#BUCPUA Professor reveals how to land the best job ever

Professor John Weis Awarded APA-MA Charles E. Downe Memorial Award

Each year the Massachusetts APA chapter recognizes outstanding students, faculty and projects throughout the Commonwealth. It is with great pride that one of our own faculty members was honored during the December 2014 awards ceremony. Boston University adjunct faculty member, John Weis was awarded the Charles E. Downe Memorial Award, which honors a planner who, in the spirit of the late Charles E. Downe, exemplifies public outreach, mentoring of young planners, and has demonstrated patience and the utmost integrity.

John Weis in his own words:

What do you most enjoy about the planning profession?

That you can actually effect change, that you can see it and it lasts for a long time. My whole purpose in being involved in planning… if you wanted to just have things stay the way they are you just do something else. Planning is one of those fields, if you can understand how things work, you can really establish major changes in the way people live their lives. And that’s important.

What has been the biggest lesson you’ve learned as a planner?

I started my career in 1968 and I learned early on. I did a couple of master plans for a community, that to be honest, were not too effective. When I became a neighborhood planner for the BRA, I was first assigned to do a bike path in Dorchester (in 1972). I sponsored a community meeting. I made my presentation. In the meeting there were state senators, representatives and civic leaders and they implied to me that I didn’t know what I was talking about. Dorchester, at that time was experiencing huge housing abandonment issues and fires – it was just before bussing. So for a year after that, I didn’t do anything, but listen. I went to meetings and just listened. I canned the bike path study.

I learned that instead of imposing my ideas on what I thought a community needed or wanted, I have to listen to them and work with them in order to effect change.

With over 30 years of planning experience, John has spent much of his career with two of the most dynamic Public Development entities in the country, the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) and the San Jose Redevelopment Agency. He has also had a hand in shaping the Boston University campus as a project manager for the Campus Master Plan, which converted the former Commonwealth Armory into housing and Agganis Arena. John is currently the Chair of the Newbury Planning Board. You can find him this fall in his class, Urban Landuse Policy and Planning.

Each year the Massachusetts APA chapter recognizes outstanding students, faculty and projects throughout the Commonwealth. It is with great pride that one of our own faculty members was honored during the December 2014 awards ceremony. Boston University adjunct faculty member, John Weis was awarded the Charles E. Downe Memorial Award, which honors a planner who, in the spirit of the late Charles E. Downe, exemplifies public outreach, mentoring of young planners, and has demonstrated patience and the utmost integrity.

John Weis in his own words:

What do you most enjoy about the planning profession?

That you can actually effect change, that you can see it and it lasts for a long time. My whole purpose in being involved in planning… if you wanted to just have things stay the way they are you just do something else. Planning is one of those fields, if you can understand how things work, you can really establish major changes in the way people live their lives. And that’s important.

What has been the biggest lesson you’ve learned as a planner?

I started my career in 1968 and I learned early on. I did a couple of master plans for a community, that to be honest, were not too effective. When I became a neighborhood planner for the BRA, I was first assigned to do a bike path in Dorchester (in 1972). I sponsored a community meeting. I made my presentation. In the meeting there were state senators, representatives and civic leaders and they implied to me that I didn’t know what I was talking about. Dorchester, at that time was experiencing huge housing abandonment issues and fires – it was just before bussing. So for a year after that, I didn’t do anything, but listen. I went to meetings and just listened. I canned the bike path study.

I learned that instead of imposing my ideas on what I thought a community needed or wanted, I have to listen to them and work with them in order to effect change.

With over 30 years of planning experience, John has spent much of his career with two of the most dynamic Public Development entities in the country, the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) and the San Jose Redevelopment Agency. He has also had a hand in shaping the Boston University campus as a project manager for the Campus Master Plan, which converted the former Commonwealth Armory into housing and Agganis Arena. John is currently the Chair of the Newbury Planning Board. You can find him this fall in his class, Urban Landuse Policy and Planning.

Going Beyond the Classroom

Demonstrating the Program’s commitment to Immersive Learning, Sustainable Planning, the graduating class of 2015 for the City Planning and Urban Affairs Programs and other students across Boston University, created a framework for Quincy’s Climate Action Plan. This planning initiative, on which the students collaborated with and were guided by planners from the City of Quincy and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), was the focus of this years Boston Urban Symposium – the capstone course for graduating students of the program.

Led by Associate Professor of Practice and Program Coordinator, Dr. Madhu C Dutta-Koehler, and co-taught by Professor John Weis, an award-winning planner and educator with over 30 years of experience in urban development, the students embarked on a challenging project that would make a difference in “real-time”. The goals of the project were twofold: to give our Master’s students hands-on experience in complex planning situations, and to provide data and analysis to aid the community in making crucial decisions about planning for climate change.

In keeping with part of the program’s mission of “preservation and good stewardship of the environment, while being grounded in research from the field”, this Graduate Symposium class has furthered the traditions of community-focused research that have long been the hallmark of the Program. Over the past several years, students in the Program have collaborated and consulted on current planning projects, including the General Management Plan of the Boston Harbor Islands Partnership (2013), which incorporated student recommendations into its final report.

In 2014, students conducted research and drafted recommendations on urban gentrification for the Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation (CSNDC). The 2012 Symposium, also working with the CSNDC, focused on the intersection of community development, sustainable urban agriculture, urban entrepreneurship, land use, civic engagement, and fundraising. These projects produced actionable planning initiatives for this vital Boston community.

We would like to congratulate the members of the Symposium on their hard work and practical insights into the issues confronting the city of Quincy. We would also especially like to thank our community partners—the city of Quincy and the MAPC—for their unwavering support throughout the semester.