Ohio University alum Kyle May, who majored in Geography and Urban Planning, returns to OHIO on Friday, March 31, to give a talk on “City Planning as a Career” from 3:05 to 4 p.m. in Clippinger 119.
- Connect with Kyle May on Linked In.
May is employed in Columbus as a planner at an award-winning corporation called planning NEXT. His talk is hosted by the Geography Department. All are welcome to attend.
Alum Kyle May currently works as a city planner in Columbus
Abstract: For how little people know about city planning, there are few professions with a bigger impact on their daily lives. Everyone, whether realizing it or not, has an opinion on the way his or her city is designed. Is a city’s growth organic, happenstance, or an unconscious expression of the “market?” No, and these misconceptions help to explain the many shortcomings of American cities. Cities are the sum, physical expression of countless decisions through time. Those decisions are made by men and women based on rules. Those rules are written (in the best case scenario) by city planners. It’s a cool job and you can do it!
I grew up in central Ohio right on the suburban frontier. I saw a lot of tract housing, strip malls and pretty characterless development. This made me mad, but I didn’t really know why, or what to do about it. So when I got to Columbus State, and learned about planning, that was it: I was doing that. I majored in Urban and Regional Planning at Ohio University, then received a master’s in planning from Ohio State. I started full time at planning NEXT and have worked as city planning consultant for the last five years. My work takes me around the country, but have the most experience and passion for projects in the Midwest.
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