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Diane Allen

Name

[Allen, Diane]
  • Associate Professor, Tenured, Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture
 CAPPA 414
Last Updated: January 15, 2018

Biography

Dr. Diane Jones Allen. Dr. Allen has established a national reputation by bridging practice and research in the areas she cares most deeply about; transportation access, sustainability, and environmental justice. These interests have led to a research and creative output that is remarkable for the holistic integration of academic productivity with successful and meaningful practice.

Dr. Jones has recently added two upcoming publishing ventures to her CV. The first is a book where she is the sole author (Routledge Press) and the second is a book chapter with her mentor at UC Berkley, Randy Hester, and others. Both books are available for pre-order: Lost in the Transit Desert: Race, Transit Access, and Suburban Form, and Design as Democracy: Techniques for Collective Creativity. These books extend her reputation in areas of interest and expertise beyond her articles, conference proceedings, community and national service, and other synergistic activities. They indicate that her commitment to scholarship has actually increased since her caesura from academia in 2014. Transportation equity and “transit deserts” are moving increasingly into the forefront of discussion for planners, landscape architects, and engineers. She has successfully positioned herself nationally as a leader of this movement within the discipline of landscape architecture. 

Dr. Jones has a long record of successful practice, including responsibility as a design principal and owner at two firms. This success has been recognized by a national American Society of Landscape Architects award in 2016, her participation in the prestigious award jury for the national ASLA 2017 professional awards in May of 2017, in published interviews, and as a keynote speaker, panelist, and speaker for an accelerating series of important venues. So far in 2017, these include UC Davis, LA Bash in Maryland (national ASLA student conference), and the AIA at Duluth Minnesota. Last year saw five events that ranged from Maryland to Oregon. She is clearly in demand for her unusual and timely interdisciplinary focus on the interplay of transportation and water infrastructure and social and environmental justice

Professional Preparation

    • 2014 D.Eng. in Transportation Engineering ,  Morgan State Unviversity
    • 1984 MLA in Landscape Architecture ,  Unviersity of California, Berkeley
    • 1980 BFA in Painting ,  Washington Unveristy in St. Louis

Appointments

    • Aug 2017 to Present Director Landscape Architecture Program
      Colloege of Architecute, Planning and Publid Affairs, University of Texas at Arlington
    • Aug 2009 to Present Principal Landscape Architect
      DesignJones LLC
    • Aug 2014 to Dec 2015 Lecturer
      Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture, Lousiana State University, Baton Rouge
    • Aug 2010 to May 2014 Associate Professor, Tenured
      College of Architicture and Planning, Morgan State University
    • Aug 2006 to May 2010 Assitant Professor
      School of Architecture and Planning Morgan State University

Memberships

  • Member
    • Sept 1997 to Present Council of Landscape Architecture Registration Board
    • June 1986 to Present American Society of Landscape Architects
  • Member Board of Directors
    • Oct 2016 to Present Landscape Architecture Foundation

Awards and Honors

    • Aug  2017 2016, Community Service Award – Organization: Design Jones LLC sponsored by American Society of Landscape Architects
      Achievements: DesignJones LLC (Austin Allen and Diane Jones Allen)  exemplify the leadership qualities recognized by the award. Their empathy, generosity, and commitment to community-led design strategies distinguish them as leaders. They more than most anyone in the profession understand what it means to foster innovation by co-creating sustainable responses with communities for their homes, places, and spaces. And they have taken on the challenging issues of racism and inequities in their work in ways that expand the boundaries of our profession. 
      Description:

      The Community Service Award isgiven for providing sustained, pro bono service demonstrating the sound principles or values of landscape architecture. 

    • Feb  2017 2017 Distinguished Alumni Award sponsored by The University of California, Berkeley
      Achievements: More than designing structures, landscapes, and urban plans, CED alumni have changed lives, nourished communities, healed and enhanced environments, and enriched the human experience. By their actions and accomplishments, CED alumni have proven that an education focused on environmental and social justice, innovation, and creativity can lead to remarkable outcomes.
      Award Details
      Description:

      For the 20th year in a row, the College of Environmental Design, UC Berkeley community honored a group of distinguished alumni whose achievements in sustainable design, affordable community development, real estate and planning make them stand apart from the rest.

    • Jun  2015 2015, University of Chicago, Black Metropolis Research Consortium Fellowship sponsored by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
      Achievements: 2015 marked the centennial of the beginning of the Great Migration. Driven from their homes, Southern communities, and familial bonds by unsatisfactory economic opportunities and Jim Crows laws, more than six million African Americans relocated from the rural South to the cities of the North, Midwest and West between 1915 to 1970. This epic migration of people seeking better opportunities had a huge impact on urban communities in the United States. Without the Great Migration, the Black Metropolis, as we know and understand it, would not exist. I proposed research on Transit Deserts that  investigated this important and pivotal aspect of Chicago’s history.
      Award Details
      Description:

      The BMRC Short-Term Fellowship Program supports doctoral candidates, post-doctoral scholars, and artists to research collections of BMRC member institutions. 

News Articles

Other Activities

    • 2017 Panel Participant
      • Sept 2017 2017, ASLA Blue Ribbon Panel on Climate Change

Research and Expertise

  • Transit Deserts

    How can effective public transit service and public policies be provided in “Transit Desert” neighborhoods?  Given the demand for transit by residents to meet their daily needs, what public actions, policies, and service delivery methods are necessary to do so?  Most American inner urban areas tend to be well served by transit and characterized by mixed used residential and commercial development, densely located structures, and, most important, streets aligned in a grid pattern where local streets easily lead to arterials.  In contrast, the outer-urban areas are automobile oriented with uses separated, low density development, and streets laid out in curving patterns where local streets do not easily travel through to arterials.   This research explores how the unique form of these areas, in particular the outer urban areas, impacts access to transit.  The unique characteristics that make up the areas herein designated as “Transit Desert” including how far one has to walk, the time it takes to access transit, and the urban physiographic conditions encountered, are considered in this work. Building mass transit that can interconnect development and following existing street patterns thereby providing equitable service is a difficult problem, especially if neighborhood form is not conducive to transit.  The main objective of transit equity investigated here is to maximize service coverage, so that automobile dependency can be minimized in outer urban areas.  There are many direct and indirect factors that contribute to transit access and demand in urban relocation areas.  Density is a factor in travel access.  Providing infill housing can increase density in a neighborhood, but will have little effect on the street patterns themselves.  Increased density also has socioeconomic implications that may be more difficult to address than increasing transit coverage.   Neighborhood physiography or neighborhood form and finding transit solutions that can adapt to this form are explored.

Publications

      Journal Article 2011

      • Diane Jones

        The City of the Dead: The Place of Cultural Identity and Environmental Sustainability in the African-American CemeteryLandscape Jrnl. 2011 30:226-240; doi:10.3368/lj.30.2.226

        {Journal Article} [Refereed/Juried]

Courses

      • LARC 4395-002 Design and Human Behaivor

        This course is an introduction to a range of viewpoints, concepts and characteristics of human behavior which should be taken into consideration when designing the urban environment.  Cultural, social and psychological factors will be considered.  Various theories and methods of environmental assessment and design will be studied that are based on an understanding of mutually supportive relationships between human beings and their physical environment. Field study will be employed to exercise theories and techniques explored.

        Spring - Regular Academic Session - 2018 Download Syllabus Contact info & Office Hours
      • LARC 5395-001 Design and Human Behavior

        This course is an introduction to a range of viewpoints, concepts and characteristics of human behavior which should be taken into consideration when designing the urban environment.  Cultural, social and psychological factors will be considered.  Various theories and methods of environmental assessment and design will be studied that are based on an understanding of mutually supportive relationships between human beings and their physical environment. Field study will be employed to exercise theories and techniques explored.

        Spring - Regular Academic Session - 2018 Download Syllabus Contact info & Office Hours
      • LARC 5301-001 SITE PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES

        LARC 5301 presents the processes and practices of site planning and development, including site inventory, analysis, and assessment of potential building sites. Students examine the natural, cultural, and social systems that affect design decisions, as well as the language and literature of landscape architecture.

        Fall - Regular Academic Session - 2017 Download Syllabus Contact info & Office Hours1 Document
      • LARC 5368-001 DESIGN PRACTICUM

        Design Practicum is an internship program which includes approved work done in a landscape architects office or one of the related design fields. The purpose of the practicum is to provide students with practical design experience. Students may enroll in LARC 5368 for half-time employment or LARC 5668 for full time employment (based on at least twelve weeks of work).

        Fall - Regular Academic Session - 2017 Download Syllabus Contact info & Office Hours1 Document
      • LARC 5668-001 DESIGN PRACTICUM

        Design Practicum is an internship program which includes approved work done in a landscape architects office or one of the related design fields. The purpose of the practicum is to provide students with practical design experience. Students may enroll in LARC 5368 for half-time employment or LARC 5668 for full time employment (based on at least twelve weeks of work).

        Spring - Regular Academic Session - 2017 Download Syllabus Contact info & Office Hours

Administrative Appointment

  • 2017
    • Aug 2017 to Present - Director of Landscape Architecture, UT Arlington   University of Texas at Arlington