on zoning and highways, causing social, economic, and environmental harm. The Planner’s Pledge calls on planners to acknowledge these mistakes and commit to a sustainable, equitable, walkable urbanism.

72 Mins
CIP
Ethics
AIA CES
AICP CM