The Citistates Group

A member of the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of City and Regional Planning and its chair (1998-2008), Birch has co-directed (with noted economist Susan Wachter) Penn’s Institute for Urban Research (Penn IUR). She has been co-editor of the University of Pennsylvania Press’s City in the 21st Century series, served as president of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning and the Society of American City and Regional Planning History, and was co-editor of the Journal of the American Planning Association.

Birch has been a member of the New York City Planning Commission (in the city where she lives) and a member of the jury to select the designers of the World Trade Center site. She is currently a member of the boards of the Municipal Art Society of New York and Scenic Hudson, Inc. In 2007, she led, with Wachter, the Penn IUR involvement in the Rockefeller Foundation’s Global Urban Summit in Bellagio, Italy.

Birch has organized many major public policy conferences at Penn. Among the many books she has authored are Urban and Regional Planning Reader (Routledge, 2009), Rebuilding Urban Places After Disaster, Lessons from Katrina (Penn Press, 2006), and Growing Greener Cities (Penn Press, 2008), co-edited with Wachter. Forthcoming work includes Local Planning, Principles and Practice (ICMA, 2009) co-edited with Gary Hack, Paul Sedway and Mitchell Silver, and the special Centennial Issue, Journal of the American Planning Association (Spring, 2009) edited with Christopher Silver, and Hopeful Signs: Urban Revitalization, 1970-2000 (Island Press). In 2005, The Brookings Institution published Birch’s report, Who Lives Downtown. Her articles have appeared the Journal of the American Planning Association, Journal of Planning Education and Research, Journal of Urban History, Journal of Planning History and Planning Magazine.

Last updated January 12, 2009