Jan Gehl
Spring 2016 Honorary Degree Recipient
Doctor of Laws (honoris causa)
World-renowned architect and urban design expert Jan Gehl once said, 鈥淎 good city is like a good party. People don鈥檛 want to leave early.鈥� Since the early 1960s, Mr. Gehl has been studying how we use public spaces, and working to re-establish human beings as the centre of city life.
Born in 1936, Mr. Gehl earned both Bachelor and Master of Architecture degrees from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. He became a professor of Urban Design at the Academy鈥檚 School of Architecture, from which he is now retired, and is a founding partner of Gehl Architects 鈥� Urban Quality Consultants.
Mr. Gehl learned through close observation that what people really want from cities is to be near other people. His philosophies for transforming urban public spaces are known as 鈥淐openhagenization,鈥� after the revolutionary work he did in turning that city鈥檚 high street into Europe鈥檚 longest pedestrian thoroughfare. Mr. Gehl鈥檚 work has touched cities all over the world including Stockholm, Rotterdam, London, Amman, Muscat, Perth, Adelaide, Wellington, Melbourne, Sydney, New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Oman and Moscow.
Mr. Gehl holds honorary degrees from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, and the University of Toronto, as well numerous international awards. He is an International Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects and an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, the Planning Institute of Australia, the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland and the Irish Planning Institute. He has written or co-written six award-winning and highly influential books in the field of urban design.